The Brother Who Controlled Everything
Chapter 02 - The Brother Who Controlled Everything
Ethan called David, but every call went straight to voicemail. He then tried the company’s accountant and discovered that his number had been blocked from the office system. When he opened his work email, the password had changed.
Hannah finally told him everything she had been hiding.
Three days after Ethan left, David arrived at the apartment claiming a client payment had failed. He said the company needed the emergency card for a few hours to protect payroll. Hannah trusted him because he was family. The next morning, their personal account was frozen due to “suspicious transfers,” and someone using Ethan’s credentials had borrowed against the company.
When Hannah confronted David, he warned her not to call Ethan. He said Ethan had made reckless investments and would be arrested if the bank investigated. He promised to fix everything before Friday.
“I believed him at first,” she said. “Then he came back wearing a mask.”
Ethan examined the security footage frame by frame. The intruder had covered his face, but a silver watch flashed beneath his sleeve. Ethan had given that watch to David after their father died.
Noah cried again. Hannah tried to prepare a bottle, but only one scoop of formula remained.
The shame on Ethan’s face turned into anger. While he had been traveling to save the company, his wife had been skipping meals to feed their child. Worse, David had carefully isolated her, using Ethan’s name and authority as weapons.
Ethan called his attorney, Rachel Kim, from Hannah’s phone. Rachel searched public filings and found an emergency loan for $780,000 secured against Cole Construction. The electronic signature belonged to Ethan, but the application had been submitted from David’s home computer.
The money was already gone.
At midnight, a courier knocked on the apartment door and delivered a sealed envelope. Inside was a resignation agreement. It stated that Ethan admitted misusing company funds and transferred full control to David. If he refused to sign by nine the next morning, the lender would seize the company and report Ethan for fraud.
A second page claimed Hannah had authorized David to manage their household finances.
Her signature was forged.
Beneath the documents lay a photograph of Ethan entering a hotel in Chicago with a female client. The angle made an ordinary business meeting look intimate.
Hannah stared at it. “He was going to show me this.”
“He wanted you to doubt me,” Ethan said. “And he wanted me to think you gave him access.”
They finally understood the plan. David was not merely stealing money. He was destroying their marriage so neither of them would compare what he had told them.
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Then the security app chimed again.
The masked man had returned—and this time he was standing outside Noah’s bedroom.
