Chapter 3 - The Brother Who Never Came Home
Nathaniel did not leave Simone’s apartment that night.
He sat at her kitchen table while rain tapped against the window and listened as the dead began giving up their secrets.
Simone made coffee neither of them drank.
Ivy slept down the hall.
“My sister Sarah was an Army trauma nurse,” Simone began. “She met Michael during his second deployment.”
Nathaniel stared at the photograph between them.
“He never told me.”
“She asked him not to.”
“Why?”
“Because she was married.”
Nathaniel’s jaw tightened.
Simone immediately shook her head.
“Not like that. Her husband had disappeared almost a year earlier. He was military intelligence. Sarah had filed for divorce before she met Michael.”
“What was his name?”
“Elias Cross.”
Nathaniel froze.
Cross.
Vanessa Cross.
Simone saw recognition.
“You know the name.”
“My fiancée’s family.”
Simone went still.
Nathaniel took out his phone.
Within minutes, Owen confirmed it.
Elias Cross had been Vanessa’s older half brother.
Officially, he had died overseas eleven years earlier.
But Sarah Carter had believed otherwise.
“She told me Elias discovered money being diverted from military reconstruction contracts,” Simone continued. “Millions. Maybe more. He became convinced someone inside the contractor network was laundering it.”
Nathaniel's foundation had been created partly to support veterans harmed by precisely that kind of corruption.
“Michael found out?”
“Eventually.”
Simone slid a small envelope across the table.
“Sarah gave me this before she died.”
Nathaniel opened it.
Inside was another photograph.
Michael.
Sarah.
And a newborn baby.
Nathaniel stopped breathing.
“Ivy?”
“No.”
Simone’s eyes lowered.
“My nephew. Samuel.”
Nathaniel stared at her.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
The words were almost inaudible.
Sarah had given birth six years earlier.
The hospital record stated the infant died less than two hours after delivery.
Sarah never believed it.
Two years later, she discovered evidence that the record had been altered.
Then her apartment was broken into.
Three months after that, she died in what police called a highway accident.
Simone inherited Sarah’s belongings.
And Ivy.
Nathaniel looked up sharply.
“You said Ivy wasn't Michael’s.”
“She isn't Sarah’s either.”
Silence.
Simone explained.
Ivy had been found with Sarah after the accident.
Alive.
Strapped into the back seat.
No birth certificate.
No identification.
Only a note inside Sarah’s purse.
Protect her. Do not trust the Cross family.
Simone had fought for temporary guardianship and eventually adopted her.
Nathaniel pushed away from the table.
His mind moved through ten years of memories.
Michael dying overseas.
Sarah dying years later.
A missing infant.
Vanessa’s family.
“And you came to work at my estate by coincidence?”
Simone met his eyes.
“No.”
There it was.
The truth.
“I came because Sarah left your address.”
Nathaniel’s expression hardened.
“You've been inside my home for eight months.”
“Yes.”
“Searching?”
“At first.”
“For what?”
“Something Michael sent home before he died.”
Nathaniel stood.
“You lied to me.”
“I protected my daughter.”
“From whom?”
Simone stood too.
“Possibly from the woman you're planning to marry.”
Nathaniel’s anger disappeared.
Not because he believed her.
Because some part of him already did.
He remembered Vanessa entering the parlor.
That flash of fear.
“What did Michael send?”
“A key.”
“To what?”
“I don't know.”
Simone opened a kitchen drawer and removed a cheap plastic folder.
Inside was a photocopy of a letter.
Michael’s handwriting again.
Nate keeps everything from Dad in the west study. The key will make sense when he sees it.
Nathaniel stared.
The west study.
A room at Hail Estate that had remained mostly untouched since their father died.
Nathaniel grabbed his coat.
Simone stepped in front of him.
“Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“You can’t confront Vanessa.”
“I wasn't planning to.”
“Then what are you planning?”
Nathaniel looked at her.
“For the first time in ten years, I'm going to listen to my brother.”
At 2:14 a.m., Nathaniel entered the west study.
Owen followed.
Simone had refused to remain behind.
The room smelled of leather and dust.
Nathaniel searched his father’s desk.
Nothing.
Bookcases.
Nothing.
Then Simone noticed an old framed photograph of Nathaniel and Michael sailing with their father.
Michael’s eyes in the photograph seemed almost aimed toward something.
A brass model of a lighthouse.
Nathaniel picked it up.
Something rattled inside.
He unscrewed the base.
A tiny key fell into his palm.
Owen swore softly.
Nathaniel stared at it.
A number had been engraved into the metal.
317.
“Safe-deposit box?” Simone asked.
“Maybe.”
Then the study door opened.
Vanessa stood there.
Barefoot.
Still wearing the gown from the gala.
Her expression was unreadable.
Nathaniel closed his fist around the key.
Vanessa looked at Simone.
Then at the open lighthouse.
And finally at Nathaniel.
“You found it.”
Nathaniel felt the entire room go cold.
“You knew it existed?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled with tears.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
May you like
She took one step inside.
“Because Michael gave it to me the night before he died.”
