Chapter 6 - THE BROTHER WHO DIED
The stranger entered through the side door using a key.
Water streamed from his dark hair and black overcoat. He was thinner than Grant, his face marked by illness, but the resemblance was undeniable.
Lily stared at him.
The wooden bird slipped from her hand.
Eleanor gripped her cane with both hands.
“Daniel.”
Renata rushed toward him.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
Daniel Vale ignored her.
His eyes remained on Lily.
“So this is Claire’s daughter.”
Grant’s brother had supposedly died eight years earlier.
According to old newspaper reports Emma later remembered, Daniel had been lost during a climbing expedition in the Andes. His body had never been recovered.
Yet Eleanor showed no surprise at seeing him.
Only anger.
“You were instructed to remain at St. Orison’s,” she said.
Daniel gave a tired smile.
“I grew tired of being instructed.”
Emma placed herself between him and Lily.
“Why was she tested as a donor for you?”
Daniel glanced at the folder in Emma’s hand.
“Because my mother believes blood excuses everything.”
Eleanor’s voice sharpened.
“You are dying.”
“Many people are dying.”
“You are her uncle.”
“I am a stranger who should be dead.”
Renata closed the greenhouse curtains.
“We cannot have this conversation here.”
Emma did not move.
“We are not going anywhere until someone explains.”
Daniel studied her.
“You must be the new guardian.”
“Caregiver.”
“In this family, those positions become the same.”
He lowered himself onto a bench, breathing heavily.
“Eight years ago, I discovered that someone inside Vale Meridian was using dormant trusts to hide illegal transfers. Claire helped me trace the accounts. Before we could tell Grant, my car was forced off a mountain road.”
“You were declared dead in a climbing accident,” Emma said.
“My family wrote a more respectable story.”
Eleanor looked away.
Daniel continued.
“I survived with spinal injuries and severe internal damage. Mother hid me in private facilities while she tried to discover who ordered the attack.”
“Why hide you from Grant?”
“Because everyone was a suspect.”
“Including Grant?”
Daniel’s silence answered.
Lily moved closer to Emma.
“What does this have to do with Claire’s death?” Emma asked.
Daniel’s expression darkened.
“Claire found the final account.”
Renata interrupted.
“This is not helping Lily.”
“No,” Daniel said. “The lies did that.”
He looked at Eleanor.
“Tell her.”
Eleanor remained silent.
“Tell Emma why Claire was on the boat.”
Eleanor’s face seemed carved from stone.
“She planned to meet Daniel.”
Emma looked at the supposedly dead man.
“You were on the yacht?”
“No. I was being moved between clinics. Claire believed she had arranged a secure meeting with me. The message was false.”
“Who sent it?”
“We never proved that.”
Renata folded her arms.
“Claire was unstable. She changed the trust, accused employees, and carried recording devices everywhere.”
“She was frightened,” Daniel said.
“She was dangerous.”
Lily flinched.
Daniel saw it.
He turned toward the child.
“Your mother tried to protect you.”
Renata stepped in front of him.
“Do not fill her head with stories.”
“You’ve had two years to fill it with silence.”
Emma held up the donor authorization.
“Did you consent to using Lily?”
Daniel looked disgusted.
“I learned about the tests yesterday. I came here to stop them.”
Eleanor’s grip tightened on her cane.
“You will die without the transplant.”
“Then I die.”
“You are my son.”
“And Lily is your granddaughter.”
Renata’s voice became impatient.
“No one is taking an organ from her tomorrow. It was compatibility screening.”
“Preparatory testing,” Emma corrected.
“Because Daniel’s condition is deteriorating.”
“Why was it hidden from Grant?”
Renata smiled bitterly.
“Because Grant worships his daughter’s fear. He would refuse even a blood test if she looked unhappy.”
“He would refuse because you lied.”
“What choice did we have?”
“The truth.”
Everyone in the greenhouse seemed to react to the word.
Eleanor looked toward the mansion.
“Truth is rarely a single thing in this family.”
A security alarm sounded inside the house.
Emma checked her phone.
Still no signal.
Mrs. Cole had not emerged from the tunnel.
Lily tugged Emma toward the hatch.
“We need to find her.”
Renata blocked the way.
“The archive is restricted.”
Emma shoved past her.
Daniel stood.
“I’ll go.”
“You can barely breathe,” Eleanor said.
“Then I won’t waste words.”
They descended together.
At the archive room, they found blood on the floor and a broken lamp.
Mrs. Cole was gone.
So were the videotapes from the night Claire died.
The medical folders remained scattered beside the cabinet.
Daniel picked up one sheet.
“This signature is forged.”
Emma looked at the authorization.
It appeared to bear Eleanor’s name.
Eleanor examined it.
“That is not my signature.”
Renata laughed once.
“Convenient.”
Daniel turned the page over.
A watermark appeared beneath the emergency light.
It showed the crest of St. Orison’s private hospital.
Below it was a time stamp.
The form had been printed at 2:17 that morning.
Hours before Renata took Lily to the clinic.
Someone had prepared the document inside the hospital while Lily slept.
A phone rang on the floor.
Mrs. Cole’s phone.
Emma answered.
At first she heard only static.
Then Mrs. Cole whispered, “The boathouse.”
“Where are you?”
“Don’t trust the brother.”
Daniel looked toward Emma.
Mrs. Cole continued, “He was on the yacht.”
A hand covered the phone at the other end.
Mrs. Cole cried out.
The call ended.
Daniel’s face was unreadable.
Emma lowered the phone.
“You told us you weren’t there.”
“I wasn’t.”
“Mrs. Cole says you were.”
“She believed many things that night.”
“Why would she lie now?”
Daniel looked at Lily.
“Because she has protected the wrong person for twenty years.”
The archive speaker crackled.
A distorted voice filled the corridor.
“Bring Lily to the boathouse before midnight.”
Grant’s voice followed.
May you like
But the words sounded clipped together from different recordings.
“If you want her father alive.”
