Chapter 11 - THE BROTHER
Lucas Cross arrived the next afternoon.
He looked like Damon without the exhaustion.
Same dark eyes.
Same height.
More charm.
Less restraint.
He hugged the boys.
Micah did not hug back.
Mara noticed.
Lucas smiled at Lily.
“And who’s this?”
“Mine,” Mara said.
Lucas laughed.
“I see why Damon likes you.”
Damon’s face hardened.
“Careful.”
Mara felt the tension instantly.
They questioned Lucas about Elise.
He denied an affair.
“She kissed me once.”
Damon stepped forward.
Lucas did not flinch.
“She was terrified.”
“Of me?”
“Of Victor.”
Lucas explained that Elise had pretended to be close to him because she believed Victor was monitoring Damon.
She needed another channel.
Damon looked sick.
“You let me believe—”
“You wouldn’t listen to her.”
“You let me hate you for three years.”
Lucas’s smile vanished.
“At least hatred kept you alive.”
Then Lucas revealed the truth.
Elise had copied part of the ledger.
She hid it somewhere inside Crossmoor.
Victor believed Damon had it.
But Damon did not.
Mara remembered the quiet boy.
Micah sees everything.
She found him in the greenhouse.
“Did your mother ever hide things?”
Micah stiffened.
“I don’t remember.”
“You remember more than people think.”
He looked away.
Mara crouched.
“Micah.”
Tears filled his eyes.
“She told me not to tell Daddy.”
Mara’s heart pounded.
“Tell him what?”
Micah led them to the old nursery.
Behind a loose baseboard was a flash drive.
Damon inserted it into his computer.
Scanned copies.
Bank transfers.
Names.
Dates.
And one video.
Elise had recorded Victor meeting Grant Keller.
But Grant was not alone.
Bryce Caldwell stood in the background.
Mara stared.
“That’s impossible.”
The date was four years earlier.
Before Mara had divorced him.
Before Bryce ever claimed to know Damon.
Bryce had been connected to Victor for years.
Then Damon opened the final file.
A contract.
Bryce had been paid fifty thousand dollars.
Purpose:
Asset acquisition through domestic leverage.
Mara whispered, “What does that mean?”
Damon looked at her.
Then at Lily playing outside.
May you like
His face changed.
“It means Bryce didn’t marry you by accident.”
