Chapter 7 - THE BROTHER SHE LEFT BEHINDThe explosion knocked Adrian across the room.
Emily’s doctors protested.
Adrian ignored them.
Emily protested Adrian ignoring her doctors.
Then boarded the plane anyway.
Rose Carter’s old house looked smaller than Emily remembered.
Blue siding.
White porch.
Maple tree out front.
She had learned to ride a bicycle on that sidewalk.
Done homework at the kitchen table.
Cried after her first breakup in the upstairs bedroom.
Now yellow police tape surrounded the backyard.
Detective Laura Bennett met them outside.
“You’re Emily Carter?”
“Yes.”
The detective looked at Adrian, Raphael, Gabriel, and six security men.
“And all of these?”
“Family complications.”
Bennett decided not to ask.
The remains were discovered beneath an old garden shed during renovation.
Female.
Approximately twenty to thirty years old at death.
But the preliminary timeline did not fit Helena.
She had been seen alive much later.
Then Emily noticed the necklace recovered with the skeleton.
Silver rose.
Margaret nearly collapsed.
“No.”
Emily looked at her.
“Whose?”
Margaret whispered.
“Anna Shaw.”
“Your sister?”
Margaret nodded.
One of the six young women who had received matching pendants.
Anna had disappeared twenty-five years earlier.
Margaret believed she fled the country.
Instead, someone had buried her beneath Rose Carter’s garden.
Emily turned toward the house.
“My mother knew?”
“Maybe,” Adrian said.
“Rose lived here for twenty years.”
Detective Bennett approached.
“We also found a sealed compartment beneath the basement stairs.”
Inside were letters.
Dozens.
All addressed to Emily.
Never mailed.
The first had been written on her first birthday.
The handwriting belonged to Helena.
Emily sat on the basement floor reading.
My sweet Emily, today you turned one. I watched Rose carry your cake toward the kitchen window. You grabbed the icing with both hands.
Another.
You started kindergarten today. I stood across the street pretending to wait for a bus.
Another.
You graduated high school. I was in the last row.
Emily pressed the letter against her mouth.
Adrian sat beside her.
For once, he did not speak.
She read another.
Rose tells me you ask about your father. Someday I hope you will know that Mateo loved you before he ever held you.
Emily wiped tears.
“Why didn’t Rose give these to me?”
Adrian looked at the box.
“Maybe Helena told her not to.”
At the bottom was a final envelope.
Written only six months earlier.
IF I DIE, GIVE THIS TO EMILY.
Inside was a flash drive.
And a handwritten address.
Maine.
The flash drive contained a video.
Helena appeared older.
Gray through her dark hair.
Emily paused immediately.
It was the first time she had seen her biological mother moving.
Breathing.
Real.
Helena spoke into the camera.
“Emily, if you’re watching this, then Samuel Vale has found me or I have run out of time.”
Adrian leaned closer.
Helena continued.
“Your father died protecting evidence that could have ended Samuel’s influence before it began. I spent twenty-six years gathering the rest.”
Documents appeared onscreen.
Shell companies.
Judges.
Police officers.
Politicians.
Corporate executives.
Criminal intermediaries.
Samuel Vale had built a shadow empire by manipulating both legitimate business and organized crime.
Then Helena said something that stunned Adrian.
“Adrian, if you’re watching this too, you are not responsible for your father’s sins.”
Adrian froze.
Emily looked at him.
Helena continued.
“Vincent was cruel. But Samuel made him paranoid. He fed him lies until Vincent destroyed everyone who loved him.”
Adrian turned away.
Emily noticed his fists.
Helena looked directly into the camera.
“Emily, never let family blood convince you that cruelty is loyalty.”
The video ended with one instruction.
Come alone to the address in Maine.
Emily immediately stood.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
“I’m going.”
Adrian shook his head.
“Absolutely not.”
“She specifically said alone.”
“Which makes it dangerous.”
“It’s my mother.”
“It could be Samuel.”
Emily glared.
“Everything could be Samuel according to all of you.”
Raphael crossed his arms.
“She has a point.”
Adrian looked at him.
“You aren’t helping.”
Raphael shrugged.
“I rarely do.”
They compromised.
Emily would approach alone.
Everyone else would remain hidden within two miles.
The Maine address led to a small cottage near the ocean.
No guards.
No cameras visible.
Emily walked toward the door.
Her heart pounded harder with every step.
She knocked.
Nothing.
Then the door opened.
A woman stood there.
Older.
Thin.
Gray streaks through dark hair.
Emily knew the face instantly.
Helena.
Neither spoke.
Helena began crying first.
Emily had imagined this moment during the flight.
She had imagined anger.
Questions.
Accusations.
Instead, when Helena whispered, “My baby,” something inside Emily broke.
She stepped forward.
Helena wrapped her arms around her.
Emily sobbed against the shoulder of a mother she had never known.
For nearly a minute, the world disappeared.
Then Helena suddenly stiffened.
A red laser dot appeared on Emily’s coat.
Helena saw it.
“DOWN!”
She shoved Emily aside.
A rifle shot shattered the cottage window.
Emily hit the floor.
Outside, Adrian heard the shot.
He ran.
Inside, Helena crawled toward Emily.
“Are you hit?”
“No.”
Another bullet tore through the wall.
Emily grabbed Helena’s hand.
“You?”
“I’m okay.”
Men shouted outside.
Vale security exchanged fire from the trees.
Adrian kicked open the door.
“Emily!”
She looked up.
“I’m fine!”
Helena froze when she saw him.
For twenty-seven years, brother and sister had not stood in the same room.
Adrian stared.
“Helena?”
She smiled through tears.
“You got old.”
Adrian gave a breathless laugh.
May you like
“So did you.”
Then the front wall exploded inward.
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