Chapter 4 - The Brother Who Came Back
I wanted to find him.
Immediately.
Reed refused.
“He abandoned me.”
“He may have been hiding.”
“He threatened me.”
“We don’t know who sent those messages.”
“He left me pregnant.”
That silenced Reed.
Good.
I was tired of powerful men transforming cruelty into strategy.
“I don’t care what secret war your brother was fighting. I was vomiting in a gas-station bathroom during a double shift while he was supposedly dead. Ava had pneumonia at four months. I sat alone in the ER. Nobody came.”
Reed listened.
“He doesn’t get to become noble because someone tried killing him.”
“No.”
His answer surprised me.
“He doesn’t.”
Then Ava began fussing.
I reached for the bottle.
Almost empty.
Reed noticed.
Again.
I hated that.
“I’ll get formula.”
“I can buy formula.”
“With eleven dollars?”
Heat rushed into my face.
“How do you know that?”
“You opened your banking app.”
“You looked?”
“You were standing three feet away.”
I wanted to disappear.
Instead, Reed called the kitchen.
Ten minutes later, formula arrived.
So did food for me.
Soup.
Bread.
Chicken.
I stared at it.
“I’m not hungry.”
My stomach betrayed me loudly.
Tommy almost smiled.
I ate.
Pride does not contain calories.
While I fed Ava, Reed showed me Daniel’s history.
His brother was two years younger.
Smart.
Restless.
Better with numbers than guns.
Five years earlier, Daniel discovered money disappearing from Callaway family companies.
Not thousands.
Millions.
He believed someone inside the organization was financing a separate network.
Then Daniel vanished from Chicago.
Reed thought he was investigating.
Months later, a burned vehicle was found outside Milwaukee.
A body inside.
Dental records matched.
Daniel Callaway declared dead.
“Who verified the records?”
Reed looked at me.
“Elena.”
I stopped chewing.
“What?”
Before managing Callaway’s, Elena Vargas worked in administration for a private medical group the family used.
She handled Daniel’s identification paperwork.
Suddenly her job at the restaurant looked different.
“Why would you hire her?”
“My father trusted her.”
“Your father?”
Reed’s expression closed.
Anthony Callaway had died four years earlier.
Stroke.
Unlike everyone else in this story, apparently he stayed dead.
Maybe.
Then Tommy entered.
“We found Elena.”
“Where?”
“South Side apartment.”
“Daniel?”
“No.”
“Bring her.”
Twenty minutes later, Elena sat across from Reed’s desk.
No restraints.
No shouting.
Somehow that made everything worse.
She looked at me.
“I was trying to protect you.”
I laughed bitterly.
“By stealing my baby’s photograph?”
“By keeping Reed from seeing it.”
Reed leaned forward.
“Why?”
Elena stared at him.
“Because the moment you recognized Daniel, you would investigate.”
“I am investigating.”
“Exactly.”
Then she looked at Ava.
“Daniel told me Mara could never learn his real name.”
My chest tightened.
“You spoke to him?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
I stood.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not.”
Elena’s eyes filled with something I didn’t expect.
Fear.
“Daniel came to me because somebody found Mara.”
“Who?”
She looked at Reed.
“Your father’s old partners.”
Reed frowned.
“They’re dead.”
“No.”
Of course.
Then Elena said:
“Daniel didn’t fake his death to escape you.”
Pause.
“He faked it because he discovered someone was using Callaway’s restaurant to move money.”
Reed became still.
Elena looked toward the wall behind his desk.
“The evidence is inside this building.”
“Where?”
She whispered:
“Behind the room Daniel told everyone did not exist.”
Everyone looked toward Reed’s forbidden office door.
Then Ava’s stuffed rabbit made a sound.
A tiny electronic beep.
Tommy grabbed it.
Ripped open the seam.
May you like
Inside was a microphone.
Someone had been listening to every word.
