Chapter 8 - THE BROTHER JULIAN BURIED
Sebastian Thorne died seven years earlier.
That was the story.
Car explosion outside Milwaukee.
Julian saw the wreckage.
No recoverable body.
He spent years blaming himself because Sebastian had betrayed the family, then disappeared during the fallout.
Now Dileia watched a video proving Tommy believed Sebastian was alive.
Julian looked almost angry at grief itself.
“Where?”
No answer.
Marianne had vanished.
But Tommy left coordinates.
Indiana.
An abandoned monastery converted into a private rehabilitation center.
Julian wanted to go with armed men.
Dileia stopped him.
“If Sebastian spent seven years hiding, thirty people with guns won’t make him honest.”
Julian hated her logic.
Used it anyway.
They went with two men.
No display.
The facility existed.
Sebastian too.
Forty.
Thin.
Scarred.
Walking with a cane.
Julian stopped in the doorway.
Sebastian laughed.
“You look disappointed.”
Julian hit him.
Once.
Then hugged him.
Brothers.
Messy.
Real.
Sebastian had not betrayed Julian.
He had infiltrated Vincent’s rebuilt network on Augustus’s orders.
The car explosion was staged after Sebastian’s identity was exposed.
Augustus hid him.
Why keep Julian ignorant?
Because Julian had recently taken control of parts of the empire and Vincent monitored him constantly.
Again:
Protection through deception.
Julian looked exhausted by the family vocabulary.
Then Sebastian explained Marianne’s warning.
Julian had been compromised not morally.
Digitally.
His private authentication token had been cloned years earlier.
Someone used Julian’s identity to authorize transactions.
Who obtained the token?
Sebastian.
Under Augustus’s orders.
Then it was stolen from him.
By Vincent.
That was how false records implicated everyone.
Vincent could mimic Julian.
Raymond.
Augustus.
Salenzo.
Potentially anyone.
The real theft was not forty million.
It was identity.
Control.
Then Sebastian told Dileia about Tommy.
“He saved me.”
Tommy had discovered Vincent’s financial trap.
He moved Sebastian between safe houses.
He also learned Vincent planned to return to Chicago once Augustus died.
The day before Tommy’s crash, Sebastian warned him to run.
Tommy refused.
Why?
Because Ruth had disappeared for six hours.
Someone had taken her.
Returned her drugged.
Tommy realized Vincent could reach Dileia and Ruth anywhere.
So he made a deal.
With Vincent.
Dileia went cold.
“What deal?”
Tommy offered the evidence fund in exchange for their safety.
Vincent agreed.
Then killed him anyway.
Sebastian gave her one name.
The mechanic who sabotaged Tommy’s car still lived.
And he worked now inside Thorn Tower.
May you like
For Julian.
As building maintenance chief.
