Chapter 3 - The Man Who Was Supposed To Be Dead
The office door opened by itself.
I stood there, staring into the darkness.
"Someone is inside."
Marcus moved beside me.
His hand reached toward his weapon.
Sadie stayed behind us, barely breathing.
The three of us knew the same thing.
Someone had entered my private office without triggering a single alarm.
That should have been impossible.
I pushed the door wider.
The lights inside were off.
My office looked exactly the way I had left it.
The desk.
The shelves.
The leather chair.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
But something was wrong.
I felt it immediately.
People like me survive because we notice things others ignore.
A glass moved two inches from where I left it.
A document folder wasn't perfectly aligned.
The air smelled different.
Someone had been here.
I stepped inside.
Marcus followed.
"Stay behind me," I told Sadie.
She didn't argue.
That worried me more.
Sadie Collins was never afraid to speak.
Not with me.
Not with anyone.
But tonight, she had seen something that changed her.
I walked toward my desk.
The photograph Marcus had shown me was still in my hand.
The picture of the person who was supposed to be dead.
I looked at it again.
A man standing beside me.
Smiling.
Younger.
Trusted.
My older brother.
Adrian Hayes.
The man who died seven years ago.
The man whose funeral I attended.
The man whose grave I visited every year.
My hand tightened around the photograph.
"No."
Marcus looked at me.
"Declan."
"That's impossible."
He didn't answer.
Because he knew.
I didn't believe in ghosts.
I believed in enemies.
And if Adrian was alive, someone had spent seven years making sure I believed a lie.
I turned the photograph around.
There was writing on the back.
A date.
A location.
And one sentence.
"Ask your brother what happened that night."
My chest tightened.
That night.
The night Adrian died.
The night everything changed.
The night I took control of the family empire.
The night I buried my brother.
I looked at Marcus.
"You knew."
His expression changed.
"I suspected."
"You knew."
Marcus lowered his eyes.
"I found the photograph six months ago."
The anger came instantly.
"You found proof my dead brother was alive six months ago and said nothing?"
"I wasn't sure."
I stepped closer.
"That is not an answer."
Marcus looked at Sadie.
"It was connected to the same investigation she discovered."
Sadie shook her head.
"No."
Her voice was quiet.
"I didn't know about Adrian."
I looked at her.
"Then what did you know?"
She hesitated.
That hesitation told me enough.
"Sadie."
She swallowed.
"The accounts I found weren't just about stolen money."
She walked toward the desk slowly.
"They were payments."
"To who?"
She looked at me.
"To people connected to your brother's death."
The room went silent.
For seven years, I had lived with one belief.
Adrian was killed by our enemies.
A rival family had arranged the attack.
I spent years hunting them.
Destroying their businesses.
Making them disappear.
But now I was hearing something impossible.
Maybe I had been hunting the wrong people.
I opened the desk drawer.
Inside was the only thing I had kept from Adrian.
A watch.
Broken during the accident.
The police said it stopped at the exact time he died.
I picked it up.
My fingers moved over the cracked glass.
Then Sadie spoke.
"Declan."
I looked up.
"What?"
"Your brother didn't die that night."
The words hit harder than any bullet.
"What did you say?"
She looked terrified.
"I saw the file."
"What file?"
"The original investigation file."
Marcus immediately turned toward her.
"You saw it?"
Sadie nodded.
"Someone kept it hidden."
"Where?"
She looked at the flash drive.
"Inside the old company archive."
I stared at her.
"The archive was destroyed."
"That's what everyone was told."
A cold feeling moved through me.
Everyone.
That word kept appearing.
Everyone knew something.
Everyone except me.
I opened the flash drive.
For the first time, I connected it to my private computer.
The screen remained black for several seconds.
Then a single folder appeared.
No name.
No password.
Just one file.
ADRIAN_FINAL.
I clicked it.
A video opened.
The quality was poor.
Security footage.
A warehouse.
Seven years ago.
The date appeared in the corner.
The night Adrian supposedly died.
My heart started beating faster.
A figure walked into the warehouse.
Adrian.
Alive.
Standing.
Talking to someone.
I moved closer to the screen.
The person facing him was hidden in shadows.
Then Adrian said something.
The audio was damaged.
I increased the volume.
Static filled the room.
Then one sentence became clear.
"You promised my brother would never know."
I froze.
My brother.
Me.
The person Adrian was speaking to knew about me.
The video continued.
The hidden person stepped forward.
Only half of their face appeared.
But it was enough.
I knew that face.
I had seen it every day.
Trusted it.
Protected it.
Marcus stepped back.
"No."
Sadie covered her mouth.
Because she recognized him too.
The person on the screen was not an enemy.
Not a rival.
Not someone outside my organization.
It was someone who had been standing beside me for years.
The video suddenly stopped.
The screen went black.
Then a message appeared.
One sentence.
"Declan, if you are watching this, Marcus has already betrayed you."
I slowly turned around.
Marcus looked at the screen.
Then at me.
For the first time in twelve years, I saw something I never expected.
Fear.
Not guilt.
Not anger.
Fear.
"Declan..."
I raised my gun.
"Don't move."
He didn't.
Nobody spoke.
Then my computer received another notification.
A live video request.
From an unknown sender.
The screen turned on.
A man appeared.
Older.
Tired.
But alive.
He looked directly into the camera.
And whispered my name.
"Declan..."
My hand went cold.
Because I knew that voice.
I had buried that voice seven years ago.
May you like
The man on the screen leaned closer and said:
"Your brother is not the one you should be afraid of."
