Chapter 7 - BROTHER
Daniel stared at Ethan.
“You kidnapped my daughter?”
Ethan shook his head.
“Vanessa did.”
“You helped her.”
“I’m trying to fix this.”
Emily laughed.
“Like you fixed my brakes?”
Daniel turned sharply.
“What?”
Ethan’s face hardened.
“Don’t.”
Emily stepped toward Daniel.
“The night I disappeared, someone cut the brake line on my car.”
Daniel stared at his brother.
“No.”
“I jumped before it went over the bridge.”
Ethan shook his head.
“She was unstable.”
Emily snapped:
“I crawled out of a ravine with a fractured ankle.”
“I called Margaret.”
Daniel looked at his mother’s empty place in the room as if she were standing there.
Emily continued.
“Your mother picked me up.”
“She told me she would take me to a hospital.”
“She brought me here instead.”
Daniel looked around.
“She kept you here for three years?”
“At first, I was drugged.”
“Then Dr. Hale started questioning what Margaret told him.”
“He realized I wasn’t delusional.”
“Why didn’t he call police?”
“He tried.”
Caleb’s father.
The house fire.
Daniel understood.
“Your mother found out,” Emily said.
“She threatened his family.”
“Then Dr. Hale died.”
Ethan stepped down another stair.
“You don’t know that Mom had anything to do with his death.”
Emily stared at him.
“I know you were at his house that night.”
Daniel’s eyes snapped toward Ethan.
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“I didn’t kill him.”
“But you were there?”
Ethan said nothing.
Daniel stepped forward.
“You watched me bury my wife.”
“I was trying to keep the company alive.”
“Our company?”
“No.”
Ethan’s voice rose.
“Your company.”
“Dad always chose you.”
“The board chose you.”
“Emily chose you.”
“Everything was always Daniel.”
Daniel stared at his brother.
“So you stole from me?”
“I took what I earned.”
“You forged my signature.”
“I built half the business.”
Emily moved toward Sophie.
“Daniel, don’t let them distract you.”
Vanessa raised the gun.
“Enough.”
Sophie started crying again.
Daniel immediately stopped.
Vanessa looked toward Emily.
“Where is the amendment?”
Emily smiled faintly.
“You’ll never find it.”
Ethan came down the last stair.
“We searched every box.”
“You searched the wrong thing.”
His eyes narrowed.
Emily looked at Sophie’s stuffed rabbit.
Everyone followed her gaze.
Vanessa moved first.
Sophie screamed as Vanessa grabbed the toy.
“No!”
Daniel lunged.
Ethan slammed into him.
They crashed into the wall.
Emily grabbed Sophie.
Vanessa ripped open the stuffed rabbit’s back seam.
Nothing.
Her face twisted.
“Where is it?”
Emily smiled.
“I told you.”
Vanessa threw the rabbit across the room.
Ethan pinned Daniel against the wall.
Daniel drove his elbow backward.
Ethan grunted.
Daniel spun and punched him.
Ethan hit the floor.
Vanessa pointed the gun at Daniel.
“STOP!”
Daniel froze.
Sophie screamed.
Emily stepped between them.
“Don’t.”
Then a car door slammed outside.
Vanessa looked toward the window.
Ethan’s face went white.
“You called someone?”
Daniel hadn’t.
Someone knocked on the front door.
Three slow knocks.
Vanessa raised the gun.
“Who is it?”
A familiar woman’s voice came through the door.
“Vanessa.”
Daniel recognized it.
His mother.
Margaret had come to the blue house.
And when she stepped inside, she was holding a folder marked:
May you like
EMILY MERCER — DEATH CERTIFICATE.
---
