Chapter 3 - THE MAN HE CALLED BROTHER
Victor Kane arrived at the lake house alone.
Damian had ordered him there.
Elena hated the idea.
“If he betrayed you—”
“Then I want to see his face when he lies.”
Victor entered at dusk.
He looked at Elena.
Then Sophie.
Then Damian.
“You brought them here?”
“Sit down.”
Victor remained standing.
Damian placed Sophie’s drawing on the table.
Victor’s face changed.
“Where did she get that symbol?”
“She saw Sebastian.”
Victor closed his eyes.
That was answer enough.
Damian crossed the room and grabbed him by the collar.
“You knew.”
Elena moved Sophie into the next room.
Victor did not resist.
“I knew Sebastian was meeting Isabelle.”
“How long?”
“Six weeks.”
Damian shoved him backward.
“And you said nothing?”
“I was investigating.”
“You deleted the footage.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To protect the kid.”
Damian stopped.
Victor reached inside his jacket.
Damian’s hand moved instantly.
“Slow.”
Victor removed a flash drive.
“I copied the footage before I erased it.”
“Why erase it at all?”
“Because Sebastian had access to the security system. If he knew the camera caught Sophie, she’d be dead.”
Elena heard that from the doorway.
Her face hardened.
Victor looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t cover threatening my child.”
“I didn’t send those messages.”
“Prove it.”
Victor nodded.
“Fair.”
Damian took the drive.
“You were in the blue room.”
“Yes.”
“With Isabelle.”
“Yes.”
“With Sebastian.”
“Yes.”
“Explain.”
Victor finally sat.
“Three months ago Isabelle approached me. Said Sebastian wanted to remove you without starting a war.”
Damian’s expression became cold.
“And you played along.”
“Yes.”
“You let me walk toward a wedding knowing my fiancée was plotting against me.”
“I needed to know the whole plan.”
“You could have told me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you loved her.”
Damian recoiled.
Victor’s voice softened.
“You wouldn’t have believed me.”
“I would have believed you.”
“Would you?”
Neither man spoke.
Victor continued.
“Sebastian’s plan wasn’t to kill you at the wedding. That would have made you a martyr. Isabelle was supposed to marry you. Two days later you would sign a restructuring agreement combining several legitimate Cross holdings under a trust.”
“Controlled by?”
“Isabelle if you became legally incapacitated.”
Damian’s jaw tightened.
“What would incapacitate me?”
Victor looked at him.
“Poison.”
Elena covered her mouth.
“Slow exposure,” Victor said. “Months. Neurological symptoms. Memory problems. Aggression. Eventually you’d look unstable enough that no one would question Isabelle taking control.”
Damian thought of the headaches.
The insomnia.
The tremor in his left hand he had hidden for weeks.
He stared at Victor.
“I’ve already been poisoned.”
Victor’s face went white.
“What?”
Damian rolled up his sleeve.
A faint tremor moved through his fingers.
Victor swore.
Elena stepped forward.
“When did it start?”
“Two months ago.”
“What changed two months ago?”
Damian thought.
Isabelle began bringing him tea in the study.
Every night.
Chamomile.
Because she said he needed sleep.
He laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“She was already doing it.”
Victor stood.
“We need a doctor.”
“No hospitals.”
“I know someone.”
They brought Dr. Naomi Ellis to the lake house before midnight.
Tests confirmed exposure to a heavy-metal compound.
Low doses.
Repeated.
Potentially fatal over time.
Treatable now.
Damian sat on the edge of the bed while Naomi prepared medication.
Elena stood in the doorway.
“You should sleep.”
“So should you.”
“I’m a mother.”
“And?”
“We stopped sleeping sometime around pregnancy.”
He smiled faintly.
Then his expression faded.
“I almost married her.”
“You didn’t.”
“Because your daughter screamed.”
Elena leaned against the frame.
“Children notice what adults teach themselves to ignore.”
Damian looked at her.
“What did you notice?”
She hesitated.
“About you?”
“Yes.”
“You’re lonely.”
The answer struck him harder than Victor’s confession.
“You barely know me.”
“I clean your house.”
“That isn’t knowing me.”
“It is if you pay attention.”
She stepped into the room.
“You eat standing up when you’re angry. You leave half a glass of wine untouched every night. You never sit at the head of the dining table when you’re alone because it makes the room look bigger.”
Damian stared.
Elena continued quietly.
“And every Christmas you leave your mother’s photograph on the piano even though you pretend you don’t celebrate.”
He had no answer.
For three years, she had been invisible to him.
And somehow she had seen everything.
The next morning Victor discovered something worse.
Isabelle was gone.
She had escaped the Cross estate.
With help.
The security guard responsible was found unconscious.
And on Damian’s private server, every file concerning Sebastian Cross had been erased.
Except one.
An audio recording.
Maria Cross’s voice.
Twenty-nine years old.
Crackling.
Terrified.
“If anything happens to me, Sebastian did it.”
Damian listened three times.
On the fourth, he broke.
Not loudly.
He simply sat down and covered his face.
Elena quietly sent Sophie outside with Victor.
Then she sat beside Damian.
He did not ask her to leave.
For twenty-nine years he had imagined his mother’s death as meaningless violence.
Now he understood.
She had known.
She had been afraid.
And no one had saved her.
“I was there,” he whispered.
“I know.”
“I couldn’t stop the bleeding.”
“You were eight.”
“I promised her I’d be strong.”
Elena looked at him.
“Maybe you misunderstood what strong meant.”
He lifted his eyes.
“Strength isn’t never needing anyone.”
She took his trembling hand.
“Sometimes it’s knowing when you do.”
Damian stared at their joined hands.
Neither pulled away.
Outside, Sophie’s laughter drifted from the snow-covered yard.
May you like
For the first time in years, Damian allowed himself to listen.
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