Chapter 6 - The Brother Who Wasn't Dead
His new name was Ethan Cole.
Harrison Cole's adopted son.
Seventeen years old.
The discovery detonated the investigation.
Harrison Cole had not merely managed Hollow Creek.
He had taken a child from the Miller family and raised him as his own.
Ethan attended an elite boarding school eighty miles away.
Police arrived before Cole could reach him.
Ethan did not resist.
He looked like Daniel Miller.
Same narrow eyes.
Same dark hair.
Same shape of jaw.
When James showed him Grace's photograph, Ethan stared at it for nearly a minute.
"Who is she?"
"Your biological mother."
Ethan looked at James.
"No."
"Her name was Grace Miller."
"My mother died when I was born."
"That's what you were told."
James showed him Daniel's photograph.
Ethan's hands began shaking.
"Who is that?"
"Your biological father."
Ethan pushed the pictures away.
"Stop."
"Harrison Cole adopted you after your parents were forced into a debt program."
"No."
"You were four."
"No."
"Do you remember a farmhouse?"
Ethan stood abruptly.
"I said stop."
"Do you remember a little red bicycle?"
Ethan's face changed.
James knew.
"You remember."
Ethan sat down again.
Very slowly.
"There was a dog."
James checked his notes.
Grace had once owned a golden retriever named Bailey.
"What color?"
"Yellow."
James placed Emma's photograph on the table.
"This is your sister."
Ethan stared.
"Her name is Emma."
Something broke inside him.
"I dreamed about a little girl."
"Emma wasn't born when you disappeared."
"Then who..."
He stopped.
James leaned forward.
"What?"
Ethan looked frightened.
"There was another child at the house."
James frowned.
"Who?"
"A baby."
"When?"
"Before Harrison took me."
James checked the family records.
There was no baby listed.
"What happened to that child?"
Ethan whispered, "Robert carried him outside."
James felt cold.
"Where?"
"Behind the barn."
"Then what?"
"I heard my mother screaming."
Back at the farmhouse, excavation began behind the barn.
At sunset, technicians found bones.
Very small bones.
A child perhaps six months old.
Grace and Daniel Miller had lost another baby before Ethan.
No official birth record existed.
Lisa stood near the excavation pit.
"We thought Hollow Creek began with Daniel's debt."
James shook his head.
"It started before."
The medical examiner eventually estimated the remains had been buried twelve years earlier.
The same year Ethan disappeared.
At the hospital, Emma was finally allowed to sit beside the twins.
Noah slept under a warmer.
Ellie remained on oxygen but had stabilized.
Sarah watched Emma reach through the bassinet opening.
"Hi, Ellie."
The baby's fingers curled around Emma's gauze.
Emma smiled for the first time.
Then Sarah's phone vibrated.
James.
She answered quietly.
"What's wrong?"
"We found Emma's older brother."
Sarah turned toward the child.
"Alive?"
"Yes."
Sarah sat down.
"Does Emma know?"
"No."
James hesitated.
"There's more."
He explained Ethan.
Harrison Cole.
The adoption.
The bones.
Sarah closed her eyes.
"How much can one child lose?"
James's voice was quiet.
"Maybe it's time she gets something back."
Ethan agreed to meet Emma.
Under supervision.
At the hospital.
The next afternoon, he entered the room.
Emma looked at him.
He looked at Emma.
Neither spoke.
Then Ethan took something from his pocket.
A small wooden horse.
"I've had this since I was little."
Emma's mouth opened.
She ran to her hospital bag and pulled out an old family photograph.
In Daniel Miller's hand was a matching wooden horse.
Emma looked at Ethan.
"Mommy kept your room."
Ethan began crying.
"What?"
"She said it was for somebody who might come home someday."
Ethan covered his face.
Emma crossed the room.
She didn't hug him immediately.
Instead, she held out her hand.
"My name's Emma."
Ethan slowly took it.
"I'm Ethan."
She tilted her head.
"Mommy called you Danny."
The name hit him harder than anything else.
He pulled Emma against him.
She hugged him back.
Outside the room, James turned away to give them privacy.
Then his phone rang.
Lisa.
"We found Robert's truck."
"Where?"
"Lake Monroe."
"Robert is in custody."
"I know."
James frowned.
"So who was driving it?"
Lisa paused.
"We don't know."
"What do you mean?"
"There was blood in the back."
"Whose?"
"The preliminary DNA result says Daniel Miller."
James went silent.
Emma's father.
The man legally dead for two years.
"Lisa..."
"I know."
"If that's Daniel's blood..."
May you like
She finished the thought.
"Then Emma's father may still be alive."
