Chapter 5 - The House That Buried The Truth
The old family mansion was supposed to be empty.
That was the first thing I thought when I saw the security feed.
The second thing was worse.
Someone was inside.
I stared at the screen.
The camera showed the front entrance of Hayes Manor.
The same house where I grew up.
The same house where my father built his empire.
The same house where my brother supposedly died.
The front door was open.
A light was burning inside.
A light that had not been turned on for fifteen years.
Nobody spoke.
Not Marcus.
Not Sadie.
Not me.
Because we all understood what that meant.
Someone wanted me to go there.
Someone wanted me to see something.
And after everything that happened tonight, I knew one thing.
It was never a coincidence.
I grabbed my coat.
Marcus immediately stepped forward.
"Declan, don't."
I looked at him.
"You're the last person who should tell me where not to go."
His expression tightened.
I saw the pain in his eyes.
But I couldn't trust pain anymore.
Not after discovering seven years of secrets.
Not after finding out my dead brother was alive.
Not after learning someone inside my own organization had been controlling events around me.
Sadie stood up.
"I'm coming with you."
I shook my head.
"No."
She looked surprised.
"You need answers."
"I need to know why someone tried to kill you."
She didn't move.
"Then you need me."
I hated that she was right.
For three years, Sadie had been the one person in my world who never asked for anything.
She never wanted power.
She never wanted money.
She just did her job.
And now she was standing in the middle of the most dangerous night of her life because she had found something she shouldn't have found.
I looked at Marcus.
"One mistake."
He understood.
"You won't get a second chance."
He nodded.
"I know."
Twenty minutes later, we arrived at Hayes Manor.
The drive was silent.
The city disappeared behind us.
The farther we traveled, the more memories returned.
The long driveway.
The iron gates.
The stone walls.
Everything looked exactly the same.
Except it wasn't.
Because I was not the same person who left this place seven years ago.
Back then, I believed my family had been destroyed by outsiders.
Now I wondered if my family had destroyed itself.
The gates opened before we reached them.
Nobody touched the control panel.
Marcus noticed.
"Someone is expecting us."
I parked the car.
The three of us stepped outside.
The mansion stood in front of us.
Dark.
Silent.
Waiting.
I walked toward the entrance.
Every step felt heavier.
My father used to tell me something.
"Never fear a locked door, Declan. Fear the one that opens for you."
I never understood what he meant.
Until now.
The front door was already open.
Inside, the house looked untouched.
The furniture.
The paintings.
The old staircase.
Everything frozen in time.
Except one thing.
The fireplace was burning.
Someone had been here recently.
I walked into the living room.
A table was waiting in the center.
On it was a folder.
And beside it...
A photograph.
I picked it up.
My breath stopped.
It was my father.
But the man standing next to him wasn't Adrian.
It wasn't Marcus.
It wasn't anyone I recognized.
It was me.
A younger version of myself.
Standing beside my father.
Holding a document.
I turned the picture around.
More handwriting.
My father's handwriting.
"Your son will never know the truth."
I stared at the sentence.
My son?
I looked at Marcus.
"What is this?"
He didn't answer.
Sadie picked up the folder.
Inside were documents.
Old documents.
Adoption records.
Financial transfers.
Medical reports.
I saw her expression change.
"What?"
She looked at me.
"Declan..."
Her voice was different.
Careful.
Afraid.
"What?"
She slowly handed me the papers.
The first page.
My birth record.
The second page.
A different name.
The third page.
A note.
My hands became cold.
Because the name written there was not Hayes.
It was another family name.
A family my father had spent decades fighting.
I looked at Marcus.
"Tell me this is fake."
He didn't answer.
"Marcus."
His silence was enough.
I stepped back.
"No."
The entire world suddenly felt unstable.
My entire identity.
My entire life.
Everything I built.
Everything I inherited.
Was based on something I never knew.
Sadie moved closer.
"Declan..."
I looked at her.
"How long?"
She shook her head.
"I didn't know this part."
"But you knew something."
She looked down.
"I knew someone changed your records."
My anger returned.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I was trying to find proof."
I looked at the documents again.
A sound interrupted us.
Footsteps.
From upstairs.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Someone walking through the mansion.
Marcus immediately reached for his weapon.
The footsteps stopped.
Then a voice came from the second floor.
"Still protecting him, Marcus?"
My blood froze.
That voice.
I knew it.
But it couldn't be possible.
Marcus looked up.
His face lost all color.
"Adrian."
The lights turned on.
A man appeared at the top of the stairs.
Older.
Scarred.
Different.
But unmistakably him.
My brother.
Alive.
For seven years, I imagined this moment.
I imagined anger.
I imagined questions.
I imagined revenge.
But standing there, seeing him alive, I felt something else.
Betrayal.
"Why?"
That was the only word I could say.
Adrian looked at me.
And for the first time in years, my brother looked afraid.
"Because if I came back sooner, you would have died."
I laughed bitterly.
"You let me bury you."
"I had no choice."
"You had seven years."
"I had seven years to keep you alive."
I stepped closer.
"Who was trying to kill me?"
Adrian looked toward the documents in my hand.
Then toward Marcus.
Then toward Sadie.
His expression changed.
"They found you."
Nobody moved.
"Who?"
Adrian walked down the stairs slowly.
"The same person who killed our father."
The room became silent.
"My father died naturally."
Adrian stopped.
"No, Declan."
He looked directly at me.
"He was murdered."
I felt my heartbeat slow.
Because there was something in his eyes.
Something that told me this was bigger than money.
Bigger than betrayal.
Bigger than our family.
"Who killed him?"
Adrian opened his mouth.
But before he could answer, every phone in the room rang at the same time.
Mine.
Marcus's.
Sadie's.
Adrian's.
Four different phones.
One message.
I looked down.
A photograph appeared.
A picture taken inside the mansion.
Taken only seconds ago.
All four of us were standing in the living room.
But there was someone else in the photo.
Standing behind us.
Someone who wasn't in the room.
May you like
Under the picture were four words.
"Look behind you."
