Chapter 7 - THE SON THEY ERASED BEFORE ALEX WAS BORN
Alex stared at Thomas.
“No.”
Thomas looked older than he had an hour earlier.
“You had a brother.”
“When?”
“Before you.”
“How much before?”
“Four years.”
Alex’s mind raced.
His mother Maria had never mentioned another child.
No photographs.
No records.
No grave.
“What was his name?”
Thomas whispered:
“Julian.”
Dominic sat down.
He knew.
Alex saw it.
“You knew too.”
Dominic nodded.
Alex laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
Nora remained beside Daniel’s stretcher as medics worked.
The warehouse had become a crime scene.
Mason was in custody.
Thomas finally began talking.
Maria Gene gave birth at twenty-one.
A boy.
Healthy.
Samuel Gene—Thomas’s father—was furious.
Thomas and Maria were not yet married.
The Gene family had already arranged Thomas’s marriage to another woman for business reasons.
A child complicated alliances.
Samuel ordered the birth hidden.
Thomas refused.
Then the baby disappeared from the hospital.
Maria was told he died from respiratory failure.
Thomas never believed it.
“Why didn’t you find him?” Alex asked.
“I tried.”
“For how long?”
“Years.”
“And?”
“Samuel showed me a death certificate.”
“That stopped you?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“He showed me photographs of Maria.”
“Threat?”
“Yes.”
Alex looked sick.
“So you married her and pretended your son never existed.”
Thomas’s eyes filled.
“I told her the truth years later.”
“How did she react?”
“She never forgave me.”
That explained some childhood memories.
Maria’s distance from Thomas.
Closed-door arguments.
The years they slept separately.
Alex had assumed marriage simply turned cold.
It had been grief.
“What happened to Julian?”
Thomas swallowed.
“I found him when you were seven.”
Alex froze.
“You knew where he was while I was a child?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Boston.”
“He’d been adopted.”
“Did you meet him?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“He was happy.”
Alex laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
“I was afraid bringing him back would put him in Samuel’s reach.”
“Still protecting.”
Thomas nodded.
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“When Julian turned eighteen, he disappeared.”
“Samuel?”
“I don’t know.”
Roman entered carrying Mason’s phone.
“We might.”
He showed Alex a photograph.
A man around thirty-eight.
Dark hair.
Blue-gray eyes.
Standing beside Mason.
Alex stared.
The resemblance was undeniable.
Not identical.
But family.
“Julian?”
Thomas’s face crumpled.
“Yes.”
The photograph was recent.
Nora looked at Alex.
“Then Nanya isn’t the first grandchild.”
Alex nodded slowly.
“Julian could have children.”
Roman scrolled.
“He does.”
Another photograph.
A boy.
Around twelve.
Name in caption:
Eli Gene.
Alex’s stomach tightened.
Thomas whispered:
“No.”
Roman continued.
“Public records list father as Julian Gray.”
“Mother deceased.”
“So Eli is the first biological grandchild.”
Nora frowned.
“Then why does the trust point to Nanya?”
Thomas looked horrified.
“Because someone removed Julian’s branch.”
“Who?”
Dominic answered.
“Samuel.”
Everyone turned.
Dominic explained that Samuel altered the blood trust after Julian disappeared.
Officially, Julian had been declared dead.
That removed him and his descendants.
Nanya became the first verified grandchild only because Julian’s line no longer existed on paper.
Alex stared at Mason.
“You’ve been trying to open the archive with the wrong child.”
Mason smiled through a split lip.
“No.”
“What?”
“I knew about Eli.”
Silence.
Thomas went cold.
“Where is he?”
Mason looked toward the ceiling.
“Safe.”
Alex’s jaw tightened.
“Say that again and I break your jaw.”
Mason smiled wider.
“He’s the reason Thomas doesn’t want the archive open.”
Alex looked at his father.
“What is he talking about?”
Thomas said nothing.
Mason answered.
“Julian found the archive years ago.”
“He discovered something Thomas didn’t want Alex to know.”
Alex stared.
“What?”
Mason looked delighted.
“Your father’s empire didn’t begin with Samuel.”
“It began with Maria.”
Alex froze.
“My mother?”
Thomas whispered:
“Mason.”
Mason continued.
“Maria Gene wasn’t an innocent wife.”
“She ran the medical network.”
Nora stared.
“That can’t be true.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
Mason laughed.
“Ask him.”
Alex’s face hardened.
“Did Mom run it?”
Thomas’s voice broke.
“At first.”
Silence.
“What does at first mean?”
“She created the earliest safe-house program.”
“For abused women.”
“Witness families.”
“Kids in danger.”
“Legitimate.”
“Then Samuel commercialized it.”
“Maria tried to stop him.”
“After Julian disappeared?”
“Yes.”
Alex felt sick.
His mother had helped build the machine that later stole her own son.
Thomas continued.
“She spent the rest of her life trying to dismantle it.”
“Did she kill Rebecca Ellis?”
“No.”
“Did she know?”
“Later.”
Nora looked toward Daniel.
He was being loaded into an ambulance.
Her face twisted.
Every parent in this story seemed to know too late.
Roman’s phone buzzed.
He opened a message.
His face changed.
“What?”
A video.
Nanya.
Safe.
Sitting beside Roman’s sister.
Then the camera shifted.
A boy entered frame.
Twelve.
Eli.
Nanya looked confused.
The boy looked directly into the camera.
“Hi, Uncle Alex.”
Alex stopped breathing.
“How did he get there?”
Roman was already calling his sister.
No answer.
Video continued.
Eli sat beside Nanya.
“She’s okay.”
Nanya frowned.
“I can speak.”
Eli almost smiled.
Alex whispered:
“Whose side are you on?”
The boy heard.
“Mine.”
“Where’s your father?”
Eli’s expression changed.
“Dead.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
Alex asked:
“Who killed Julian?”
Eli looked toward someone off camera.
Then back.
“Grandpa Thomas knows.”
Alex turned slowly toward his father.
Thomas whispered:
“No.”
Eli continued.
“My dad told me if anything happened, find Nora Ellis.”
Nora froze.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because her father has the key.”
Nora looked toward the ambulance.
Daniel.
Eli continued.
“And Nanya has the blood.”
Alex’s pulse quickened.
“What does that mean?”
Eli stared.
“You need both branches to open the real archive.”
Roman frowned.
“The trust documents don’t say that.”
Eli smiled faintly.
“Because those are fake.”
Thomas looked terrified.
Alex noticed.
“What?”
Thomas whispered:
“Maria.”
Eli nodded.
“Grandma Maria changed everything before she died.”
Alex stared at the boy.
“What did she do?”
“She split the archive.”
“One half opens with my DNA.”
“The other with Nanya’s.”
“And if both halves open?”
Eli’s face hardened.
“Every name becomes public.”
Alex looked at Nanya.
She pushed up her glasses.
“That sounds bad.”
Eli answered:
“For some people.”
Then the video feed shifted.
Roman’s sister lay unconscious on the floor.
Alex’s blood ran cold.
“Eli.”
The boy looked frightened for the first time.
“I’m sorry.”
“Who is with you?”
A man entered frame.
Alex stared.
Older than him.
Same family eyes.
Julian.
Alive.
Thomas staggered.
“My God.”
Julian smiled at the camera.
“Hello, little brother.”
Alex could not speak.
May you like
Julian continued:
“We need to talk about which one of us Dad actually tried to kill.”
