Chapter 6 - The Brother Who Wanted Everything
Vincent pointed the gun at Adrian.
For one terrible second, nobody moved.
Then Daniel stepped between us.
"Put it down, Vincent."
Vincent laughed.
"Still playing the loyal soldier?"
"Put it down."
"Move."
Daniel didn't.
Adrian stared at his brother.
"What's going on?"
Vincent's hand trembled slightly.
That frightened me.
Not because he looked dangerous.
Because he looked desperate.
"You should have left this alone," Vincent said.
Adrian took a slow breath.
"Nobody needs to get hurt."
"Easy for you to say."
"Vincent."
"No. You don't get to use that voice with me."
His eyes flicked toward the photograph in Adrian's hand.
"You found it."
Adrian looked down.
"What does it mean?"
Vincent swallowed.
"Ask Claire's father."
"He's dead," I said.
Vincent looked at me.
"Exactly."
A sound came from the hallway.
Footsteps.
Vincent turned his head.
That was all Daniel needed.
He lunged.
The gun fired.
The sound was deafening.
Plaster exploded from the wall.
I dropped to the floor.
Adrian grabbed my arm and pulled me behind the desk.
Daniel slammed Vincent against the doorframe.
The gun skidded across the floor.
"Enough!" Adrian roared.
Vincent struggled.
Daniel pinned him.
For a moment, I couldn't hear anything except the ringing in my ears.
Then Adrian was kneeling in front of me.
"Claire. Are you hurt?"
I shook my head.
His hands hovered near my shoulders.
He didn't touch me.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm okay."
His face crumpled for a fraction of a second.
Then he stood.
"Call the police," he told Daniel.
Vincent laughed bitterly.
"You're calling the police on your own brother?"
Adrian looked at him.
"You brought a gun into a room with my wife."
"Your soon-to-be ex-wife."
Adrian's expression hardened.
"That doesn't make her less important."
The police arrived twenty minutes later.
Vincent was arrested.
The gun was recovered.
Statements were taken.
And for the first time in his adult life, Adrian Moretti allowed police officers to question him without making a single threatening phone call.
I noticed.
I didn't comment.
Because doing one decent thing didn't erase nine months of cruelty.
After the officers left, Samuel insisted we examine the desk only with the property owner's consent and a documented inventory.
Adrian agreed.
Inside a hidden drawer, we found a cassette tape.
A small notebook.
And a second photograph.
The photograph showed my father standing beside a young woman holding a baby.
On the back was a date.
Thirty-five years earlier.
The year Adrian was born.
The woman's face was partially obscured.
But the baby was wrapped in a blue blanket.
Samuel studied the photograph.
"Claire, I think we need to establish exactly who Adrian's parents were."
Adrian stared at him.
"What are you suggesting?"
"I'm suggesting we stop assuming the family history is accurate."
Adrian sat down.
For a long time, he said nothing.
Then he looked at the cassette.
"Can we play it?"
Daniel found an old recorder in the desk cabinet.
The tape crackled.
A woman's voice filled the room.
Josephine.
I recognized her from an old family recording.
"If anyone finds this, it means Salvatore has gone too far."
Adrian's face tightened.
The recording continued.
"Thomas Bennett discovered what Salvatore was doing with the shipping accounts. But that wasn't the only thing he discovered."
A pause.
A faint sound of someone crying.
"There's a child in this family whose identity was changed."
Adrian gripped the edge of the desk.
Josephine's voice shook.
"I tried to stop it."
Then another voice interrupted.
A man's voice.
"Mother, turn that off."
Salvatore.
Adrian's father.
The tape ended abruptly.
That night, I returned home to Lily.
I fed her.
Changed her.
Held her against my chest until her breathing settled.
Then I cried.
Not because I wanted Adrian back.
Not because I regretted leaving.
But because the world I'd brought my daughter into suddenly seemed filled with secrets.
My mother found me sitting beside the crib.
"Claire?"
I looked up.
"Did you know about Adrian's birth?"
She sat beside me.
"No."
"Then why did Dad write that Adrian couldn't know something?"
"I don't know."
I wiped my face.
"Everybody keeps saying that."
Eleanor reached for my hand.
"Your father loved you."
"That doesn't answer anything."
"No. It doesn't."
She looked toward Lily.
"But whatever happened before you were born, you don't have to carry it alone."
I wanted to believe her.
At midnight, Adrian sat in his office listening to the cassette again.
Daniel entered.
"We found something."
Adrian stopped the tape.
"What?"
"Vincent's financial records."
"Go on."
"He's been transferring money to Sophia for almost a year."
Adrian leaned back.
"How much?"
"More than six million dollars."
"From where?"
"Accounts controlled by your family trust."
Adrian closed his eyes.
"Anything else?"
Daniel placed a document on the desk.
"A medical contract."
Adrian read it.
His face changed.
"What's this?"
"An agreement prepared by Dr. Rebecca Sloan."
"For what?"
Daniel hesitated.
"For a proposed guardianship arrangement involving Lily."
Adrian stood so quickly his chair struck the wall.
"Who authorized it?"
"Vincent."
"Why?"
Daniel placed a second page beside the first.
It was a draft petition.
The proposed guardian was not Adrian.
Not Claire.
Not Eleanor.
It was Sophia Reynolds.
Adrian stared at the name.
Then Daniel spoke.
"There's something worse."
Adrian looked up.
May you like
"The paperwork wasn't intended to take effect after a divorce."
"It was intended to take effect if Claire died."
