Chapter 4 - The Brother I Buried
Nathaniel stared at the hidden phone as if it were an explosive.
"Nobody touches it."
I almost laughed.
"It's inside our daughter's stuffed rabbit."
"I can see that."
"Then somebody has been close enough to put it there."
Ethan stepped toward us.
"Who?"
Nathaniel looked at me.
"Daniel."
"You don't know that."
"No. But whoever sent the message wants us to think so."
The phone rang again.
This time Nathaniel answered.
He put it on speaker.
"Talk."
A familiar voice said:
"Still giving orders, Nate?"
My knees nearly failed.
Daniel.
Six years vanished in four words.
"Daniel?"
Silence.
Then his voice softened.
"Hi, Claire."
I covered my mouth.
I remembered identifying his watch after the crash.
I remembered the coffin.
I remembered standing beside Nathaniel at the cemetery.
"You let me bury you."
"I know."
"You let me grieve you."
"I know."
"Why?"
"Because the people watching you needed to believe I was dead."
I looked at Nathaniel.
He didn't deny it.
"You knew."
"Yes."
The word hit harder than shouting could have.
I stepped away from him.
"You stood beside me at Daniel's funeral."
"I was keeping you alive."
"You watched me collapse beside that grave."
Nathaniel's face tightened.
"I know."
Daniel interrupted.
"Claire, blame me too. It was my decision."
"Where are you?"
"Close."
"Come here."
"I can't."
"Then I don't believe you."
A pause.
"Remember the blue bicycle?"
My breath caught.
When we were children, Daniel had pushed me down a hill on a blue bicycle after removing the training wheels without telling me.
I crashed into Mrs. Pearson's hedge.
Only Daniel and I knew what I had screamed afterward.
He repeated it now.
Word for word.
I started crying.
Not loudly.
I simply couldn't stop the tears.
"You're alive."
"Yeah."
"Come home."
"I will. But first you need to understand why Nathaniel filed the divorce."
Nathaniel closed his eyes.
Daniel continued.
"Sebastian controls part of the Holloway trust through an old guardianship clause. Nathaniel couldn't challenge him while Lily remained hidden."
"So he exposed her?"
"He forced the trust to acknowledge that an omitted child exists."
I looked at Nathaniel.
"By making me choose?"
"Yes."
Daniel's voice became urgent.
"But Sebastian moved faster than we expected."
"What does that mean?"
"The attorney who came to your hotel wasn't Nathaniel's attorney."
Nathaniel looked sharply at the phone.
Daniel continued.
"His real attorney was found unconscious this morning."
I remembered the man outside my door.
Victor standing beside him.
"Then who was he?"
"Sebastian's man."
Nathaniel immediately ordered Ethan to take his brothers and Lily into the secured office upstairs.
I stopped Lily before she left.
"I'll be right here."
She hugged me.
"Promise?"
"Promise."
When the children were gone, I turned to Nathaniel.
"No more secrets."
He nodded.
"None."
"Why divorce me?"
"Because spouses share exposure under the trust. Once you formally separated from me and claimed Lily independently, Sebastian couldn't use my authority to remove her claim."
"So the cruelty was theater."
"Some of it."
"Some?"
His eyes met mine.
"Our marriage really was failing."
That hurt because it was true.
"I thought you hated her."
"I know."
"Did you?"
"No."
"Then why were you so cold?"
Nathaniel looked toward the elevator where Lily had disappeared.
"Because the first time I held her, I understood exactly how someone could control me."
I said nothing.
"I already loved the boys," he continued. "But by then I knew how to protect them. Their identities were established. Their security was established. Lily was different. Sebastian knew about the succession clause before I did."
"And you decided pretending not to care would protect her."
"Yes."
"It also hurt her."
"I know."
"Protection isn't enough if the child believes her father doesn't love her."
Nathaniel looked down.
For once, the feared Nathaniel Holloway had no answer.
Daniel's voice came through the phone again.
"There's more."
Of course there was.
"The original trust is not in Holloway possession."
"Where?"
"I hid it."
"Where?"
"With someone Sebastian would never suspect."
"Who?"
Daniel hesitated.
"Claire's mother."
I stared at the phone.
"My mother died twelve years ago."
"She left it somewhere."
"Where?"
"Your childhood house."
That property had been empty for years.
Nathaniel looked at me.
"We go together."
"No."
"Claire—"
"You've made decisions for me for eighteen years."
His jaw tightened.
Then relaxed.
"You're right."
The words surprised both of us.
"I'll go," I said. "You stay with the children."
Nathaniel shook his head.
"Not alone."
"Victor."
Nathaniel's expression darkened.
"I don't trust Victor."
"Neither do I. That's why I want him where I can see him."
Two hours later, Victor met me outside my childhood home.
The place looked smaller than I remembered.
We entered through the kitchen.
Daniel had given us one clue.
YOUR MOTHER KEPT WHAT MATTERED BEHIND THE THINGS SHE PRETENDED NOT TO CARE ABOUT.
I knew immediately.
Her cookbooks.
My mother hated cooking.
Yet she kept an entire shelf of cookbooks because my grandmother had given them to her.
Behind the shelf we found a narrow wall safe.
Inside was a document case.
The original Holloway trust.
And something else.
A videotape.
My mother's handwriting was on the label.
FOR CLAIRE — WHEN THEY MAKE HER CHOOSE.
My skin prickled.
"She knew," I whispered.
Victor stared at the tape.
"Apparently."
We found an old television and player in the basement.
The picture flickered.
Then my mother appeared.
Older than I remembered her.
Tired.
"Claire," she said into the camera, "if you're watching this, Nathaniel has finally done the one thing I asked him never to do."
I leaned forward.
"He has made you choose between your children."
My breath stopped.
"He will tell you it was necessary. Perhaps it was. But there is something neither Nathaniel nor Sebastian knows."
Victor looked at me.
My mother's image continued.
"The Holloway trust does not belong to the youngest child."
She held up a document.
"It belongs to the child named by the previous female guardian."
I whispered, "What?"
My mother looked directly into the camera.
"And seven years ago, I named Lily."
The tape crackled.
Then she said:
"But Lily is not the only name I entered."
Victor stood suddenly.
"What?"
My mother's face froze as the tape stopped.
The basement lights went out.
Footsteps sounded upstairs.
Then a man's voice called from the kitchen.
"Claire?"
I knew that voice.
Daniel.
I ran toward the stairs.
Victor grabbed my arm.
"Wait."
The basement door slowly opened.
May you like
A silhouette appeared.
And the man standing there was holding Nathaniel's gun.
