Chapter 10 - The Brother Who Remembered Everything
The message remained on my phone.
"He is waiting where your father died."
I stared at the words.
Then I looked at Michael.
My brother.
The man who had spent years hiding pieces of my life.
"Who sent this?"
Michael didn't answer.
Again.
That silence.
That endless silence.
I grabbed my coat.
"I'm going."
Michael immediately stepped forward.
"No."
I looked at him.
"You're not stopping me."
"You don't understand what you're walking into."
I laughed.
"You said that when you made me divorce Emily."
His face changed.
"You said that when you hid my father."
I stepped closer.
"You said that every time you lied."
The room became quiet.
Emily looked at me.
She knew I was right.
Michael looked exhausted.
"Daniel, please."
That word surprised me.
Not because he said it.
Because it sounded like fear.
Not control.
Fear.
I stopped.
"What are you afraid of?"
Michael looked at the floor.
Then whispered:
"That you'll find out why Ethan hates you."
My heart tightened.
"Ethan hates me?"
Michael didn't answer.
That was enough.
I left the room.
This time, nobody stopped me.
The drive to the old road took forty minutes.
Forty minutes of silence.
Forty minutes of memories I didn't want.
My father's funeral.
My mother's disappearance.
Michael standing beside me.
Telling me everything would be okay.
He was lying.
But maybe he was also suffering.
I didn't know anymore.
When I arrived, the road looked exactly like I remembered.
A narrow highway surrounded by trees.
The place where my father's car supposedly crashed.
The place where my childhood ended.
I stepped out.
The air felt heavy.
Almost familiar.
I walked toward the old barrier.
Then I saw something.
A mark carved into the metal.
Two letters.
E.C.
My hands froze.
Ethan Carter.
Someone had been here.
Recently.
I pulled out my phone.
No signal.
Of course.
A sound came from behind me.
A branch breaking.
I turned.
Nobody.
Then another sound.
Closer.
"You came alone."
I froze.
The voice came from the darkness.
A young man stepped forward.
The same face from the video.
My face.
Different eyes.
Different pain.
Ethan.
My brother.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
I wanted to say something.
Anything.
But what do you say to someone you never knew existed?
"You're Daniel."
It wasn't a question.
I nodded.
"You're Ethan."
He smiled.
But there was no happiness.
"That's what they call me."
I frowned.
"What does that mean?"
He looked away.
"Names can be changed."
The words felt familiar.
Because my entire life had been changed.
"Why did you bring me here?"
Ethan looked toward the road.
"Because this is where everything started."
"What started?"
He looked at me.
"The lie."
I stepped closer.
"What lie?"
His jaw tightened.
"The lie that our father died."
My chest tightened.
"Everyone keeps saying that."
"Because everyone was involved."
I stared.
"Who?"
He looked at me.
Then said something I never expected.
"Your father."
I froze.
"My father?"
Ethan nodded.
"He wasn't the victim."
The words hit me.
"What are you talking about?"
"He made a deal."
My anger rose.
"No."
Ethan looked at me.
"You don't know him like I do."
I stepped closer.
"You don't know him either."
A painful smile appeared on his face.
"I knew him before you did."
The sentence confused me.
"What?"
Ethan looked toward the trees.
"I remember the night they took me."
My breathing stopped.
"You remember?"
He nodded.
"I was four years old."
I looked at him.
"We were four."
He corrected me.
"No."
A pause.
"I was four."
The meaning slowly reached me.
I felt cold.
"You were older?"
He nodded.
"By six minutes."
My heart raced.
"You remember everything?"
"Almost."
He looked at the ground.
"I remember our mother screaming."
I swallowed.
"I remember our father carrying you away."
The world became silent.
"Carrying me?"
Ethan looked at me.
"Yes."
I shook my head.
"No."
"He chose you."
The words hurt.
"Why?"
Ethan looked at me.
"Because you were the heir."
I didn't understand.
"We were children."
"To them, we were investments."
I looked away.
The pain in his voice wasn't anger anymore.
It was something deeper.
A wound that never healed.
"What happened to you?"
He was quiet for a long time.
Then answered.
"They made me disappear."
My chest tightened.
"Who?"
Ethan looked at me.
"The same people who are trying to take your child."
I remembered Emily.
The baby.
The threats.
The hospital.
"Who are they?"
Ethan reached into his jacket.
He pulled out a small notebook.
Old.
Damaged.
He handed it to me.
"This belonged to our mother."
I opened it.
The first page had her handwriting.
My hands shook.
Because I recognized it.
She had written one sentence.
"Daniel and Ethan were never supposed to be separated."
I turned the page.
Another sentence.
"Michael knows the truth."
I looked up.
Ethan watched me.
"He knew."
My heart sank.
"Michael?"
Ethan nodded.
"He knew where I was."
I couldn't speak.
"He knew I was alive."
My hands tightened around the notebook.
"Why didn't he tell me?"
Ethan's expression changed.
"Because he was afraid."
"Of what?"
Ethan looked at the road behind me.
"Not of losing you."
A pause.
"Of losing himself."
I didn't understand.
Then headlights appeared in the distance.
A black vehicle.
Moving slowly toward us.
Ethan immediately changed.
The calm disappeared.
"How did they find us?"
I turned.
"What?"
He grabbed the notebook.
"We have to go."
I looked at the car.
"Who is that?"
Ethan didn't answer.
The vehicle stopped.
The doors opened.
Three people stepped out.
One of them was holding a folder.
The second one was holding a gun.
And the third person...
The third person walked toward us slowly.
I couldn't move.
Because I knew that face.
I had seen it before.
In my childhood photos.
Standing beside my father.
Standing beside Michael.
Standing behind every secret.
Ethan whispered:
"That's the person who erased us."
The stranger smiled.
Then said my name.
"Daniel."
He looked at Ethan.
Then back at me.
"Your brother told you the truth."
A pause.
"But he never told you the reason he saved only one of you."
I looked at Ethan.
Then Michael's voice came through my phone.
A new message.
One sentence.
"Daniel, don't trust Ethan."
I stared at the screen.
Then the stranger raised the folder.
May you like
And the first page showed a photograph of Ethan...
Standing beside Michael the night my father died.
