Chapter 4 - The Brother Who Feared My Survival
The woman standing in my office was impossible.
Not unlikely.
Not unexpected.
Impossible.
For twenty years, I had carried the memory of Elena's disappearance like a wound that never closed.
And now her mother was standing in front of me.
Alive.
Calm.
Holding answers I had spent half my life searching for.
I stared at her.
"You died."
She didn't flinch.
"That is what they wanted you to believe."
The room became silent.
I looked at Adrian.
My brother avoided my eyes.
That was all the confirmation I needed.
He knew.
He had known she was alive.
He had known about Elena.
He had known about Lily.
And he had still stood in my house pretending to be protecting me.
I turned toward him.
"How long?"
Adrian said nothing.
"How long have you known?"
His jaw tightened.
"Dominic..."
"No."
My voice cut through the room.
"You don't get to explain this away."
I stepped closer.
"You watched me believe Elena abandoned me."
His expression changed.
A small crack.
Regret.
Or guilt.
I couldn't tell.
"You watched me carry that pain for twenty years."
"I was trying to protect you."
I laughed quietly.
The sound surprised even me.
"Everyone always says that after they betray me."
The older woman placed the envelope on the desk.
"Dominic, you need to understand something."
I looked at her.
"You knew my brother was involved."
Her eyes lowered.
And that answer was enough.
I picked up the envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
A photograph of Elena.
She was younger.
Smiling.
Holding a baby.
Lily.
My fingers tightened around the paper.
Behind the photograph was a date.
The date was impossible.
Because it was taken two months after Elena was supposedly gone.
I looked at the woman.
"She was alive."
"Yes."
"She had Lily."
"Yes."
"She tried to find me."
The woman hesitated.
That hesitation told me more than words.
I already knew.
Someone stopped her.
Someone made sure I never found out.
My eyes moved toward Adrian.
He looked away.
For the first time in my life, I didn't see my brother.
I saw a stranger wearing his face.
"You knew."
Adrian finally looked at me.
"I knew some of it."
"Some?"
His voice became defensive.
"You don't understand what happened."
"Then explain."
He stayed silent.
I walked around the desk.
"Twenty years ago, Elena disappeared."
"Yes."
"Everyone told me she left."
"Yes."
"But she didn't."
"No."
"Someone made her disappear."
Adrian didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
The truth was already standing in front of me.
I opened the envelope again.
Inside was a letter.
Elena's handwriting.
I recognized it immediately.
My hands became still.
I had forgotten what that handwriting looked like.
The way she wrote my name.
The way she crossed certain letters.
The way she always made small notes beside important words.
I unfolded the paper.
Dominic,
If you are reading this, then Lily has finally found you.
I stopped.
My eyes moved over the next sentence.
I never wanted her to grow up without you.
But I knew they would never allow us to be together.
I looked up.
"Who are they?"
Nobody answered.
I continued reading.
They told me you would never choose a child over your empire.
They told me you were too much like them.
I closed my eyes.
Because that was the cruelest part.
Not the lie.
Not the betrayal.
The fact that maybe Elena had believed it.
Maybe she had thought I was incapable of becoming something different.
The letter continued.
But I was wrong about one thing.
You always protected people who couldn't protect themselves.
That was the man I loved.
Not the man everyone feared.
I stopped reading.
For years, I had convinced myself Elena left because she discovered who I really was.
But maybe she left because she believed there was still something good inside me.
Something I had buried.
Something I had forgotten.
I folded the letter.
"Where is she?"
The woman looked at me.
"Dominic..."
"Where is Elena?"
The silence answered first.
Then she whispered:
"She's gone."
My chest tightened.
"Dead?"
The woman nodded.
"Years ago."
The room blurred for a moment.
Not because I was weak.
Because there was a strange kind of pain in losing someone twice.
The first time, I lost the person.
The second time, I lost the hope that I could fix it.
I looked down at the photograph of Elena and Lily.
A child I never knew existed.
A daughter I should have protected.
A life stolen from all of us.
"Who did this?"
The woman looked at Adrian.
My brother closed his eyes.
And that was when I knew.
The answer was closer than I wanted.
"Adrian?"
He didn't respond.
"Tell me."
He slowly sat down.
For the first time, he looked older than me.
"I thought I was helping."
The words almost made me angry enough to laugh.
"You thought?"
"You were becoming dangerous."
I stared at him.
"What does that mean?"
"You were changing."
He looked at the photograph.
"Before Elena, you still cared about people."
I said nothing.
"After Elena disappeared, you became colder."
His voice lowered.
"You built the empire. You became exactly what everyone expected you to become."
I stepped closer.
"And you thought that was because of her?"
"I thought I was saving you from a weakness."
The word stayed in the air.
Weakness.
A child.
Love.
Family.
The things men like us were taught to destroy before they destroyed us.
I looked at my brother.
"You took my family away because you thought love made me weak."
His eyes filled with regret.
"I was wrong."
Before I could answer, a sound came from upstairs.
A scream.
Lily.
I moved instantly.
The entire house exploded into motion.
Guards rushed toward the staircase.
I reached the second floor first.
Her bedroom door was open.
The room was empty.
The window was broken.
My heart stopped.
"Lily!"
No answer.
Then I saw something on the floor.
Her broken stuffed rabbit.
Beside it was a piece of paper.
I picked it up.
Only one sentence was written.
"Ask your brother why your daughter was never supposed to survive."
I turned around.
May you like
Adrian was standing behind me.
And in his hand was a gun.
