Chapter 3 - The Brother I Never Had
Gabriel had always been the one person in the city I never suspected.
That night, I invited him into my study.
He sat across from me.
“What are you really asking?”
I closed the door.
“How long have you known about Lily?”
He didn't answer.
I repeated the question.
He sighed.
“Since before she was born.”
My hands curled into fists.
“How?”
“Elena told me.”
“When?”
“After she discovered she was pregnant.”
“You knew she was pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me.”
“She asked me not to.”
“Why?”
“She believed your father would use the child against you.”
“My father was dead.”
“Not at the time.”
I stared.
“What?”
Gabriel looked toward the window.
“Your father wasn't dead when Elena disappeared.”
I felt like the floor moved.
“Then who did I bury?”
“A man.”
“Whose body?”
“I don't know.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I was protecting you.”
That phrase had become an insult.
Everyone claimed to protect me.
No one trusted me with the truth.
I slammed my hand on the desk.
“You watched me destroy Daniel's reputation.”
“I know.”
“You watched me hunt him.”
“I know.”
“You knew Elena was alive.”
“Yes.”
“You knew I had a daughter.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
Gabriel looked broken.
“I was waiting.”
“For what?”
“For the right moment.”
“The right moment was twelve years ago.”
“I thought so too.”
“Then why?”
He finally met my eyes.
“Because the person behind everything wasn't your father.”
“Who?”
“We called him the Architect.”
“Name.”
“I never knew.”
“Then why stay?”
“Because if I left, your entire family would have been killed.”
I stared.
“Who threatened you?”
“My brother.”
I frowned.
“You never told me you had a brother.”
“I didn't.”
“Then who?”
Gabriel smiled bitterly.
“The man you buried.”
Daniel.
I froze.
“Daniel was your brother?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“Blood brother.”
I didn't understand.
“My father's illegitimate son.”
I stepped backward.
“Daniel Voss was my half-brother?”
“Yes.”
Suddenly the resemblance I'd ignored for years seemed obvious.
Same dark eyes.
Same jaw.
Same temper.
My father's blood.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“And my father?”
“Your father knew.”
I sat down.
The family I'd believed I understood had been built on lies.
Gabriel continued.
“Daniel discovered the Architect's network.”
“And Elena?”
“She discovered Daniel was trying to protect her.”
“So why did they disappear?”
“Because they were going to expose the organization.”
“Who killed Daniel?”
“No one.”
I looked up.
“He's alive?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Not anymore.”
“What?”
“Daniel survived your attempt to kill him.”
I went silent.
“Then who died?”
“A man named Thomas Voss.”
I stared.
“Daniel escaped.”
“But the body?”
“Swapped.”
“How?”
“Your father arranged it.”
My father had orchestrated everything.
Daniel's disappearance.
Elena's disappearance.
The false funeral.
And perhaps my entire life.
“Where is Daniel now?”
Gabriel looked away.
“Dead.”
“How?”
“Six months ago.”
“The attack on Lily?”
“Yes.”
“Who killed him?”
“We don't know.”
I stood.
“Then find out.”
Gabriel nodded.
Before he left, I asked,
“Why did Elena give Lily the locket?”
“Because she knew you'd recognize it.”
“Why didn't she come home?”
“Because she wanted to.”
“What stopped her?”
Gabriel's voice dropped.
“The Architect.”
That night, Lily woke screaming.
I rushed to her room.
She was sweating.
“Daddy.”
I stopped.
She had called me Daddy.
I sat beside her.
“I'm here.”
She grabbed my sleeve.
“I dreamed about Mommy.”
“What happened?”
“She said don't trust the blue door.”
I froze.
The blue door.
Frank's final words.
I didn't tell Lily.
Instead, I asked,
“What else did she say?”
“She said Bear knows.”
I looked at the dog.
Bear was sitting beside the bed.
His eyes were fixed on me.
The next morning, Bear refused to eat.
Victor examined him.
Inside the dog's collar, he found another compartment.
A photograph.
Elena.
And a hand-drawn map.
The map led to an old warehouse beneath the Queensboro Bridge.
The blue door.
We went there.
The building looked abandoned.
Inside, we found evidence someone had been living there recently.
Blankets.
Medical supplies.
Food.
Children's toys.
A piano.
Elena's piano books.
My heart stopped.
She had been there.
Maybe recently.
Then we found a hidden room.
Inside was a wall covered with photographs.
Lily.
Daniel.
Elena.
Me.
Gabriel.
And another child.
A boy about ten.
His face was covered in black marker.
Beneath him was a name.
Noah.
I stared.
“Who is Noah?”
Gabriel went pale.
“I thought he was dead.”
“Another child?”
“Yes.”
“Whose?”
“Daniel's.”
My heart clenched.
Daniel had another child.
A child the Architect had apparently hidden.
I heard a noise.
Footsteps.
Someone was leaving through the back entrance.
I ran.
I caught sight of a man in a black coat.
He turned.
For a second, I saw his face.
Older.
Scarred.
Blue eyes.
Then he disappeared into traffic.
I returned to the room.
Gabriel was staring at the wall.
“He wanted you to find this.”
“Why?”
“Because now you know there are three generations involved.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your father.”
“Daniel.”
“And Lily.”
I frowned.
“That doesn't make sense.”
Gabriel pointed to a document.
It was an old family registry.
My name.
Daniel's.
Elena's.
Then one more.
Adrian Moretti.
No.
Another Adrian.
The same name.
A second entry.
My father had registered two sons under the same name.
One legitimate.
One hidden.
My whole childhood had been built around a lie.
That evening, I returned to the estate.
Lily was drawing at the kitchen table.
“What are you drawing?”
“A family.”
She showed me.
There was me.
Her.
Elena.
Daniel.
And someone else.
A man with a black crown above his head.
“Who is that?”
Lily looked at me.
“The man Daddy was afraid of.”
I felt cold.
“What is his name?”
She whispered,
“Uncle Silas.”
Silas.
I had heard that name only once.
Six years earlier.
At a funeral.
My father's coffin.
A man had stood in the back.
Nobody knew him.
I had ignored him.
Now I remembered.
Blue eyes.
Black crown.
Scar across his cheek.
The Architect had a face.
May you like
And I had seen him before.
He had been at my father's funeral.
