CHAPTER 3 — The Laptop My Brother Tried to Burn
We found Ethan behind the science building.
He was kneeling beside a trash barrel, trying to smash a silver laptop against the concrete.
One security officer pinned his arms behind his back.
Another pulled the computer away.
The screen was cracked, but the machine was still running.
“Get off me!” Ethan shouted. “You don’t know what she did!”
I stopped several feet away.
“What did I do?”
He looked at me as if I had betrayed him.
“You were supposed to leave.”
The words hit harder than the slap.
“What?”
“You were supposed to graduate and leave town. Dad said you’d take some low-level job somewhere. He said the fellowship would be mine.”
Professor Hughes stared at him.
“You aren’t eligible for that fellowship.”
“I would’ve been after the records were corrected.”
“Corrected?” Daniel asked.
Ethan’s mouth snapped shut.
Daniel crouched beside the damaged laptop.
“Who gave you this?”
“No one.”
Professor Hughes leaned closer.
A sticker remained on the bottom.
PROPERTY OF DR. CAROLINE HUGHES — BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH DEPARTMENT.
Her face drained of color.
“That computer was stolen from my locked office two months ago.”
My mother arrived with my father and two more officers.
She pointed at me.
“This is her fault. She pushed him until he panicked.”
Ethan laughed bitterly.
“Stop pretending, Mom.”
Everyone looked at him.
He swallowed.
“You said she’d never fight back.”
My mother’s face hardened.
“Be quiet.”
“You said she was too weak.”
“Ethan.”
“You said once we got the files, Dad’s friend could change the timestamps.”
Daniel stood.
“Which friend?”
Ethan stared at the ground.
My father spoke before he could answer.
“My son is upset. He needs a lawyer.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“He’ll get one.”
Then he examined the laptop’s damaged screen.
A folder was still open.
Its title was visible beneath the cracks.
BENNETT FAMILY — ADOPTION RECORDS.
I forgot how to breathe.
“Adoption records?” I whispered.
My mother closed her eyes.
May you like
My father looked at her.
And in that tiny glance, I saw twenty-one years of secrets.
