Chapter 6 - Michael’s Impossible Truth
Nathaniel punched his brother.
Michael hit the floor.
Simone gasped.
Owen did not move.
Nathaniel grabbed Michael by the jacket and pulled him up.
“Ten years.”
Michael didn't defend himself.
“Ten years, Michael.”
“I know.”
“I buried you.”
“I know.”
“Mom mourned you until the day she died.”
That broke something in Michael’s expression.
“I know.”
Nathaniel hit the wall beside his head instead of hitting him again.
Then his anger collapsed.
He pulled his brother into his arms.
Neither man spoke.
Michael shook.
So did Nathaniel.
Across the room, Ivy watched them with solemn curiosity.
The explanation took until dawn.
Michael had survived the attack.
But the attack had not been enemy action.
Cross Meridian mercenaries had staged it after learning he possessed evidence.
Elias Cross saved him.
Elias had faked his own death after discovering the same network.
Together, they disappeared.
For years, they gathered evidence.
Why not contact Nathaniel?
Because Richard Cross had people everywhere.
Banks.
Hospitals.
Government contractors.
Even inside Nathaniel’s foundation.
Michael believed contacting his family would get them killed.
Then Sarah found him.
They fell in love.
Samuel was born.
Richard’s network took the baby because Sarah possessed evidence tying Cross Meridian to an illegal identity-laundering operation.
“They used children’s identities to move money through trusts,” Michael explained. “Mostly dependents whose parents died overseas. They created guardianships, shell charities, medical accounts.”
Simone looked sick.
“And Ivy?”
Michael stared at the child.
“Her biological father was Elias.”
Silence.
Simone slowly sat down.
Michael explained that Elias had married years earlier.
His wife, Rebecca, became pregnant while they were hiding.
Richard discovered them.
Rebecca was killed.
Elias escaped with baby Ivy.
Sarah helped him.
When Elias disappeared again to protect the child, Sarah became Ivy’s guardian.
That was why Ivy had grown up with Michael’s photograph.
Sarah had taught her that Michael was a safe person.
A father figure.
“Then where is Elias?” Nathaniel asked.
Michael’s expression darkened.
“I don't know.”
“And Samuel?”
“Alive.”
Simone covered her mouth.
Michael had proof.
A school photograph taken six months earlier.
A five-year-old boy with Michael’s eyes.
“He’s being raised under another name.”
“By whom?”
Michael slid the photograph across the table.
Nathaniel recognized the woman beside Samuel.
Vanessa.
Nathaniel stood so quickly his chair fell.
Michael misunderstood his expression.
“She’s involved.”
“No.”
Nathaniel stared at the photograph.
Something finally made sense.
Vanessa’s fear.
Her secrecy.
Her insistence on controlling appearances.
“She’s protecting him.”
Michael frowned.
Nathaniel showed him Vanessa’s note.
I can fix one thing before you hate me forever.
Michael went pale.
“She went after Samuel.”
At that exact moment, Owen received an alert.
Vanessa’s car had crossed into Virginia forty minutes earlier.
Then disappeared.
Nathaniel called her.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Simone’s phone rang.
Vanessa.
Simone answered on speaker.
Heavy breathing.
“Simone?”
“Yes.”
“I have Samuel.”
Michael surged forward.
“Where?”
Vanessa heard his voice.
Silence.
Then:
“Oh my God.”
“Where are you?” Michael demanded.
“My father knows.”
A child cried in the background.
Nathaniel grabbed the phone.
“Vanessa, tell me where you are.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For waiting ten years.”
A crash sounded.
Vanessa screamed.
The connection ended.
Owen traced the final signal.
An abandoned Cross Meridian warehouse near Baltimore Harbor.
Nathaniel looked at Michael.
No hesitation remained between the brothers.
They moved.
The warehouse appeared empty.
It wasn't.
Owen’s team entered through two sides.
Nathaniel and Michael found Vanessa in an office upstairs.
She was bleeding from her forehead.
But alive.
Samuel hid beneath a desk.
Michael stopped in the doorway.
His son looked up.
For six years Michael had fought to find him.
Now he couldn't move.
Vanessa whispered to Samuel.
“That’s the man I told you about.”
Samuel emerged slowly.
“Michael?”
Michael dropped to his knees.
“Yeah.”
“Are you my dad?”
Michael began crying.
“Yes.”
Samuel stared at him.
Then walked forward.
Michael hugged his son.
Nathaniel looked away.
That was when a gunshot shattered the window.
Owen dragged Nathaniel down.
Michael covered Samuel.
Vanessa screamed.
More shots followed.
Richard Cross had not come to retrieve his grandson.
May you like
He had come to erase everyone.
And for the first time, Nathaniel understood exactly what kind of war his brother had survived.
