Chapter 5 - THE BROTHER ADRIAN NEVER SPOKE ABOUT
Adrian Cross had a younger brother.
Until that moment, I had never heard his name.
“Damian,” Adrian whispered.
The word sounded like poison.
I looked at Elena’s letter.
“Your brother was involved?”
Adrian stared into the darkness of the cellar.
“Damian left Chicago thirteen years ago.”
“Why?”
“We fought.”
“That’s vague.”
His eyes narrowed.
Then he sighed.
“He wanted control of the family businesses.”
“And you had it.”
“Yes.”
I almost laughed.
“Nothing says healthy sibling relationship like mafia succession.”
Despite his fever, Adrian gave me a tired look.
“You have a strange sense of humor during emergencies.”
“My mother said panic is less useful than sarcasm.”
His expression softened at the mention of her.
Then he continued.
“Damian believed I was becoming weak because of Elena.”
My stomach tightened.
“What did Elena know?”
“She discovered he was diverting money through shipping companies and paying men outside our organization.”
“To do what?”
“I didn’t know then.”
“And now?”
Adrian looked at the vial I'd recovered from Marcus.
“I think we’re finding out.”
I returned to Elena’s letter.
She wrote that Marcus had begun meeting secretly with Damian.
She suspected they were planning to remove Adrian from control of the family businesses.
But the letter contained something even stranger.
Diane found medical invoices paid through Vale Security Consulting.
I froze.
“My mother?”
Adrian nodded.
“Keep reading.”
My eyes moved down the page.
Elena claimed Diane had identified unusual purchases of sedatives and laboratory chemicals.
She believed someone was testing combinations that could cause confusion, weakness, and eventually organ damage without creating obvious poisoning patterns.
My stomach turned.
My mother’s illness.
Years of neurological symptoms.
Kidney failure.
No clear cause.
I looked at Adrian.
“No.”
His expression was grim.
“Nora—”
“No.”
I stood.
“My mother was sick. That doesn't mean someone poisoned her.”
“You’re right.”
I stared.
He continued.
“We need evidence.”
My breathing slowed.
Again, he didn't use my fear to push a conclusion.
That mattered.
Then I noticed another page folded behind Elena’s letter.
It wasn't from Elena.
It was from my mother.
My hands began shaking.
Mr. Cross,
If Elena does not survive tonight, do not trust the accident report.
My eyes filled.
Mom had written this twelve years earlier.
The letter continued.
I recovered a sample from the syringe found near the rear gate. I am keeping a second sample somewhere Marcus cannot reach.
I stopped breathing.
A second sample.
Adrian leaned forward.
“Where?”
I read the next line.
If I am ever unable to speak for myself, Nora will know where to look.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
“I don't know.”
Adrian stared at me.
“She believed you would.”
“She never told me anything about this.”
“Think.”
I shut my eyes.
Mom's apartment.
Her nursing textbooks.
The sewing basket.
Her old medication cabinet.
Then I remembered.
A metal lunchbox.
Red.
Dent in the side.
Mom kept it in the freezer for years.
When I was little, I once tried to open it.
She'd grabbed it away so fast she'd frightened me.
Never touch this, Nora. It's for work.
My eyes opened.
“The freezer.”
Adrian frowned.
“What?”
“My mother's old apartment.”
I swallowed.
“She kept a locked medical lunchbox in the freezer.”
Adrian slowly stood despite my protest.
“We need to get it.”
“In this storm?”
“No.”
He looked toward the ceiling.
“After we survive tonight.”
Then the cellar door above us slammed.
A voice echoed down the hidden staircase.
“Adrian?”
Male.
Calm.
Familiar enough to make Adrian’s face go white.
I looked toward him.
“Who is that?”
He whispered one name.
“Damian.”
May you like
His brother hadn't been gone for thirteen years.
He had been waiting inside the mansion.
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