Chapter 3 - The Brother Who Was Never Dead
The voice on the phone disappeared.
But the silence it left behind was louder than anything I had ever heard.
I stood frozen outside my own company building, holding a phone that suddenly felt heavier than a weapon.
Because weapons could only hurt you once.
The truth could destroy everything you had built.
"Adrian?"
Elena's voice pulled me back.
I looked at the phone screen.
The call was gone.
No number.
No record.
Nothing.
Like it had never happened.
But I knew what I heard.
I knew that voice.
"Luca."
I said his name quietly.
For thirteen years, I had forced myself to stop saying it.
Because saying his name meant remembering the person I lost.
The brother who followed me everywhere as a child.
The brother who believed I could become something better.
The brother who was always smiling even when the world was falling apart.
And the brother whose death had turned me into the man standing here today.
But he was alive.
Or at least...
Something connected to him was.
I looked at Elena.
"Get inside."
She hesitated.
"What?"
"Now."
My tone changed.
Not because I wanted to scare her.
Because I understood something she didn't.
If someone was watching us, we were no longer standing outside my company.
We were standing in the open.
And whoever had spent thirteen years hiding Luca's existence had just realized I knew the truth.
My security team immediately surrounded us as we entered the building.
Employees stopped talking.
Executives looked up from their desks.
Everyone noticed the same thing.
I had walked into my own headquarters with a woman and a child.
That alone was enough to create rumors.
But nobody knew the real reason.
Nobody knew the little girl beside me carried my brother's blood.
"Clear the lobby," I ordered.
My head of security, Victor, nodded.
Within seconds, the entire entrance area emptied.
The glass walls reflected three people standing in the middle of a building I owned.
A mafia boss.
A woman carrying a secret.
And a child who had changed my entire world.
Emma looked around curiously.
"Is this your office?"
I looked down at her.
"Yes."
"It's very big."
I almost smiled.
Almost.
"Do you like it?"
She shrugged.
"It's too quiet."
That answer surprised me.
"Too quiet?"
She nodded.
"My uncle said big places are usually quiet because people are afraid to tell the truth."
I stared at her.
Her words sounded too familiar.
Because Luca used to say the same thing.
Powerful people didn't create silence because they had nothing to say.
They created silence because they didn't want anyone else speaking.
I looked away.
"Where did your uncle tell you that?"
Emma looked confused.
"At home."
Elena immediately interrupted.
"Emma."
The girl stopped talking.
I noticed.
The mother wasn't afraid of me.
She was afraid of what her daughter might reveal.
"Take her upstairs," I told Elena.
She looked at me carefully.
"Where?"
"My private floor."
Her eyes narrowed.
"Why would you trust us?"
I looked at the little girl.
"I don't."
The answer was honest.
"But someone trusted me enough to send you here."
Elena didn't respond.
She just took Emma's hand.
As they walked toward the elevator, I noticed something.
Emma looked back at me.
Not with fear.
Not with suspicion.
With recognition.
Like she had seen me before.
The elevator doors closed.
And for the first time in thirteen years, I was alone with the ghost of my past.
I entered my private office twenty minutes later.
Nobody came inside without permission.
Nobody.
The room was exactly how I left it every night.
Dark wood.
Glass windows.
A city view.
A place designed to remind everyone who entered that I was in control.
But that night, I didn't feel in control.
I placed the photograph on my desk.
Luca.
Alive.
Standing beside a child I never knew existed.
I picked up the picture again.
The handwriting on the back burned into my mind.
Don't trust Adrian.
I turned it over.
Why would my brother write that?
Why would he warn someone not to trust me?
Unless...
Unless he believed I was part of the problem.
A knock interrupted my thoughts.
Victor entered.
"Sir."
I didn't look up.
"Tell me everything you know about Elena."
He hesitated.
That hesitation told me enough.
"You know something."
"No."
A pause.
"Not exactly."
I looked at him.
"Victor."
He closed the door behind him.
"I know the name."
"From where?"
He walked toward my desk.
"From Luca's files."
My entire body went still.
"What files?"
Victor looked uncomfortable.
"The ones you ordered destroyed."
I stood.
"I never ordered anything destroyed."
His face changed.
And that was when I realized.
He wasn't surprised.
He was afraid.
"Explain."
Victor swallowed.
"Three days after Luca died, someone accessed his private records."
"Who?"
"We don't know."
"You said someone accessed them."
"Yes."
"Then find out who."
Victor looked down.
"There was one thing we recovered."
"What?"
He reached into his jacket.
He placed an old flash drive on my desk.
My eyes narrowed.
"Where did you get that?"
"From the safe deposit box Luca rented before his death."
I stared at the device.
"Why didn't you give this to me before?"
Victor looked away.
"Because the person who gave me the key told me never to open it."
"Who gave you the key?"
Silence.
Then:
"Luca."
The room became colder.
My brother had prepared for his own disappearance.
He knew something was coming.
He knew someone was after him.
And he had trusted Victor with a secret instead of me.
I picked up the flash drive.
"Open it."
Victor looked at me.
"Sir..."
"Open it."
He connected it to my computer.
A single folder appeared.
No password.
No protection.
Just one file.
VIDEO_001.
I clicked.
The screen went black.
Then a face appeared.
A face I had spent thirteen years trying to forget.
Luca.
Older.
Tired.
But alive.
I couldn't breathe.
My brother looked directly into the camera.
"Adrian."
Hearing my name from him nearly broke me.
"If you're watching this, then Elena found you."
I stepped closer to the screen.
Luca continued.
"I know you're angry."
A bitter smile appeared on his face.
"I know you think I abandoned you."
My fists tightened.
"You're wrong."
The video shook slightly.
Like it had been recorded in a hurry.
"I disappeared because I found out the truth about our family."
I stared.
"Our family?"
Luca looked away from the camera.
"Someone inside our organization betrayed us."
My heart started beating faster.
Then he said the words I never expected.
"The person who ordered my death was not an enemy."
The video paused.
Static filled the screen.
Then Luca leaned closer.
His voice dropped.
"The person who destroyed our family was someone you trusted more than anyone."
The screen went black.
I sat there without moving.
Because I already knew what came next.
I just didn't want to hear it.
The file ended.
Victor looked at me.
"Sir..."
I ignored him.
My eyes stayed on the screen.
Because beneath the video file was something I hadn't noticed before.
Another folder.
Hidden.
Created only minutes before.
Someone had accessed my computer remotely.
The folder contained one message.
One sentence.
And a name.
I opened it.
The message appeared.
"Adrian, if you want to know who killed Luca, come alone."
I stared at the name underneath.
May you like
Because it belonged to the last person I ever expected to see again.
And the elevator outside my office suddenly stopped on my floor.
