Chapter 9 - The Brother in the Photograph
Mrs. Howard denied knowing Daniel’s exact location.
Richard did not believe her.
Neither did Detective Ruiz.
But there was one thing she finally admitted.
Three years after Daniel’s supposed death, she received a photograph.
No return address.
No message.
Only a picture.
She removed it from between two ledger pages.
Richard took it with shaking hands.
A man stood beside a lake.
He was older.
Thinner.
His hair was longer.
But it was Daniel.
Richard knew immediately.
His brother had a scar beside his right eyebrow from a childhood baseball accident.
The scar was clearly visible.
Richard sat down.
“You received this four years ago.”
His mother nodded.
“And you never told me.”
“I thought telling you would get him killed.”
“You let me mourn him.”
“I was trying to keep both of you alive.”
Richard laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“That sounds exactly like something I told Elena tonight.”
Mrs. Howard’s face fell.
Ruiz examined the photograph.
The lake reflected mountains.
A small marina sign was visible in the background.
Most of the letters were blurred.
But two remained readable.
BAY.
Ruiz photographed it.
“We can work with this.”
At the hospital, Elena could not sleep.
She kept replaying Vanessa’s words.
Richard’s brother.
The trust.
The forged documents.
Something bothered her.
If Daniel wanted his inheritance returned, harming Elena’s baby made no sense.
The codicil already protected his claim.
Unless Daniel had never sent the messages.
Elena called Claire Benton at the hospital in Manhattan.
Claire answered weakly.
“Elena?”
“I’m sorry to call.”
“No.”
“I’m glad you did.”
“Claire, did you ever see the messages supposedly sent by Daniel?”
A pause.
“One.”
“What did it say?”
“That Richard was living in a stolen house.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
Claire hesitated.
“He mentioned the nursery.”
Elena sat upright.
“What about it?”
“He said the blue room had always belonged to him.”
Elena’s pulse quickened.
The current nursery had once been Daniel’s childhood bedroom.
That detail was not public.
But Gerald knew it.
Mrs. Howard knew it.
Richard knew it.
And Vanessa had visited the room.
The message proved nothing.
Elena asked another question.
“Did the emails use Daniel’s name?”
“No.”
“What signature?”
Claire thought.
“D.H.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Someone had wanted everyone to assume D.H. meant Daniel Howard.
But there was another D.H. connected to the family.
Elena remembered the old ledgers Mrs. Howard once mentioned.
Howard Capital had employed a financial controller named Derek Hale.
He had been fired after accusing Charles of hiding money.
Elena searched her old emails.
One message appeared from eight months earlier.
A charity audit inquiry.
Sender.
Derek Hale.
Her stomach tightened.
She called Ruiz.
“Detective, look for Derek Hale.”
Ruiz became silent.
“Why?”
“Because everybody has been reading D.H. as Daniel Howard.”
“What if it never meant Daniel?”
Ruiz typed something.
Thirty seconds later, his voice changed.
“Elena.”
“What?”
“Derek Hale died eleven years ago.”
Elena’s hope disappeared.
Then Ruiz added something.
“But he had a son.”
“What’s his name?”
“Gerald.”
Elena froze.
Gerald Pike had not been born Gerald Pike.
His original name was Gerald Hale.
Derek Hale’s son had spent twenty years inside the Howard family.
And suddenly Elena understood.
This had never begun with Vanessa.
May you like
It had not even begun with Daniel.
Gerald had been planning revenge long before Elena ever entered the mansion.
