CHAPTER 2 — THE MAN WHO RAISED THEM
CHAPTER 2 — THE MAN WHO RAISED THEM
Richard Calloway was their father’s younger brother.
He had attended every birthday.
Taught Ethan how to drive.
Held Luke’s mother at the funeral while she screamed beside an empty coffin.
And after their father died, Richard had stepped into the company as Ethan’s adviser, mentor, and closest ally.
Ethan had trusted him with everything.
Bank accounts.
Corporate votes.
Security access.
Even Noah’s trust fund.
“No,” Ethan said. “Richard loved us.”
Luke gave a bitter laugh.
“Richard loved what belonged to us.”
Mrs. Bell moved toward the desk.
“Your father discovered money disappearing from Calloway Global. Shell companies, false invoices, offshore accounts. He suspected Richard, but he didn’t have enough evidence.”
Ethan opened the first filing cabinet.
Inside were photographs of a damaged boat.
Blood on the deck.
A torn life jacket.
A watch Ethan remembered buying Luke for his seventeenth birthday.
“The accident,” Ethan whispered.
“It wasn’t an accident,” Luke said.
Ethan spun toward him.
“Then tell me what happened.”
Luke stared at the photographs as if they could still hurt him.
“Richard invited me onto the boat. He said Dad wanted me to learn the business. Halfway across the lake, two men came out from below deck.”
Olivia covered her mouth.
“They held me down. Richard injected me with something. When I woke up, I was in a basement in another country.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“Fifteen years?”
“Not in the same place. They moved me whenever I got close to escaping.”
“Why keep you alive?”
“Because Dad had placed forty-nine percent of Calloway Global in a trust under my name. Richard needed my signature to move certain assets. He thought he could break me until I gave it to him.”
Ethan looked at Olivia.
“And she knew?”
Olivia’s eyes filled with tears.
“Not at first.”
“How long?”
She said nothing.
Ethan stepped closer.
“How long, Olivia?”
“Three years.”
The answer came out barely louder than air.
Ethan stared at his wife.
Three years of breakfast kisses.
Three anniversaries.
Three years of lying beside him while knowing his dead brother was alive.
“You knew for three years,” he said, “and every morning you looked me in the eyes.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“Don’t call betrayal protection.”
A blinking red light appeared on the old television.
The screen suddenly turned on by itself.
Static filled the room.
Then Richard Calloway’s face appeared.
He was sitting behind the desk in Ethan’s corporate office.
“Good evening, nephew.”
Ethan froze.
Richard smiled.
“I was wondering how long it would take you to find the cellar.”
The steel door slammed shut behind them.
May you like
The lights went out.
And smoke began pouring from the ceiling.
