The Brother Everyone Trusted
Chapter 03 - The Brother Everyone Trusted
The kitchen went silent. Grant’s smile disappeared for only a second, but Maya saw it.
He immediately claimed Lily was confused after a year of captivity. He told the guards that Maya had coached the child and hidden her in the basement before staging the discovery. Evan wanted to believe his daughter, yet the documents in Grant’s folder looked real. They showed payments from an account in Maya’s name to a private driver who had vanished the night Lily disappeared.
Maya removed the memory card from her pocket. “Then let the police watch this.”
Grant lunged for it.
Evan stepped between them, and the brothers crashed against the marble island. Claire pulled Lily away while Maya ran toward the study, where the estate’s old security system could read the card. Grant shouted for the guards to stop her, but Lily screamed so desperately that neither man moved.
The footage showed Grant entering the hidden room again and again. Some clips had been erased, yet one remained from the previous night. Grant stood before the camera and spoke to someone on the phone.
“The trust transfers to me once Lily is legally declared dead,” he said. “Another eleven months, and Bellmont Industries is mine.”
The truth was larger than the house. Evan’s late father had placed controlling shares of the company in a trust for Lily, believing the next generation should decide its future. Grant had spent years hiding debt created by secret investments. If Evan discovered the losses, Grant would lose his position and face prosecution. Lily’s disappearance gave him time, sympathy, and eventual access to the trust.
Claire realized something even worse. Grant had recommended the grief specialist who prescribed her heavy medication. He had convinced Evan that Claire’s memories were unreliable whenever she reported hearing movement beneath the floor.
Grant backed toward the kitchen exit. “You think one damaged recording proves anything?”
Maya opened the anonymous envelope and showed him the handwriting. “Your former groundskeeper sent me the floor plan before he died. He also mailed copies to an attorney.”
For the first time, Grant looked afraid.
Sirens sounded beyond the gates, but the security system suddenly locked every exterior door. Smoke began curling through the basement vent. Grant had activated an emergency purge designed for the old wine cellar.
The evidence room below them was burning.
More importantly, Ana’s original nanny bag—containing the clothing and fingerprints that could prove she never left the house with Lily—was still inside.
Maya ran for the basement.
Claire caught her arm. “You already found my daughter. You don’t have to risk your life for my family.”
May you like
Maya looked toward Lily, then at the bruise Grant had left on her face.
“I’m not doing it for your family,” she said. “I’m doing it for mine.”
