Chapter 5 - The Brother Nobody Told Me AboutMichael refused to speak to me at first.
He spoke to police.
He spoke to Daniel.
He spoke to Robert.
But not me.
That made me trust him slightly more.
Anyone trying to manipulate me would have rushed straight to my hospital room with tears and explanations.
Michael did the opposite.
He asked Detective Alvarez to keep him away from me until they confirmed his identity.
DNA testing took less than twenty-four hours.
He was my brother.
Half brother, technically.
Same father.
Different mother.
Forty years old.
Six years older than Ethan.
Fourteen months older than me.
Charles Baldwin had fathered a child with a woman named Linda Grant while engaged to my mother.
Linda died when Michael was six.
Dad became his legal guardian.
But instead of bringing him into our home, Charles arranged for relatives in Pennsylvania to raise him.
My mother knew.
That explained why Michael was listed in her trust.
She had included the child her husband refused to acknowledge publicly.
I stared at his photograph for a long time.
He had Dad’s eyes.
My chin.
Ethan’s smile.
It felt like looking at a family picture from a life I had never lived.
“Why didn’t he contact us?” I asked Daniel.
“He says Charles paid for his education on the condition that he stay away.”
“Dad paid him off.”
“In effect.”
“And Mom?”
“Michael remembers meeting her once.”
That hurt.
My mother had known she was dying from ovarian cancer for months.
Maybe she wanted to make sure Michael was protected.
Maybe the trust had been her attempt.
Then Charles took control of it.
My anger had gone beyond heat.
It was becoming something colder.
Useful.
“What’s on Lucas’s laptop?”
“Encrypted.”
“Can Robert open it?”
“They’re working on it.”
“Where did Michael get it?”
“That’s where this becomes complicated.”
Of course it did.
Michael had been working with Lucas.
For nearly a year.
Lucas found him while investigating my mother’s trust.
He contacted Michael quietly.
Eventually, Michael agreed to help.
“What does he do?”
“Financial forensic work.”
I laughed.
Because apparently my family was a crime novel now.
Michael specialized in tracing hidden assets for litigation firms.
Lucas hired him to follow money Ethan had moved through shell companies.
“So Michael knew everything?”
“More than most of us.”
“And never told me.”
“Lucas asked him not to.”
I closed my eyes.
I loved my husband.
I loved him so much I still expected to hear his key in the door.
But I was beginning to resent the number of decisions he had made on my behalf.
He had protected me until I couldn’t see the danger surrounding me.
That afternoon, I requested to meet Michael.
He entered my hospital room at 3:20.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
He was tall.
Dark-haired with gray beginning at the temples.
He wore jeans, boots, and a navy sweater.
Nothing about him looked wealthy or threatening.
“You look like Mom,” he said.
The words hit me.
“You remember her?”
“Barely.”
I swallowed.
“She knew about you.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you ever contact me?”
His jaw tightened.
“I did.”
I stared.
“When?”
“Your eighteenth birthday.”
“I never got anything.”
“I sent a letter.”
“To where?”
“Your father’s house.”
Of course.
Michael gave a humorless smile.
“I received it back unopened two weeks later with a note from Charles.”
“What did it say?”
“Stay away from my daughter.”
My throat tightened.
“I’m sorry.”
“You were eighteen. It wasn’t your responsibility.”
“Still.”
He pulled a chair closer but didn’t sit until I nodded.
“You have questions.”
“A thousand.”
“Start with Lucas.”
My voice nearly broke saying his name.
“What happened to him?”
Michael looked down.
“We don’t know for certain.”
“That isn’t good enough.”
“No. It isn’t.”
He explained that Lucas contacted him eleven months earlier.
At first, Lucas wanted help tracing my mother’s missing trust.
Then Michael uncovered payments involving Ethan.
The investigation widened.
Ethan had been selling confidential data.
But some of the money didn’t stay with him.
Almost half went elsewhere.
“To whom?”
“We still don’t know.”
“Courtney?”
“No. Her payments were separate.”
“My father?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“That’s what Lucas was trying to find out.”
Michael leaned forward.
“A month before the crash, Lucas called me at two in the morning. He said someone had been inside your house.”
My skin prickled.
“What?”
“He noticed a file in his study had been moved.”
“We had cleaners.”
“He knew the difference.”
“What file?”
“Insurance documents.”
My heart stopped.
“What kind?”
“Life insurance.”
Lucas carried a policy.
I knew that.
Two million dollars.
Enough to support me and the twins if something happened.
But Michael shook his head.
“Not that policy.”
“There was another?”
“Twenty-five million.”
I stared.
“No.”
“It was purchased by Gallagher Systems as key-person coverage.”
“Who gets the money?”
“The company.”
“So killing Lucas wouldn’t benefit me.”
“No.”
“Who controls the company after his death?”
Michael looked at me.
“You, eventually.”
“Then who gets the immediate authority?”
“Robert.”
I stiffened.
He saw it.
“I’m not accusing Robert.”
“But you considered him.”
“We considered everyone.”
I thought about Robert’s kindness.
His grief.
His presence at the hospital.
Could all of it be an act?
I hated that my mind had begun asking those questions.
Michael continued.
“The policy was payable to the company. But if Gallagher Systems sold after Lucas’s death, the insurance money increased the cash position and therefore the sale price.”
“So whoever owned shares could benefit.”
“Yes.”
“Ethan owned shares?”
“Three percent.”
Not enough to justify murder.
Unless he expected more.
“Forged will,” I whispered.
Michael nodded.
“If Ethan could control Lucas’s estate…”
“He might gain access to the shares.”
“Exactly.”
I pressed a hand against my stomach.
“But you said half the stolen money went somewhere else.”
“Yes.”
“Whoever that person is…”
“May have been financing Ethan.”
A knock interrupted us.
Detective Alvarez entered.
Her expression told me something had happened.
“What?”
“They found Rebecca Sloan.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“A bus station in Albany.”
Michael stood.
“Has she talked?”
Alvarez nodded.
“And?”
The detective looked at me.
“She claims Ethan didn’t pay her.”
“Who did?”
“She says Robert Kane did.”
Everything inside me went still.
“No.”
“She has bank records.”
Michael swore quietly.
I shook my head.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“She says Robert asked her to give him copies of Lucas’s trust and estate documents.”
“Why would Robert need to pay her? He was Lucas’s business partner.”
“Because Lucas had stopped sharing information with him.”
My skin went cold.
Robert.
The man who had come to my house with Daniel.
The man who brought soup.
The man who sat beside my hospital bed.
The man who told me Ethan had gambling debts.
“What else did she say?”
“She claims Robert knew about the forged will.”
“Did he create it?”
“She doesn’t know.”
I looked at Michael.
His face was unreadable.
“You suspected Robert.”
“I suspected everyone.”
“Did Lucas?”
Michael hesitated.
That was enough.
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
My eyes filled with tears.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because we had no proof.”
“Everybody keeps protecting me with silence!”
My voice rose.
The fetal monitor jumped.
A nurse appeared at the doorway.
I forced myself to breathe.
Michael lowered his voice.
“I’m sorry.”
I closed my eyes.
After several minutes, the monitor steadied.
Alvarez stayed.
“There’s more.”
I opened my eyes again.
“Of course there is.”
“Rebecca gave us a location.”
“What location?”
“A storage unit Robert rented under another name.”
The police searched it that evening.
Inside were copies of acquisition documents.
Lucas’s estate records.
Photographs of my house.
Photographs of my father.
Photographs of Ethan.
And one photograph of me leaving my obstetrician’s office.
On the back, someone had written:
32 weeks — deadline.
I stared at the image.
“Deadline for what?”
Nobody knew.
Then police found a calendar.
May 28.
The day Lucas died.
Circled in red.
Beside it were the initials LK.
Lucas Kane?
No.
Lucas Gallagher.
Robert Kane.
LG.
RK.
I felt sick.
Alvarez continued searching.
They found burner phones.
Cash.
And a duplicate of the forged will.
By midnight, an arrest warrant had been issued for Robert.
But Robert had disappeared.
His SUV was found abandoned near Interstate 81.
His phone was inside.
His wallet was inside.
A smear of blood marked the driver’s door.
No body.
No sign of him.
It looked like another tragedy.
Except Michael studied the photographs and said quietly:
“This is staged.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Robert never drove that SUV when he wanted privacy.”
I frowned.
“How would you know that?”
“Lucas had me follow him.”
My breath caught.
Michael looked at Detective Alvarez.
“He owns an old pickup registered through a farm property near Skaneateles.”
Police reached the farm at 2:15 a.m.
The truck was gone.
But surveillance video showed Robert leaving six hours earlier.
He wasn’t alone.
A passenger climbed into the truck.
The image was grainy.
Still, I recognized the person immediately.
My brother.
Ethan.
Robert and Ethan—supposed enemies—were together.
I felt the last solid piece of my old life crack apart.
Then Alvarez’s phone rang.
She listened.
Her expression changed.
“What is it?” I asked.
She lowered the phone.
“Lucas’s laptop has been decrypted.”
Michael stepped forward.
“What did they find?”
Alvarez looked at me.
“A video recorded the night before he died.”
My throat closed.
“What does it show?”
“It shows Lucas meeting Robert.”
I gripped the blanket.
“And?”
“They’re arguing.”
“About Ethan?”
“No.”
She swallowed.
“About you.”
They brought the laptop into my room.
I watched my husband appear on the screen.
Robert stood across from him inside the Gallagher Systems parking garage.
Lucas was furious.
“You went near Emma?”
“I was trying to protect her.”
“You photographed her.”
“I needed to know her schedule.”
“You stay away from my wife.”
Robert stepped closer.
“You don’t understand how little time we have.”
“For what?”
“Before Ethan realizes she’s the only thing standing between him and control.”
Lucas’s jaw tightened.
“Ethan isn’t the problem.”
Robert went still.
Lucas continued.
“You are.”
My breath stopped.
Robert stared at him.
Then Lucas said:
“I know you changed the acquisition documents.”
Silence.
“You were planning to sell the company without me.”
Robert laughed bitterly.
“You were going to destroy everything we built.”
“I was protecting it.”
“You were walking away from eighty-six million dollars!”
“I was walking away from you.”
Robert’s face twisted.
“You think you can just take Emma and those babies and disappear?”
Lucas stepped forward.
“My family is none of your business.”
Robert’s answer chilled me.
“They became my business the moment you put the company in her name.”
The recording ended.
Nobody spoke.
Then the computer technician opened another recovered file.
An email Lucas had scheduled to send the morning after his death.
It never went out because someone accessed his account and deleted it.
The recipient was me.
The subject line contained only three words.
Emma, leave tonight.
And attached was a plane reservation.
Two tickets.
Syracuse to Zurich.
One for Lucas.
One for me.
He had been planning to take me away.
May you like
The night before he died.
Because he believed someone was coming for us.
Related Stories
