Chapter 2 - The Brother Who Was Never BrokenThe door opened.
Not because the SUV had finally given up.
Not because the pressure of the river had changed.
Because Tobias pulled it open with both hands.
For a moment, I couldn't move.
I couldn't even understand what I was seeing.
My brother's legs, the legs I had watched doctors examine, the legs I had seen him hide beneath blankets for fifteen years, were holding him upright in the freezing water.
"Tobias..."
My voice came out as a whisper.
He grabbed my shoulder.
"Rosalind, look at me."
I looked at him.
Really looked at him.
His face was different.
Not because he had changed.
Because I was finally seeing him.
The fear I had carried for him all these years suddenly felt like a cage.
"Can you stand?" I asked.
A painful smile crossed his face.
"Yes."
The answer was so simple that it hurt.
"Since when?"
His eyes moved toward the windshield.
Toward the surface of the water.
Toward the people who had just tried to murder us.
"Since the night our parents died."
My heart stopped.
"What?"
Tobias wrapped one arm around my waist and pulled me closer to the open door.
"We don't have time."
The SUV tilted.
The front end sank deeper.
The river rushed around us.
"You're going to tell me everything," I said.
"I will."
"When?"
His expression hardened.
"When we're alive."
Then he pushed us out.
The cold water swallowed us.
I had spent years believing Tobias was fragile.
But as he pulled me through the river, I realized I had been wrong.
He moved like someone who had been preparing for this moment.
Like someone who had been waiting.
We broke through the surface.
I gasped for air.
The rain hit my face.
For a few seconds, all I could do was breathe.
Then I heard applause.
Slow.
Mocking.
Garrett stood on the riverbank.
Dry.
Safe.
Watching us.
Beside him, Penelope held her umbrella over her head, her pregnant belly protected from the rain.
Garrett looked almost disappointed.
"I knew something was different about you," he said.
Tobias didn't answer.
He helped me reach the shore.
My legs shook beneath me.
Not from the cold.
From betrayal.
I stared at Garrett.
The man I had married.
The man who had slept beside me every night.
The man who had held my hand while I signed over parts of my family's company to trusts he recommended.
"Why?" I asked.
Garrett tilted his head.
"Why what?"
I laughed.
A broken sound.
"Why did you try to kill me?"
For the first time, his expression changed.
Not guilt.
Not regret.
Annoyance.
Like I was asking an inconvenient question.
"Don't make this dramatic, Rosalind."
My hands curled into fists.
"Make this dramatic?"
I stepped forward.
"You tied my seat belt to the frame."
Penelope looked away.
That tiny movement told me everything.
She knew.
She had known.
"You left me underwater."
Garrett sighed.
"You were supposed to go quietly."
The words cut deeper than the river.
"You were supposed to die quietly?"
He didn't answer.
That was the answer.
I looked at Penelope.
"How long?"
She stared back at me.
Her eyes were cold.
"How long what?"
"How long have you been sleeping with my husband?"
Garrett stepped between us.
"Don't involve her."
I almost laughed.
"You brought her here."
Penelope touched her stomach.
"You don't understand."
"No."
I looked at her.
"I understand perfectly."
She smiled sadly.
A fake expression I had seen a thousand times from people who wanted to appear innocent.
"You always had everything, Rosalind."
I stared at her.
"What?"
"The perfect family. The company. The house. The husband."
Her voice became sharper.
"Even after everything, you still got chosen."
My stomach twisted.
"Chosen?"
Penelope stepped closer.
"My father chose your mother over mine."
The rain poured harder.
"My entire life, I watched your family celebrate while mine lived in the shadows."
I shook my head.
"So this was revenge?"
Garrett answered for her.
"It was correction."
I looked at him.
"Correction?"
"You inherited everything because your father believed you were the future of Montgomery Shipyards."
His eyes narrowed.
"But he never knew the truth."
A strange feeling moved through me.
A warning.
"What truth?"
Garrett smiled.
"The company was never supposed to belong to you."
Before I could respond, headlights appeared in the distance.
A vehicle approached the riverbank.
Garrett's expression changed.
For the first time that night, he looked nervous.
"Someone's coming."
Penelope grabbed his arm.
"We need to leave."
Garrett looked at Tobias.
"You should have stayed in that wheelchair."
Tobias stepped forward.
"You should have checked if I was really paralyzed."
Garrett froze.
A cold silence passed between them.
Then Garrett whispered:
"You knew?"
Tobias smiled.
"I knew you were watching me."
Garrett's face lost color.
"You..."
"You were careful," Tobias continued. "I'll give you that. You researched my injury. You studied my medical records. You paid doctors to repeat the same lie."
My breath caught.
"What are you talking about?"
Tobias looked at me.
"I wasn't paralyzed because of the accident."
The world seemed to tilt again.
"What?"
He swallowed.
"I was drugged."
I stared at him.
"No."
"Yes."
"Who?"
Tobias didn't answer immediately.
He looked at Garrett.
And Garrett looked away.
That was when I knew.
"No..."
My voice became smaller.
"No, Garrett."
My husband had been standing there for years.
Smiling.
Helping me.
Comforting me.
While hiding this.
Tobias reached into the pocket of his soaked jacket and pulled out a small plastic bag.
Inside was a flash drive.
"I spent fifteen years collecting evidence."
Garrett stepped backward.
"Give me that."
Tobias laughed.
"No."
"You don't know what you're doing."
"I know exactly what I'm doing."
The approaching vehicle was closer now.
I could see its headlights cutting through the rain.
Garrett's panic grew.
"Who did you call?"
Tobias looked at me.
"I didn't."
I frowned.
"Then who—"
My phone rang.
The sound was impossible.
My phone.
The one still inside my jacket pocket.
My hands shook as I pulled it out.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A woman's voice spoke immediately.
"Rosalind Montgomery?"
I looked at Tobias.
"Yes."
"This is Detective Clara Bennett with the Savannah Creek Police Department."
My blood went cold.
"Detective?"
"We received a message twenty minutes ago containing evidence of a planned homicide."
I looked at Garrett.
He was staring at my phone.
The color had drained from his face.
The detective continued.
"Are you and Tobias Montgomery alive?"
I swallowed.
"Yes."
A pause.
Then:
"Good."
Her voice became serious.
"Because the person who sent us the evidence also included a warning."
The rain seemed to disappear.
"What warning?"
The detective hesitated.
Then she said:
"They told us Garrett Vale was not the only person involved."
I looked at my husband.
He looked at Penelope.
And Penelope looked terrified.
Not angry.
Not surprised.
Terrified.
The detective continued.
"Rosalind, there is something you need to know."
"What?"
"The records we received show your parents' accident fifteen years ago was not an accident either."
My fingers went numb.
Tobias closed his eyes.
Like he had been waiting years for this moment.
Then the detective spoke the final words that shattered everything I thought I knew:
"The person who ordered your parents' deaths..."
May you like
A long silence.
"...was someone inside your own family."
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