Chapter 3 - The Billionaire's Missing Brother
By morning, none of us had slept enough.
Lily woke first.
She walked into the living room carrying a stuffed rabbit.
“You're still here.”
I smiled.
“You told me to stay.”
She nodded seriously.
“Good.”
Maya entered behind her holding coffee.
She handed me a cup.
“Black.”
I looked surprised.
“You remember.”
“You took it that way at dinner.”
I smiled.
“I didn't know anyone noticed.”
“I notice things.”
Her voice carried a faint challenge.
I respected that.
Lily climbed onto the couch.
“Are we going to find my dad?”
Maya froze.
I looked at her.
Then at Lily.
“Do you want to?”
“Yes.”
“Then we will.”
Maya stared at me.
“You can't promise that.”
“I can promise we'll try.”
Lily seemed satisfied.
Maya wasn't.
“You don't know what Daniel is involved in.”
“Neither do you.”
“That’s exactly why I’m afraid.”
I leaned forward.
“Then tell me everything.”
She sat down.
Seven years earlier, Maya had been working nights at a hospital security desk.
She met Daniel after a break-in.
He was a consultant investigating stolen patient records.
They fell in love.
They married quietly.
Then Maya became pregnant.
One week before Lily was born, Daniel disappeared.
“He left this,” Maya said.
She placed a folded piece of paper on the table.
I opened it.
One sentence.
If they ask about the Bellweather file, you never met me.
I looked at her.
“Why didn't you tell the police?”
“Because he called me later.”
“What did he say?”
“That if I involved the police, Lily would die.”
My jaw tightened.
“Who was threatening him?”
“I don't know.”
“Did he name anyone?”
“Only one.”
“Who?”
“Your brother.”
I frowned.
“I don't have a brother.”
Maya looked at me.
“Yes, you do.”
She pulled a photograph from her bag.
A young man stood beside my father.
I knew him.
My pulse stopped.
The face belonged to someone I had spent years believing dead.
Nathan Mercer.
My older brother.
He had disappeared when I was twenty.
My father told me Nathan had abandoned the family.
I had spent years resenting him.
Now Maya was telling me he had been connected to Daniel.
“Where did you get this?”
“Daniel gave it to me.”
I stared at the photograph.
“He said Nathan knew where the Bellweather file was.”
“Your father told me Nathan betrayed us.”
“That’s what I was told.”
“What if he didn't?”
I couldn't answer.
My whole childhood seemed to shift under my feet.
I had always believed Nathan was reckless.
Selfish.
Unreliable.
My father had warned me never to trust him again.
What if that story had been manufactured?
My phone rang.
Daniel Harper again.
“Ethan, I found something.”
“Tell me.”
“There are old files in the acquisition archive.”
“About Daniel Cross?”
“About Daniel Cross and Nathan Mercer.”
My pulse quickened.
“Send them.”
“Already did.”
I opened the files.
The first was an employment record.
The second was a surveillance report.
The third was a photograph.
Nathan standing outside a warehouse.
Beside him was Daniel.
And beside Daniel was another man.
Leonard Mercer.
My father's security chief.
The same man who had supposedly died in a car accident.
Three dead men.
Three lies.
Three names connected to the same mystery.
Then I saw a fourth name.
Bellweather.
The restaurant.
I looked up.
Maya was watching me.
“What?”
I showed her the screen.
She went pale.
“The photograph.”
“What?”
“That's where Daniel met Nathan.”
“At Bellweather Grill?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“They were trying to exchange something.”
“What?”
“I never found out.”
I thought about the previous night.
The hostess refusing to seat me.
The empty chair.
Lily inviting me.
A ridiculous thought entered my mind.
“What if that wasn't an accident?”
Maya looked confused.
“What?”
“What if Bellweather wasn't just a restaurant?”
I searched the company's property records.
The restaurant building had once belonged to a private security firm.
The company name was familiar.
Mercer Protective Holdings.
My father's.
I stood.
“Your husband was there.”
“So?”
“My father owned the building.”
Maya stared.
“The restaurant was converted later.”
“Then the original basement could still exist.”
We returned to Bellweather that afternoon.
The manager recognized me after one phone call.
He nearly dropped his keys.
“Mr. Mercer.”
I raised a hand.
“Please don't announce it.”
He nodded.
I told him we needed access to the basement.
His face changed.
“There is no basement.”
I looked at Maya.
Then at the old floor plan.
“There is.”
He swallowed.
“Not accessible.”
“Why?”
“Because it's sealed.”
“By whom?”
He looked uncomfortable.
“The previous owner.”
“My father.”
“Yes.”
We found the entrance behind the kitchen.
A steel door.
The lock was old.
My father's initials were engraved above it.
Maya stared.
“What was he hiding?”
“I don't know.”
I entered the code from the property records.
The door opened.
Inside was a narrow room.
Empty shelves.
A desk.
One metal box.
Maya whispered,
“This is where Daniel met Nathan.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Daniel described it.”
I opened the box.
Inside was a cassette recorder.
A photograph.
And a tiny brass key.
The photograph showed Nathan holding a baby.
I looked closer.
The baby was Lily.
Maya gasped.
“No.”
I turned the picture over.
A date.
Eight years ago.
Lily wasn't born yet.
Something was wrong.
Maya stared.
“That can't be.”
“Maybe someone is lying.”
“Or maybe that's not Lily.”
Lily, who had insisted on coming with us, looked at the photograph.
“That's not me.”
She pointed.
“That baby has blue eyes.”
Her eyes were brown.
Maya looked at me.
The room suddenly felt dangerous.
I picked up the cassette recorder.
It contained one recording.
Nathan's voice.
If Ethan ever finds this, it means Dad lied to him.
My heart stopped.
Nathan continued.
“You're going to think I betrayed the family.”
A pause.
“I didn't.”
The recording crackled.
“Dad was protecting someone.”
Maya looked at me.
“Who?”
Nathan's voice returned.
“The truth is, our family isn't the victim in this story.”
Then the recording ended.
The room went silent.
A door slammed somewhere above us.
Maya grabbed Lily.
I stepped toward the stairs.
Footsteps.
Several people.
Someone was coming down.
I locked the basement door.
“Back exit?” Maya whispered.
I nodded toward the map.
“Laundry corridor.”
We ran.
Behind us, the steel door began to shake.
Someone had found us.
We reached the corridor.
Lily slipped.
I caught her.
“Got you.”
She looked at me.
“You came back.”
“Of course.”
She wrapped her arms around my neck for one second.
Then we ran again.
We escaped through the alley.
Outside, Maya grabbed my arm.
“What did Nathan mean?”
“I don't know.”
“But your father was protecting someone.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
I stared toward the restaurant.
“For the first time in my life, I think I know where to look.”
“My father's old estate?”
“No.”
May you like
I looked at Lily.
“Home.”
