Chapter 3 - THE BROTHER WHO DID NOT EXIST
I read the message three times.
Nathan Brooks Jr.
My father had one child.
Me.
At least, that was what I believed.
Victor watched my face.
“What?”
I showed him the screen.
His expression changed.
“Don’t respond.”
“That man is downstairs using my father’s name.”
“Exactly.”
I called my boss anyway.
Victor swore quietly.
She answered immediately.
“Hazel! Thank God. Where are you?”
“Who is Nathan Brooks Jr.?”
A pause.
“Our keynote speaker.”
“Who booked him?”
“The sponsor.”
“What sponsor?”
“The Brooks Foundation.”
My stomach twisted.
“Where is he?”
“Ballroom C.”
“Do not let him leave.”
“Hazel, what is going on?”
“Just keep him there.”
I ended the call.
Victor stared.
“You’re reckless.”
“You pointed a gun at me twenty minutes ago.”
“Fair.”
The stairwell door rattled.
We moved lower.
Victor’s steps became unsteady.
Then a woman’s voice called from below.
“Victor?”
He froze.
“Elena.”
A petite woman in a black coat appeared with a medical bag and an older Indian man beside her.
Victor lowered the gun.
Elena saw me.
Then his bare chest.
Then my missing blazer.
Her eyebrows rose.
“This is not what it looks like,” I said.
Victor muttered:
“It looks terrible.”
Dr. Patel treated the wound inside a locked maintenance office.
The bullet had grazed Victor but torn enough tissue to cause substantial bleeding.
While he worked, Elena turned toward me.
“Hazel Brooks?”
I nodded.
Her expression changed.
“You look like Nathan.”
My stomach tightened.
“You knew my father too?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
She looked toward Victor.
He nodded.
Elena sat beside me.
“Your father saved my brother’s life.”
I stared.
“When?”
“Fifteen years ago.”
She explained that Nathan discovered someone inside Castle Maritime was using company vessels to move illegal weapons without Victor’s father’s knowledge.
He warned the family.
A scheduled shipment was stopped.
The people responsible disappeared from the company.
But the investigation never reached law enforcement because Victor’s father handled the matter privately.
That decision allowed whoever remained involved to hide.
Then Nathan continued auditing.
He found fake charities.
Shell companies.
And payments to politicians and police officers.
One foundation appeared repeatedly.
The Brooks Foundation.
Created without his permission.
Named after him.
My hands trembled.
“Why use his name?”
Elena answered:
“To make it look legitimate.”
Then Victor, pale from blood loss, spoke from the examination table.
“Nathan planned to expose everyone.”
My eyes filled.
“And then he died.”
Silence.
Dr. Patel looked away.
Then Elena handed me a photograph.
Dad stood beside Victor’s father.
Between them was another man.
Tall.
Silver-haired.
I recognized him instantly.
Graham Mercer.
The owner of Luminara Events.
My boss’s father.
The man whose company employed me.
My stomach dropped.
“You know him?”
Victor looked at me.
“He financed half the gala.”
I stared at the photograph.
On the back, my father had written:
IF I DIE, MERCER KNOWS WHY.
Then the maintenance door slammed from outside.
May you like
Someone had found us.
And this time, they weren’t pretending to be police.
