Chapter 2 - THE BROTHER WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
For one terrible moment, Lorenzo forgot how to speak.
Mateo.
The name belonged to another lifetime. To Sunday dinners, childhood promises, blood-soaked streets, and a funeral attended by nearly every powerful family on the East Coast.
Lorenzo had watched his brother's coffin lowered into the ground.
He had stood beside their mother while she collapsed against his shoulder.
He had personally ordered the men responsible for the ambush hunted down.
And now his missing wife was telling him that Mateo had put his mark on her.
"Tell me exactly what happened," Lorenzo said.
Meline shook her head.
"Not here."
"Then we'll go somewhere safe."
"There isn't anywhere safe."
Her voice was so quiet that he almost missed it.
A metallic crash sounded outside the laundry room.
Meline flinched violently.
Lorenzo immediately moved between her and the door. His hand went toward the concealed weapon beneath his jacket, but he stopped when she grabbed his wrist.
"Please. Don't shoot anyone."
He looked down at her fingers.
They were trembling.
"Why?"
"Because they want you to."
Before he could ask another question, David Caldwell appeared in the doorway.
"Boss, we've got a problem."
David was a former Marine with twenty years of experience in private security. He rarely looked nervous.
Tonight, his face was pale.
"Two men just entered through the east service entrance. They bypassed the guards and went straight toward the kitchen."
"How many?"
"Three confirmed. Possibly more."
Meline released Lorenzo's wrist.
"That's them."
Lorenzo stood.
"David, get her to the car. Nobody touches her."
Meline immediately grabbed his jacket.
"No!"
He turned.
"They're here for me. If you take me outside, they'll follow."
"Then they'll have to go through me."
Her expression broke.
"You don't understand. That's exactly what happened last time."
Lorenzo crouched again.
"Last time?"
She swallowed.
"Three years ago, I heard you arguing with someone on the phone. You were supposed to meet me at the restaurant. You said you had discovered something about Mateo's death."
Lorenzo remembered that evening.
He had been delayed by an emergency involving one of his warehouses. Meline had insisted on driving home alone because she wanted to prepare a surprise dinner.
He had called her seven times.
She had never answered.
"I never reached the house," he said.
"I know."
"What happened?"
"Two men stopped my car outside the tunnel. They told me you had been killed. They showed me a photograph of your body."
Lorenzo's jaw tightened.
"They said the men who murdered you would come for me next. Then they took me somewhere underground."
"Where?"
"I don't know. I was blindfolded."
A scream echoed from the kitchen.
David drew his weapon.
"Move. Now."
He led them through a narrow passage behind the laundry room. Lorenzo stayed close to Meline, but every time he reached toward her, she recoiled.
It hurt more than he expected.
At the end of the corridor, David opened a maintenance door.
Beyond it stood a small courtyard surrounded by stone walls.
A black SUV waited with its engine running.
Then Meline stopped.
On the driver's seat lay a white envelope.
Her face drained of color.
"Don't open it," she whispered.
Lorenzo approached the vehicle carefully. He examined the envelope before picking it up.
There was no address.
Only three handwritten words.
WELCOME HOME, BROTHER.
Beneath them was a photograph.
It showed Mateo standing in front of the Croft estate.
The picture was recent. Snow covered the garden behind him.
Lorenzo stared at his brother's familiar face.
"Impossible."
Meline shook her head.
"He visits every Christmas."
"Who?"
"Mateo."
Lorenzo slowly turned toward her.
"What do you mean, every Christmas?"
She looked at the photograph.
"He comes to make sure I remember what happens if I try to escape."
David approached, his weapon still raised.
"Boss, we need to leave."
Lorenzo looked back at the envelope.
Something else had been placed inside.
A small silver ring.
Meline's wedding ring.
The one he had buried with the empty coffin three years earlier.
His fingers closed around it.
"How did he get this?"
Meline's eyes filled with tears.
"Because he was the one who took it off my finger."
Then she leaned closer and whispered something that made Lorenzo's blood turn cold.
"He didn't just fake his death, Lorenzo. He used your funeral to make me sign something."
"What?"
"Your death certificate wasn't the only document he forged."
A distant engine roared beyond the courtyard.
Meline looked toward the estate.
"He made me sign your son's adoption papers."
Lorenzo froze.
They had never had a child.
At least, that was what he had been told.
"What son?"
Meline began to cry.
"The baby I was carrying when they took me."
Before Lorenzo could move, the courtyard lights went out.
May you like
A gunshot shattered the darkness.
And Meline screamed his name.
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