Chapter 5
Daniel dropped the phone.
It hit the carpet without making much noise.
But in our silent living room, it sounded enormous.
Detective Harris grabbed it.
“Did you recognize the voice?”
Daniel’s lips barely moved.
“Yes.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
“Could it have been a recording?”
“No.”
“How can you be sure?”
Daniel looked at her.
“He called me Danny.”
I didn’t understand why that mattered.
Harris did.
“Only family?”
“Only Michael.”
His hands shook.
“He used to say it exactly like that when he wanted something.”
Harris immediately contacted the technical unit.
The call had lasted seventeen seconds.
Long enough to confirm the number.
Not long enough to locate the caller with precision.
Another prepaid phone.
Another dead end.
Daniel sat staring at nothing.
I wanted to comfort him.
That instinct surprised me.
I was furious with him.
I did not trust him.
But the man beside me had just heard the voice of a brother he had believed dead for four years.
Then I remembered Noah sitting at the kitchen table with food dripping over his face.
My sympathy hardened.
“Why does Michael want the box?” I asked.
Daniel looked at Harris.
“You opened everything?”
“We’re still processing it.”
“What’s on the drives?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Then that’s what he wants.”
Harris nodded.
“Likely.”
I folded my arms.
“Why involve Noah?”
Daniel looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
“I don’t.”
“You knew Michael threatened me before our wedding.”
“That doesn’t explain Noah.”
“It explains that you know how he thinks.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Michael wants control.”
“Over what?”
“Everyone.”
For the first time, he began describing his brother without minimizing him.
Michael had been charming.
That was the first thing Daniel said.
Not violent.
Not cruel.
Charming.
He could walk into a room after stealing from half the people there and somehow leave with someone offering him another loan.
“He made you feel special,” Daniel said.
“Then once he knew what you wanted, he used it.”
“What did you want?” I asked.
“To be his little brother.”
The answer silenced me.
Daniel looked toward the stairs.
“When I was twelve, I worshipped him. He taught me to drive before I could reach the pedals properly. He took me fishing. He bought me my first guitar.”
“And later?”
“He started stealing from me.”
“How old were you?”
“Fifteen.”
“Your parents knew?”
“My dad knew.”
“What did he do?”
“Blamed me for leaving money where Michael could find it.”
I looked away.
The Carter family suddenly made more sense.
Secrets had not started with Daniel.
They had been taught.
Built into the walls.
“What was in your father’s dental records?” Harris asked.
Daniel stared at the floor.
“I don’t know.”
“Could Michael have pressured him to falsify records?”
“Yes.”
“Would your father have done it?”
Daniel gave a bitter laugh.
“My father would do anything to avoid public humiliation.”
That sounded more convincing than Daniel wanted it to.
My phone rang.
It was my mother.
I had ignored three calls already.
I answered.
“Mom.”
“Sarah, why is there a police car outside your house?”
My heart dropped.
“How do you know that?”
“Your neighbor posted something.”
Of course.
Within minutes, half the neighborhood probably knew.
“Everything is okay.”
“That is not an answer.”
“Noah is safe.”
My mother went silent.
“What happened to Noah?”
I glanced at Harris.
“We had a problem with the babysitter.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Sarah.”
“Mom, please. Stay home.”
“Why?”
“Because I need you safe.”
She heard the fear in my voice.
Her tone changed.
“What’s happening?”
“I’ll explain later.”
After I hung up, Harris spoke.
“You should consider staying somewhere else.”
Daniel immediately shook his head.
“No.”
“Mr. Carter—”
“He knows where our families live.”
“So staying here is safer?”
“We have cameras. Patrols.”
Harris looked at me.
“It’s your decision.”
I didn’t want to uproot Noah.
But I also couldn’t stop thinking about the strange rideshare request.
The photographs.
The detailed schedules.
Someone had been watching us for months.
Maybe longer.
“We go somewhere Michael doesn’t know.”
Daniel laughed without humor.
“If he’s been watching us, I don’t know where that is.”
That afternoon, the police moved us to a hotel under different names.
Noah thought it was because our house needed to be checked.
That was close enough to the truth.
The hotel was forty minutes from home.
Daniel slept in one room.
Noah and I shared the connecting one.
At dinner, Noah pushed food around his plate.
I noticed immediately.
“You don’t have to finish it.”
He looked at me.
“Linda said kids who waste food grow up selfish.”
My chest hurt.
“She was wrong.”
“Dad says wasting food is bad too.”
Daniel put down his fork.
“I say it’s good not to waste food. I never said you had to eat when you weren’t hungry.”
Noah shrugged.
“Same thing.”
“No,” Daniel said softly. “It isn’t.”
Noah looked at him.
Daniel’s eyes filled.
“I should have noticed you were scared.”
Noah didn’t respond.
“I should have asked more questions.”
Still nothing.
“I’m sorry.”
Noah finally spoke.
“Why didn’t you tell Mom about your brother?”
Daniel glanced at me.
“Because I was ashamed.”
“Of Uncle Michael?”
“Of my whole family.”
Noah frowned.
“But Grandma is nice.”
Daniel smiled sadly.
“People can love you and still make bad choices.”
Noah looked down at his plate.
“Like you?”
Daniel swallowed.
“Yes.”
Something shifted in the room.
Not forgiveness.
But honesty.
It was the first honest thing Daniel had given Noah since this started.
After dinner, Detective Harris called.
They had opened the first USB drive.
It contained scanned documents.
Bank records.
Insurance policies.
Copies of identification cards.
Several belonged to dead people.
It appeared Michael had been running identity theft schemes for years.
The second drive was worse.
Audio recordings.
Daniel arguing with his father.
Margaret begging Michael to leave town.
Linda discussing money.
One recording was dated three years ago.
The same week Daniel gave Linda twenty thousand dollars.
Harris played part of it for us over speakerphone.
Linda’s voice came first.
“He paid.”
Then Michael.
“How much?”
“Twenty.”
“You told him fifty.”
“He doesn’t have fifty.”
“He has a house.”
My blood ran cold.
Linda replied, “He has a wife.”
Michael laughed.
“Exactly.”
Daniel shut his eyes.
Harris stopped the recording.
“I thought he was dead by then,” Daniel whispered.
The date proved otherwise.
The official date of Michael’s death was two months later.
“So he was using Linda to extort you,” I said.
Daniel nodded.
“And you never told me.”
“No.”
I couldn’t yell anymore.
I was exhausted.
“What’s on the third drive?” I asked.
Harris hesitated.
“We haven’t opened it.”
“Why?”
“It’s encrypted.”
“Can you break it?”
“Our team is working on it.”
Daniel stared at the phone.
“That’s the one he wants.”
“Probably.”
Then Harris added something else.
“There was also a document in the box with Noah’s name on it.”
I stood.
“What?”
“It appears to be a trust document.”
Daniel frowned.
“What trust?”
“Established by Robert Carter.”
Daniel went still.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
“For Noah?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
Harris hesitated.
“Approximately $1.8 million.”
I nearly dropped the phone.
Daniel stared at me.
Neither of us knew.
Harris continued.
“The trust was created six years ago.”
Noah was three.
“Why would Dad hide that?” Daniel asked.
“There are conditions.”
“What conditions?”
“The money transfers to Noah at twenty-five.”
“That’s normal.”
“But if Noah dies before reaching twenty-five, the beneficiary changes.”
My body turned cold.
“To who?”
Harris was silent for one second too long.
Then she answered.
“Michael Carter.”
Daniel shot to his feet.
“That’s impossible.”
“It’s in the document.”
“He was supposedly dead when Dad died.”
“The trust predates Michael’s reported death.”
I could hear my own heartbeat.
Noah.
Linda getting close to Noah.
Michael watching Noah.
A trust worth nearly two million dollars.
I grabbed the edge of the dresser.
“Are you saying Michael wants my son dead?”
“No,” Harris said quickly. “We are not making that conclusion.”
But Daniel was already shaking his head.
“No. Michael doesn’t want Noah dead.”
I stared at him.
“How can you possibly know that?”
“Because if he did, Linda had seven months.”
The sentence was horrible.
But true.
Daniel looked at me.
“She could have hurt him worse anytime.”
“Then why the trust?”
“I don’t know.”
A knock came at the hotel door.
All three of us froze.
Daniel motioned for me to take Noah into the other room.
He checked the peephole.
Two uniformed officers.
Hotel security had found something outside our door.
A small padded envelope.
No return address.
Nobody had seen who left it.
Inside was a cheap voice recorder.
Police took it downstairs before playing it.
Thirty minutes later, Harris called.
“You need to hear this.”
The recording began with static.
Then Michael’s voice.
“Sarah.”
I stopped breathing.
He knew my name.
“I’m sorry you got dragged into the Carter family sickness.”
Daniel grabbed my hand.
I pulled away.
Michael continued.
“Daniel will tell you I’m the monster. Mom will tell you I’m sick. They’ll both leave out the part where they buried me before I was dead.”
Silence.
Then:
“Ask Daniel what happened to Aaron.”
I looked at my husband.
His face changed instantly.
The recording ended.
I stared at him.
May you like
“Who is Aaron?”
Daniel whispered, “My other brother.”
