Chapter 4 - THE DEAD BROTHER
Declan had been twenty-four when Michael Hayes disappeared.
His car was recovered from Boston Harbor.
Blood on the driver’s seat.
Two bullet holes through the windshield.
No body.
Patrick Hayes declared his eldest son dead three days later.
Declan had never questioned why the funeral contained an empty coffin.
Until now.
Thomas spread documents across Sarah’s kitchen table.
Bank transfers.
Shell corporations.
Private security invoices.
Someone had been quietly moving Hayes money for twelve years.
Michael’s old signature appeared repeatedly.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Declan asked.
“I found the first transfer four months ago.”
“Four months?”
“I needed proof.”
“You had proof my brother might be alive.”
“I had a signature.”
Declan slammed his fist against the table.
Sarah flinched.
He saw it.
Immediately, his anger cooled.
“Sorry.”
Thomas noticed that too.
“So it’s true.”
Declan’s eyes sharpened.
“What?”
Thomas glanced at Sarah’s stomach.
“You love her.”
Nobody spoke.
Sarah looked away first.
Declan did not.
“That stopped being your concern the moment you threatened her.”
“I was trying to scare her away.”
“Why?”
Thomas’s expression tightened.
“Because Michael contacted me.”
Declan went still.
“He said if the Bishop marriage failed, Sarah would die.”
“You believed him?”
“I know Michael.”
“So do I.”
“No, Dec. You knew the brother he pretended to be.”
Thomas revealed what Patrick Hayes had discovered years ago.
Michael had secretly sold information to rival organizations. When confronted, he staged his death and disappeared.
Patrick covered it up because exposing Michael would have shattered the Hayes organization.
“Your father spent his final years hunting him.”
Declan looked toward the window.
“And my mother?”
“She knew Michael survived.”
That was the betrayal Declan had not expected.
Eleanor had known.
Sarah touched his hand.
He did not pull away.
Thomas continued.
“The Bishop alliance was Michael’s way back.”
Arthur Bishop needed Boston port access.
Michael wanted Declan removed.
A marriage between Declan and Catherine would have merged enough assets for Michael to infiltrate Hayes Global through Bishop-controlled companies.
“But Sarah’s pregnancy changed things,” Thomas said.
Declan understood.
An heir.
Not merely emotionally inconvenient.
Structurally dangerous.
If Declan had a child, Michael’s path back to family control became harder.
“So Catherine poisoned Sarah?” Declan asked.
“I thought so.”
“Thought?”
Thomas looked at Sarah.
“The lab tested a sample from your thermos.”
Sarah nodded.
“The concentration was too inconsistent for daily dosing through water.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means the thermos was contaminated deliberately to make you suspect the break room.”
Sarah stared at him.
“The access logs.”
“Manipulated.”
“By you?”
“No.”
Declan’s eyes narrowed.
“Then who?”
Thomas looked uncomfortable.
“Someone with Sarah’s administrator credentials.”
Sarah shook her head.
“That’s impossible.”
“Unless someone cloned them.”
Declan looked at the vitamin bottle.
“Those?”
“Real poison.”
Sarah’s stomach turned.
Someone had planted false evidence pointing toward Thomas while using a second method to poison her.
A layered frame.
Someone expected Sarah to investigate.
Someone wanted her to find Thomas.
Declan’s phone vibrated.
Eleanor Hayes.
He answered.
“Mother.”
“Declan, where are you?”
“Why?”
“Because men came to my house.”
His expression changed.
“What men?”
“I don’t know. They killed Patrick.”
Declan froze.
Patrick Doyle was her chief of security.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“Declan, Michael is alive.”
Silence.
“He came here.”
Declan stood.
“What?”
“He was in this house twenty minutes ago.”
“Where is he now?”
“He left me something.”
“What?”
Eleanor began crying.
“A photograph of you and Sarah.”
Declan’s blood ran cold.
“He knows she’s pregnant.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because I told him.”
Sarah looked up.
Declan said nothing.
Eleanor sobbed.
“I didn’t know what he planned. He told me he wanted to come home. He said if I helped arrange the Bishop marriage, he would stop running.”
“You gave him access.”
“He is my son.”
“So am I.”
The line went silent.
Declan ended the call.
Sarah had never seen him look wounded before.
She had seen him furious.
Cold.
Bleeding.
Armed.
Never wounded.
She approached him.
“Declan.”
“Don’t.”
She stopped.
He closed his eyes.
“I buried my brother. My father lied. My mother lied. Thomas lied.”
Thomas accepted the accusation.
Declan looked at Sarah.
“And you were being poisoned ten feet from my office while I noticed nothing.”
“You noticed.”
“Too late.”
“No.”
Sarah took his hand and placed it over her stomach.
“You found us.”
His eyes met hers.
Then Thomas’s phone buzzed.
He checked it.
His face changed.
“What?”
“Catherine Bishop just landed at Logan.”
Declan’s jaw tightened.
“Good.”
Thomas shook his head.
“She isn’t alone.”
He turned the screen.
Security footage showed Catherine crossing a private hangar.
Beside her walked a silver-haired man.
Arthur Bishop.
And behind them—
Michael Hayes.
Alive.
Older.
Smiling.
Sarah stared at the image.
Declan stared longer.
Then Michael stopped beneath the camera.
Looked directly into it.
May you like
And raised one hand.
As if greeting his little brother.
