Chapter 4 - THE BROTHER WITHOUT A NAME
Detective Morgan did not believe in impossible stories.
Triplets hidden for decades qualified.
Within two hours, however, he stopped calling the story impossible.
The Parker family records had been altered repeatedly.
Morgan discovered a sealed birth certificate issued thirty-two years earlier at a private hospital in Westchester County. The public record listed twins.
The original delivery report listed three male infants.
Ethan.
Elias.
And Nathaniel Parker.
The third child had disappeared from official records before leaving the hospital.
Natalie stared at the scanned document inside Morgan's precinct office.
“What happened to Nathaniel?”
“We don't know.”
“My husband never mentioned him.”
Morgan raised an eyebrow.
“Your husband never mentioned Elias either.”
Natalie looked away.
Every answer seemed to destroy another piece of her marriage.
Morgan continued.
“The Parker family had money. Serious money. Ethan's father, Charles Parker, ran private security contracts. Their mother, Rebecca, came from an old banking family.”
“And they erased a child?”
“It appears someone did.”
Natalie's phone had been sealed in an evidence pouch. Morgan didn't want Ethan—or whoever possessed Ethan's access—to track her.
A technician entered.
“Detective.”
Morgan stood.
The man handed him several pages.
“What?”
“Preliminary DNA.”
Morgan read.
Then read again.
Natalie watched his face.
“What does it say?”
Morgan sat across from her.
“The dead man and the man we sampled at the hospital appear genetically indistinguishable through the standard markers.”
“Because they're identical.”
“Yes.”
“So which brother died?”
“That requires deeper sequencing.”
“How long?”
“Maybe forty-eight hours.”
Natalie laughed once.
It contained no humor.
“Forty-eight hours.”
Morgan said nothing.
She stood and walked toward the window.
Outside, New Yorkers hurried through the rain as if the world still made sense.
Natalie pressed her forehead against the glass.
“What if the man I've been married to isn't Ethan?”
Morgan replied carefully.
“How far back are you asking?”
Natalie turned.
The question had been haunting her since the storage unit.
“Our wedding.”
“You think Elias or Nathaniel could have replaced him years ago?”
“I don't know what I think.”
Morgan opened one of the recovered notebooks.
“There may be a way.”
He showed her a page containing notes about scars.
E — appendectomy, right lower abdomen. Burn mark beneath left shoulder blade.
L — appendectomy recreated. No burn.
Natalie stared.
“Recreated?”
“It looks like Elias intentionally had surgery to duplicate Ethan's scar.”
“Why would anyone do that?”
“To become him.”
Her stomach turned.
Morgan tapped the first line.
“Did Ethan have a burn scar beneath his shoulder?”
Natalie's eyes widened.
“Yes.”
“How did he get it?”
“College. A camping accident.”
“Did the man in your apartment have it?”
Natalie searched her memory.
She had seen him shirtless only hours earlier.
But the angle...
She couldn't remember.
“I don't know.”
Morgan stood.
“We can find out.”
“No.”
“Natalie—”
“If he realizes we're testing him, what happens?”
“We bring him in.”
“On what charge?”
Morgan didn't answer.
That evening, they moved Natalie to a hotel under police supervision.
At 8:26 p.m., someone knocked.
Morgan immediately reached beneath his jacket.
A uniformed officer checked the hallway camera.
“It's a woman.”
Morgan opened the door.
The visitor was perhaps sixty-five.
Elegant.
Silver-blond hair.
Camel coat damp from rain.
Natalie recognized her immediately.
“Rebecca?”
Ethan's mother.
Rebecca Parker had supposedly been traveling in Switzerland.
She stepped inside.
Her face looked twenty years older than Natalie remembered.
“I'm sorry.”
Natalie's anger ignited.
“For which part?”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“All of it.”
Morgan shut the door.
“Mrs. Parker, perhaps you can explain why your family had three sons.”
Rebecca sat.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then she began.
Thirty-two years earlier, Rebecca had delivered identical triplets prematurely.
Ethan was healthy.
Elias survived after several weeks.
Nathaniel suffered neurological complications and required months of treatment.
Charles Parker became obsessed with protecting his image. His security company was negotiating a federal contract. A chronically ill child, in his mind, represented vulnerability.
“That sounds insane,” Natalie said.
“It was.”
Rebecca's eyes filled.
“Charles placed Nathaniel with my sister temporarily. Then temporary became permanent.”
“Your sister raised him?”
“Until she died.”
“How old was Nathaniel?”
“Twelve.”
“And then?”
Rebecca looked at Morgan.
“Charles brought him back.”
The boys finally met properly.
Three identical faces.
Three entirely different childhoods.
Ethan had grown up wealthy and loved.
Elias had grown reckless, desperate for their father's approval.
Nathaniel had grown isolated, brilliant, and deeply angry.
At seventeen came the boating accident.
But Rebecca said the newspaper story was false.
There had been no accident.
There had been an assault.
Elias discovered Nathaniel had been secretly entering the Parker home and impersonating Ethan.
The brothers fought.
Nathaniel vanished that night.
Charles decided to exploit the disappearance.
He moved Elias overseas and declared Elias dead, believing one erased son would hide the existence of another.
“Why?”
Natalie whispered.
Rebecca looked ashamed.
“Because Nathaniel had begun saying Ethan's life belonged to him.”
Natalie's skin chilled.
“The photographs.”
Rebecca nodded.
“He became obsessed with replacement.”
Morgan leaned forward.
“Where is Elias now?”
“I haven't seen Elias in eleven years.”
Natalie stared.
“But someone has been entering our apartment.”
Rebecca looked at her.
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because Ethan called me six months ago.”
Natalie's anger exploded.
“He knew?”
“He suspected Nathaniel had returned.”
“And he didn't tell me?”
“He thought telling you would put you in danger.”
“I've been sleeping beside one of them!”
Rebecca flinched.
Natalie's voice cracked.
“Do you understand what that means?”
“Yes.”
“No, you don't.”
Tears burned Natalie's eyes.
“My husband let me question my own instincts while someone studied me like a laboratory animal.”
Rebecca whispered, “Ethan was terrified.”
“So was I. I just wasn't told why.”
Morgan's phone buzzed.
He answered.
His expression changed immediately.
“Where?”
He stood.
“We're coming.”
Natalie followed him with her eyes.
“What happened?”
Morgan looked directly at Rebecca.
“A body was found in a warehouse in Brooklyn.”
Rebecca went white.
“Another body?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Morgan's jaw tightened.
“The fingerprints belong to Elias Parker.”
Natalie felt the room spin.
“That means the man in the SUV—”
“Wasn't Elias.”
Rebecca covered her mouth.
Natalie whispered the third name.
“Nathaniel.”
Morgan nodded.
“Maybe.”
Then his phone rang again.
This time, the caller ID made him freeze.
Natalie saw it.
ETHAN PARKER.
Morgan answered on speaker.
No one spoke at first.
Then Ethan's voice came through.
“Put Natalie on.”
Morgan looked at her.
Natalie stepped forward.
“I'm here.”
Ethan exhaled.
“Thank God.”
She fought to keep her voice steady.
“Tell me something only my husband would know.”
“Natalie—”
“Do it.”
A pause.
Then:
“Your mother didn't die thinking you disappointed her.”
Natalie froze.
No notebook could contain that.
She had told Ethan once, in darkness, three days after their wedding.
His voice softened.
“She told me the afternoon before our wedding that the bravest thing you ever did was build a life that didn't resemble hers.”
Natalie's eyes filled.
He continued.
“You made me promise never to tell you she'd said it because you weren't ready to hear it.”
Natalie sank into the chair.
It was him.
It had to be.
“Where are you?”
Ethan answered.
“Trying to fix something I should have fixed years ago.”
“Come to the police.”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because the dead man in my SUV wasn't Nathaniel.”
Morgan stepped closer.
“Then who was he?”
Ethan remained silent.
Natalie felt dread return.
“Ethan?”
Finally he said:
“The man who died was supposed to kill me.”
May you like
A beat.
“But he killed the wrong brother.”
