Chapter 3 - The Brother Who Vanished
My older brother, Daniel Bennett, had disappeared from our family eleven years earlier.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
He moved overseas after a violent argument with Dad and cut contact with nearly everyone.
I had received exactly three birthday emails from him in a decade.
Now his voice was outside the bridal suite.
Nathaniel opened the door.
Daniel stood beside Mom.
Older.
Thinner.
A scar crossed his chin.
But unmistakably Daniel.
Madison gasped.
Dad appeared at the end of the hallway.
“You.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Hello, Richard.”
Nobody in our family called Dad Richard.
Except Daniel.
Marcus Hale stood behind him.
Daniel explained that he had returned because Marcus contacted him months earlier about old Bennett International shipping records.
He had once served as operations director.
Before Dad forced him out.
The credential used to access the restricted database had belonged to Daniel.
But Daniel hadn't used it.
Someone had kept his credentials active for eleven years.
Dad accused him immediately.
Daniel expected it.
Then he produced an old flash drive.
“This is why I left.”
The drive contained internal correspondence showing that someone had been using shell companies connected to Bennett International long before Daniel's departure.
Dad claimed ignorance.
Daniel believed him.
That surprised everyone.
“The person doing this didn't want Dad to know,” Daniel said.
Marcus asked who had access.
Daniel looked toward Mom.
Then Madison.
Then me.
“Only three executives.”
Dad.
Daniel.
And Dad's longtime chief financial officer, Victor Lang.
Victor was downstairs.
He had been Dad's closest friend for thirty years.
He was also Madison's godfather.
Dad laughed when Daniel said the name.
“Victor would never betray me.”
Daniel looked almost sympathetic.
“That's exactly what I said eleven years ago.”
Nathaniel examined the drive.
Marcus wanted it immediately.
But Daniel hesitated.
“There is one more thing.”
He pulled a folded photograph from his coat.
It showed Victor standing beside a cargo terminal.
The date was eleven years earlier.
Beside him stood another man.
Dad took the photograph.
His hands began trembling.
Mom whispered, “Richard?”
Dad stared at the second man.
“That's impossible.”
I stepped closer.
“Who is he?”
Dad didn't answer.
Daniel did.
“Our uncle.”
Madison frowned.
“We don't have an uncle.”
“We did.”
Dad's younger brother, Samuel Bennett, had supposedly died in a boating accident twenty-two years earlier.
Yet the photograph was taken eleven years ago.
Nathaniel looked at Dad.
“When did you last see your brother?”
Dad's lips parted.
Before he could answer, the ballroom lights downstairs went out.
Someone screamed.
Marcus reached for his radio.
Nathaniel moved me behind him.
Then emergency lighting flickered on.
A wedding employee ran upstairs.
“Mr. Bennett!”
Dad grabbed him.
“What happened?”
“The security room.”
“What about it?”
“The recordings are gone.”
Marcus cursed.
Then his phone buzzed.
He looked at the message.
“Victor Lang just left the building.”
Dad rushed toward the stairs.
Daniel stopped him.
“Don't.”
“Get out of my way.”
“You still don't understand.”
Dad glared at him.
Daniel pointed toward the photograph.
“Victor wasn't running from the wedding.”
“Then where was he going?”
Daniel looked at me.
“To the place Samuel Bennett has been hiding for twenty-two years.”
My phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
One photograph.
A man sitting in a dark room.
Samuel.
Beneath it were five words.
BRING CLAIRE. COME WITHOUT POLICE.
May you like
Then another message appeared.
OR YOUR FATHER LOSES EVERYTHING...
