Chapter 9 - The Brother I Buried
My older brother Daniel died eight years ago.
At least that was what I had believed.
His small plane disappeared over Lake Erie during a winter storm.
No body was recovered.
A section of wreckage washed ashore days later.
My parents held a funeral.
I carried an empty coffin.
Now Clara was telling me he had been standing in a banquet hall three years after his death.
“You’re lying.”
“I saw him.”
“You’re lying.”
“Adam—”
“I buried my brother.”
“You buried an empty box.”
The words cut deeper because they were true.
Leo stared at us.
“Dad?”
I crouched.
“Go with Marcus.”
“No.”
“Leo.”
“I’m tired of everyone making me leave when they talk about me.”
I had no answer to that.
So he stayed.
Clara held the old cemetery key tightly.
“Daniel contacted Nora about four months before she died.”
“For what?”
“The trust.”
My mind raced.
Daniel had worked with my father before the crash.
He handled private investments.
If anyone knew where money could be hidden, it was him.
“Nora discovered Daniel had used shell companies to move money out of the Kincaid trust.”
Rachel looked at Clara.
“After he was supposedly dead?”
“Yes.”
That meant someone had been signing transfers while Daniel officially didn’t exist.
“Why fake his death?”
“To avoid an investigation.”
I felt sick.
“And my parents knew?”
Clara nodded.
“Your father arranged it. Your mother financed it.”
I turned away.
Every childhood memory suddenly felt contaminated.
Daniel teaching me to drive.
Daniel standing beside me at my wedding.
Daniel holding newborn Leo and joking that he would teach him every bad habit I hated.
“You saw him at the banquet?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Samuel brought him there.”
“In a room full of people?”
“He stayed in service corridors.”
“What did he do to Leo?”
Clara swallowed.
“He wanted to scare him.”
My hands curled.
“Why?”
“Because Nora left Leo something besides money.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
I stared at her.
“Then what does the key open?”
Clara looked toward Nora’s grave.
“A storage unit.”
The address was twenty minutes away.
Unit 314.
The key opened it.
Inside were six boxes.
Old Kincaid records.
Tax files.
Photographs.
And a metal case.
Rachel opened the case.
There was a birth certificate.
Leo’s.
I picked it up.
My name appeared under Father.
Nora’s under Mother.
Nothing strange.
Then I noticed a second document beneath it.
Another birth certificate.
Same child.
Same date.
Same hospital.
Different father.
I stopped breathing.
The name printed there was not mine.
It was Daniel Mercer.
Leo looked up at me.
“Dad?”
The room spun.
Clara whispered, “That’s what Nora was afraid you would find.”
I stared at the page.
My dead brother’s name.
My son’s name.
Two birth certificates.
May you like
Two fathers.
And suddenly, the fortune didn’t feel like the biggest secret anymore.
