Chapter 7 - The Brother Who Knew Too Much
Gunfire shattered the darkness.
Bruno pulled Elias behind the wall.
Adeline crawled toward Evan.
Emergency lights flickered red.
Rourke was not physically in the hallway.
His voice came through the house intercom.
“Did you really think I’d walk through your front door?”
Elias grabbed the microphone.
“You killed Daniel.”
Rourke laughed.
“I made mistakes.”
“Was he one?”
“No. Daniel was a necessity.”
Adeline closed her eyes.
Elias’s face became stone.
“You just confessed.”
“To a dead intercom system? Check your network.”
Evan was already doing that.
“Not dead,” he whispered.
He had routed the audio to an external server.
Rourke continued talking.
Arrogance was doing what evidence could not.
He admitted manipulating Haverin.
He admitted staging leaks.
But when Elias accused him of killing Sebastian, Rourke stopped.
“I loved your mother.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“Sebastian stole my family.”
“No. He raised yours.”
Silence.
Then Rourke said, “Ask Isabella who killed him.”
The intercom died.
Bruno restored security.
No intruder had entered.
Rourke had hacked them remotely.
But something else was wrong.
Mara was gone.
So was Daniel’s microSD card.
Adeline ran outside.
Too late.
A car disappeared through the gate.
Evan looked devastated.
“She used us.”
“No,” Elias said. “Someone used her.”
They traced Mara’s phone to the location Isabella had given.
An abandoned rehabilitation hospital outside the city.
Elias, Bruno and Adeline went together.
Evan remained with security.
Adeline protested until Elias pointed out that Evan could barely walk downstairs without resting.
“Come back,” Evan told her.
“I will.”
“Promise.”
She touched his cheek.
“I promise.”
The hospital was dark.
Inside, they found Mara tied to a chair.
Alive.
The microSD card lay on the floor.
A woman stood behind her.
Silver streaked her dark hair.
Elias knew her instantly.
“Mother.”
Isabella Baron looked at her son after fourteen years.
Neither moved.
Then she crossed the room and touched his face.
“I’m sorry.”
Elias stepped away.
“That won’t cover fourteen years.”
“No.”
“Did Rourke kill Sebastian?”
Isabella’s eyes filled.
“No.”
“Then who?”
“I did.”
Adeline stared.
Isabella explained.
Sebastian had discovered Rourke’s network.
They planned to expose him.
But Rourke poisoned Sebastian slowly.
On the final night, Sebastian was dying in agony.
He begged Isabella not to let Rourke use his suffering to force information from him.
She gave her husband enough morphine to end it.
Elias could barely speak.
“You killed the man I called my father.”
“I ended what Rourke had already done.”
“You let me believe it was a heart attack.”
“To keep you alive.”
Elias turned away.
Adeline understood that some truths did not feel like freedom.
They felt like another prison.
Then Elias’s phone rang.
Evan.
Adeline answered.
“Evan?”
Breathing.
Nothing else.
“Evan?”
A man spoke.
Cormac Haverin.
“Your brother knows where Daniel kept the original ledger.”
Adeline went cold.
Behind Haverin’s voice came Evan’s frightened whisper.
May you like
“Addie, don’t tell them.”
Then the line went dead.
