Chapter 2 - The Brother Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Roman crossed the foyer in three strides.
"Stay behind me."
I almost told him not to order me again.
Then the door opened.
A man stood beneath the Christmas lights.
For six years, I had carried my brother's death like a stone inside my chest.
Daniel Mercer had been thirty-one when his car supposedly went through a guardrail near Milwaukee.
Police found wreckage.
Blood.
His wallet.
They never recovered enough of the burned remains for me to see him.
Roman handled everything.
The funeral.
The paperwork.
The calls I could not bear to make.
He held me while I screamed.
He told me Daniel had died instantly.
Now Daniel stood on our porch.
Older.
Thinner.
A scar running from his temple toward his jaw.
Alive.
My knees weakened.
"Ellie," he said.
Only Daniel called me that.
Roman's arm moved across my body.
Not touching.
Blocking.
Daniel looked at him.
"I didn't come for you."
Roman's voice was ice.
"You came onto my property."
"I came for my sister."
"You sent the photographs?"
Daniel hesitated.
"No."
Roman studied him.
I could barely breathe.
"Daniel?"
My brother's face softened.
"Merry Christmas, kid."
I crossed the distance before Roman could stop me.
Daniel caught me carefully.
I buried my face against his coat.
He smelled like snow and gasoline and something painfully familiar.
For years I had imagined this embrace.
Then hated myself for imagining impossible things.
Now it was real.
I hit his chest once.
Hard.
"You were dead."
"I know."
Again.
"You were dead."
"I know."
"You let me bury you."
His arms tightened.
"I'm sorry."
Roman stood behind me.
I felt his silence.
I pulled away.
"Why?"
Daniel's eyes moved to Roman.
"Not here."
"You're standing inside my house," Roman said. "You can speak here."
Daniel gave him a bitter smile.
"Still calling everything yours."
Roman's expression did not change.
I stepped between them.
"Stop."
Both men looked at me.
"Daniel, tell me why you're alive."
His eyes dropped to my belly.
Something like grief crossed his face.
"I didn't know you were this close."
"Close to what?"
"The baby."
My voice cracked.
"That's what eight-and-a-half months pregnant means."
He looked ashamed.
"I haven't exactly had family updates."
"Whose choice was that?"
"Mine."
The answer hurt more because he didn't defend himself.
Roman moved toward the window.
He scanned the snow outside.
"You said you didn't send those photographs."
"No."
"Then someone followed you here."
Daniel's face changed.
"I wasn't followed."
"You can't know that."
"I know how to disappear."
Roman laughed without humor.
"Apparently."
Daniel ignored him.
"Elena, we need to leave."
"No."
He blinked.
"Ellie—"
"No one gets to walk into my house and tell me what I need to do anymore."
Roman almost smiled.
I pointed at him.
"That includes you."
The smile vanished.
Daniel looked between us.
"Something happened."
"Yes. My dead brother came home five minutes after I caught my husband with another woman."
"I wasn't with her," Roman said.
Daniel stared at him.
"You really want to make that your defense tonight?"
Roman stepped closer.
"What exactly do you think you know?"
"Enough."
"Then say it."
Daniel's gaze moved to me.
"December fourteenth."
The date from the anonymous message.
I felt my skin prickle.
"What happened December fourteenth?"
Roman's expression gave me the answer before his mouth did.
Something.
Something real.
Daniel saw it too.
"Ask him."
I turned.
"Roman."
He said nothing.
"Roman, what happened?"
He glanced toward Daniel.
"Vanessa contacted me."
My heart sank.
"About?"
"A file."
"What file?"
Daniel answered.
"The one that proves Roman's father didn't die the way everyone thinks."
Roman's head snapped toward him.
"Shut up."
I had never heard fear inside Roman's anger before.
Daniel smiled grimly.
"There he is."
"Daniel," I said. "Explain."
"Your husband inherited more than money."
Roman crossed toward him.
I stepped into Roman's path.
He stopped immediately.
That small thing mattered.
At least he still stopped for me.
Daniel reached inside his coat.
Roman's hand moved instinctively toward his waist.
I saw it.
"Don't."
Roman froze.
Daniel slowly removed an envelope.
"No weapon."
He placed it on the console table beside my wedding ring.
The envelope was old.
Brown.
One corner burned.
My name was written across the front.
ELENA MERCER.
My maiden name.
The handwriting belonged to my brother.
"I wrote that six years ago," Daniel said.
My fingers trembled as I reached for it.
Roman's voice was low.
"Don't open it."
I turned.
"Excuse me?"
"It's not what you think."
"Then you know what's inside."
Silence.
Daniel stared at Roman.
I stared at my husband.
Something inside me broke another inch.
"You knew he was alive."
Roman looked at me.
Not immediately.
That was enough.
"You knew."
"Elena—"
"How long?"
"I can explain."
"HOW LONG?"
My voice echoed through the foyer.
The baby kicked sharply.
Daniel reached toward me.
I lifted a hand.
"No. Nobody touches me."
Roman looked physically sick.
"Five years."
The room disappeared around me.
Not literally.
But every familiar object lost meaning.
The tree.
The staircase.
The ornaments we had chosen together.
The framed wedding photograph.
Five years.
Roman had known my brother lived for five years.
I whispered, "You watched me visit his grave."
"Yes."
"You held me."
"Yes."
"You let me talk to a headstone."
"Yes."
My throat closed.
Daniel looked away.
Roman came closer.
"Elena, I believed keeping him hidden was the only way to keep both of you alive."
"Who was trying to kill him?"
Neither man answered.
I laughed.
It sounded wrong.
"Wonderful. Another secret."
Daniel finally said, "Roman's father."
I stared at him.
"His father died seven years ago."
Daniel's face remained still.
"Did he?"
Roman cursed under his breath.
The baby tightened low in my abdomen again.
I gripped the edge of the console table.
Roman noticed instantly.
"Contraction?"
"Don't."
"How far apart?"
"I said don't."
Daniel looked alarmed.
"She needs a doctor."
"Finally something we agree on," Roman said.
"I am not getting into a car until somebody tells me what is happening."
Roman's phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
Declined it.
It rang again.
Same caller.
Daniel went pale.
"Who?"
Roman looked at him.
"Vanessa."
"Answer."
Roman did.
"Where are you?"
We heard Vanessa's voice through the phone.
I couldn't understand every word.
Only fragments.
"Parking garage."
"Someone followed—"
"Brother."
Then a scream.
The call ended.
Roman was already grabbing his coat.
Daniel blocked him.
"That's bait."
"Move."
"You go downtown, you won't come back."
"Then I won't."
The answer was immediate.
It surprised me.
Daniel too.
Roman looked at me.
"Dr. Keller is coming here."
"You called him?"
"When you were talking to Daniel."
I shook my head.
"Of course you did."
Roman stepped closer.
"I know you hate me right now."
"I don't know what I feel."
"Fair."
His voice nearly broke.
"But whatever you think I did, I will not gamble with you or our child."
He handed me my phone.
"Lock the doors after I leave."
Daniel laughed sharply.
"You think I'm letting you go alone?"
"I think you spent six years hiding. You can survive another hour."
Daniel stepped forward.
Roman did too.
I slammed my palm against the console table.
"Enough!"
They stopped.
I looked at Daniel.
"You stay."
Then Roman.
"You go get Vanessa."
His eyes searched mine.
"Why?"
"Because if someone is threatening her because of whatever you've been hiding, I want her alive long enough to tell me the truth."
Roman nodded.
He turned.
I grabbed his sleeve.
He looked down at my hand.
"Roman."
"Yes?"
"If you disappear too..."
The sentence failed.
Something moved across his face.
He touched my fingers.
Very gently.
"I'll come back."
"Don't promise things tonight."
He released me.
Then left.
Daniel locked the door.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
I picked up the brown envelope.
"You were going to explain."
Daniel rubbed his hands across his face.
"Roman's father, Augustus Vale, built the original company through organized crime. Extortion. Smuggling. Bribery. Worse things."
"I know Roman's family had a reputation."
"You know the clean version."
"And you found proof?"
"Accidentally."
"How?"
"I was auditing a subcontractor."
Daniel had been a forensic accountant.
The kind of person who found things people paid fortunes to hide.
"I discovered payments linked to shell companies. Then I discovered photographs. Names. Judges. Police officers."
"Roman?"
Daniel hesitated.
"His name wasn't on the old accounts."
Relief hit me so hard it angered me.
I didn't want relief.
"Then why did he lie?"
"Because by the time Roman learned what I'd found, Augustus was already watching me."
"But Augustus was dead."
Daniel stared at the Christmas tree.
"No. A body was buried. That isn't the same thing."
The lights blurred.
"You're saying Roman's father faked his death?"
"I'm saying I never saw proof he died."
I opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Roman.
Much younger.
Standing beside Daniel in a warehouse.
The date printed at the bottom was six years earlier.
Three days after Daniel's supposed death.
On the back, my brother had written:
HE SAVED ME.
I looked up.
Daniel nodded.
"Roman pulled me from the car before it burned."
The betrayal inside me twisted into something more complicated.
"Then Roman saved you."
"Yes."
"And hid you."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because someone was still hunting me."
"Augustus?"
"We thought so."
I stared at the photograph.
For years I had hated the universe for taking my brother.
Now I had two men to blame for letting me believe it.
A knock sounded at the side entrance.
Daniel stiffened.
"Doctor?"
"Dr. Keller uses the front."
Another knock.
Three slow taps.
Daniel reached beneath his coat.
This time he did have a gun.
I backed away.
"What are you doing?"
"Go upstairs."
"No."
"Elena."
"No."
The knocking stopped.
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A video file.
My pulse jumped.
I opened it.
Security camera footage.
Live.
Roman's car downtown.
He was standing beside it.
Vanessa was there.
So was another man.
An older man.
Silver hair.
Tall.
Even through grainy footage, I recognized the face.
I had seen it in photographs hanging in this house.
Roman's father.
Augustus Vale.
Alive.
Daniel looked over my shoulder.
All the color left his face.
Then the video shifted.
The camera angle changed.
Not downtown anymore.
Our estate.
The side door.
The door behind us.
And a hand appeared on the outside handle.
Daniel raised the gun.
I stopped breathing.
The lock clicked.
May you like
Someone had a key.
And the door began to open.
