Chapter 5 - THE BROTHER’S BARGAIN
The photograph contained no location data.
The walls revealed nothing except rusted steel and a faded yellow number.
Seventeen.
Federal analysts searched Vale Maritime’s property records.
The company controlled twelve warehouses marked with that number.
Most were located near ports.
Any one of them could have held Ethan.
Then Marcus called me.
His voice was calm.
“You look exactly like Mother when you’re angry.”
“Let Ethan go.”
“I didn’t take him.”
“You’re standing beside him.”
“I was sent the same photograph.”
“Why are you holding a gun?”
“It isn’t real.”
I enlarged the image.
Marcus was right.
The weapon appeared to be a training replica used by Vale security teams.
Someone wanted me to believe my brother had kidnapped Ethan.
“Where are you?” I asked.
“Inside Mother’s old greenhouse.”
The greenhouse stood less than half a mile from the manor.
I found Marcus waiting among dead roses and broken glass.
He wore the same tuxedo from the gala.
His hands shook when he showed me his phone.
Arthur had sent him instructions.
Withdraw twenty million dollars.
Transfer it through an offshore account.
Then take responsibility for the illegal military contracts.
“You helped him erase me,” I said.
Marcus stared at the floor.
“I know.”
“You testified that I stole family money.”
“Father told me you would be imprisoned for treason if I refused.”
“And you believed him?”
“I was twenty-six and afraid.”
“You were thirty.”
His jaw tightened.
“You left.”
“You had the Navy.”
“You had a life outside this family.”
“Vivienne and I had nowhere to go.”
“You had choices.”
“No.”
“We had comfortable cages.”
I wanted to hate him.
Part of me still did.
But fear had hollowed his face.
Arthur had not raised children.
He had cultivated obedient heirs.
Marcus removed a keycard from his pocket.
It belonged to Vale Maritime’s restricted logistics network.
“Ethan discovered the counterfeit contracts,” he said.
“He gave copies to Mother.”
“Where is the blue ledger?”
“Ethan moved it after her death.”
“Why did he warn me not to trust you?”
Marcus swallowed.
“Because I signed the shipment authorization for the defective valves.”
The greenhouse seemed to tilt around me.
The valve that exploded beneath the South China Sea.
The valve that killed seven sailors before I reached the compartment.
My brother’s signature had released it.
“I didn’t know it was counterfeit,” he said.
“You signed without checking.”
“Father said the inspection had been completed.”
“People died.”
“I know.”
His voice broke.
“I have seen their names every night for five years.”
I grabbed the front of his tuxedo.
“Where is Ethan?”
Marcus did not resist.
“Harlan owns an abandoned cannery outside Norfolk.”
“The loading bay is marked seventeen.”
Naomi contacted federal agents.
Marcus caught my arm before I turned away.
“There is something else.”
He showed me security footage from the manor.
The recording had been made one week before my mother’s death.
Arthur and Harlan stood inside the underground records room.
Marcus entered several minutes later.
Then a fourth person appeared.
May you like
Admiral Reed.
The footage showed Reed accepting a sealed envelope from my father.
