Chapter 3: Blood and Water
Chapter 3: Blood and Water
Hannah stared at him, her mind refusing to comprehend the words. "Whitlock Shipping claimed Aaron owed them seventy thousand dollars. Why would a massive corporation target a diesel mechanic over pennies?"
"Because he wasn't just a mechanic," Daniel said. He reached into his inner pocket and pulled out a worn, faded photograph. He handed it to her.
It was a picture of two young boys standing on the Providence docks. One was clearly a teenage Daniel. The other, grinning with bright eyes and a smudge of grease on his cheek, was Aaron.
The room spun. Hannah grabbed the edge of the desk to steady herself.
"Aaron Brooks," Daniel said softly, "was born Aaron Carver. He was my younger brother."
Silence suffocated the room. Hannah looked from the photo to Daniel, seeing the resemblance she had been too blind to notice before. The sharp jawline. The intense, protective eyes.
"He hated this life," Daniel explained, staring at the rain lashing against the window. "He hated the blood, the violence, the syndicate. When he turned eighteen, he walked away. Changed his name. I let him go because I wanted him to be safe. I watched over him from a distance. When he met you... I had never seen him happier."
"He never told me," Hannah whispered, tears spilling over her cheeks.
"He wanted to protect you from my world. But when Caleb went missing, Aaron started digging into the Whitlocks. He confronted Claire's father. He threatened to come to me." Daniel's hands clenched into fists so tight his knuckles turned white. "They rigged the loading platform to silence him."
Hannah looked down at her swollen belly, her trembling hands resting on the life kicking inside her.
May you like
"Claire..." Hannah gasped, realization hitting her like a freight train. "Claire humiliated me tonight. She cut my hair. She called me a peasant."
"Claire Whitlock just publicly assaulted the mother of the only Carver heir," Daniel said, his voice turning to pure ice. "She thought she was embarrassing a housekeeper. She didn't realize she was signing her family's death warrant."
