Chapter 3 - The Name Hidden in the BloodlineThe phone slipped from my hand.
It landed in the mud beside my feet, the screen glowing faintly beneath the rain.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Not Garrett.
Not Penelope.
Not even Tobias.
Because the truth hanging in the air was heavier than anything we had just survived.
Someone in my family had ordered my parents' deaths.
Fifteen years ago, I lost my mother and father on a dark highway outside Baltimore.
I remembered the funeral.
I remembered the flowers.
I remembered Tobias sitting in his wheelchair, staring at the ground while everyone whispered that our lives would never be the same.
I remembered promising my father before they buried him that I would protect our family.
I never imagined I needed protection from my own blood.
"Tobias."
My voice trembled.
"Who?"
He looked at me.
And I saw something I had never seen before.
Fear.
Not fear for himself.
Fear for me.
"Not here."
I stared at him.
"Not here?"
I pointed toward Garrett.
"That man tried to kill us."
Then I pointed toward Penelope.
"She helped him."
My voice broke.
"And you're telling me there is something worse?"
Tobias looked past me.
The approaching police vehicle was now visible through the trees.
Blue lights flashed against the rain.
"We need to survive the next ten minutes before we uncover the last fifteen years."
Garrett suddenly laughed.
A quiet, bitter sound.
"You still think you won."
Everyone turned toward him.
He wiped rain from his face and looked at Tobias.
"You have no idea what you're holding."
Tobias stepped forward.
"Actually, I do."
"No."
Garrett shook his head.
"You found pieces. That's all."
His eyes moved to me.
"But Rosalind never knew the truth."
I felt my chest tighten.
"Stop saying my name like you still care about me."
For the first time, something almost human appeared on his face.
Almost.
"Rose—"
"Don't."
The word came out sharper than I expected.
He stopped.
Three years of memories rushed through my mind.
Our first date.
The night he proposed.
The mornings when he brought me coffee before work.
The way he held me after nightmares.
All of it felt like a performance.
A beautiful lie.
"How long?" I asked.
Garrett said nothing.
"How long were you planning this?"
His jaw tightened.
"Longer than you think."
The answer made my stomach turn.
Penelope looked uncomfortable.
"Garrett, we should leave."
He ignored her.
Instead, he stared at Tobias.
"You should have stayed invisible."
Tobias smiled coldly.
"I spent fifteen years being invisible."
He looked at me.
"I watched everyone."
I swallowed.
"Everyone?"
Tobias nodded.
"After the accident, I realized something was wrong."
The police lights grew brighter.
Tobias continued.
"The doctors said my spine was damaged beyond repair."
He looked down at his legs.
"But my body didn't feel like it was broken."
A memory flashed through my mind.
A memory I had buried.
Six months after our parents died, I found Tobias standing beside his bed.
For one second.
Only one second.
I thought I saw him standing.
Then he fell.
I convinced myself it was grief.
A hallucination.
A desperate hope.
But I hadn't imagined it.
"You knew," I whispered.
Tobias nodded.
"I knew I could walk."
My eyes filled.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
His face changed.
Pain.
Real pain.
"Because every time I tried, someone was watching."
The police vehicle stopped.
Officers stepped out.
Garrett immediately lowered his hands.
A perfect victim.
A perfect innocent man.
I almost admired how easily he changed.
Detective Clara Bennett walked toward us with two officers behind her.
She was in her forties, with rain dripping from her dark hair and a serious expression that told me she had seen enough lies to recognize one immediately.
"Rosalind Montgomery?"
I nodded.
She looked at Tobias.
Then at the destroyed SUV floating partially beneath the water.
"Are you both injured?"
"No," Tobias said.
The detective studied him.
Especially his legs.
"You walked out of that vehicle?"
Tobias didn't answer.
He reached into his jacket and handed her the plastic bag.
"The evidence."
Detective Bennett took it carefully.
"What is this?"
"Everything."
Garrett stepped forward.
"Detective, I don't know what my brother-in-law is trying to claim, but he's been unstable since his parents' death."
My head snapped toward him.
Unstable.
That word.
He used it so casually.
Like Tobias was an object.
A problem.
Detective Bennett looked at Garrett.
"Mr. Vale, step back."
"Of course."
He obeyed immediately.
Too immediately.
That was when I realized something.
Garrett wasn't afraid of the police.
He was afraid of what was inside that flash drive.
The detective opened the bag.
"Everyone is going to give statements separately."
Her eyes moved to Garrett.
"Especially you."
Garrett smiled slightly.
"You think I did this?"
Detective Bennett looked at the wreckage.
"The seat belt was tampered with."
His smile disappeared.
"Evidence can be manipulated."
Tobias laughed softly.
"That's exactly what you said fifteen years ago."
Garrett froze.
The detective looked between them.
"What happened fifteen years ago?"
Nobody answered.
Because the question itself felt dangerous.
Tobias looked at me.
I knew that look.
He was asking permission.
Permission to destroy the last pieces of my old life.
I nodded.
"Tell her."
Tobias took a deep breath.
"The night our parents died, Garrett wasn't supposed to be there."
Garrett's face changed.
"Don't."
Tobias ignored him.
"He was twenty-two years old. He worked for Montgomery Shipyards as an intern."
I stared at Garrett.
"You worked for my father?"
He looked away.
Tobias continued.
"My father discovered financial records showing someone was stealing from the company."
Detective Bennett listened carefully.
"Who?"
Tobias looked at Penelope.
Her face went pale.
"No."
The word escaped her.
Tobias didn't stop.
"Your mother."
I stared.
"My mother?"
"No."
Tobias shook his head.
"Not yours."
His eyes moved toward Penelope.
"Her mother."
Silence.
Penelope stepped backward.
"You're lying."
Tobias looked at her.
"Am I?"
She said nothing.
The detective looked confused.
"Explain."
Tobias spoke slowly.
"Penelope's mother worked in the accounting department. She was transferring money from company accounts."
Penelope's voice cracked.
"My mother would never."
Tobias looked at her.
"She did."
Garrett suddenly interrupted.
"Enough."
Everyone turned.
His calm mask was gone.
For the first time, we saw what was underneath.
Anger.
"You have no idea what you're talking about."
Tobias smiled.
"I have fifteen years of research."
Garrett stepped toward him.
"You think you understand everything because you found some documents?"
"No."
Tobias's voice lowered.
"I understand because I was in the car."
My heart stopped.
The rain seemed louder.
"What?"
Tobias looked at me.
"I remember that night."
My lips parted.
"You told me you didn't."
"I lied."
The words hit harder than anything else.
"You lied to me?"
His eyes filled with regret.
"To protect you."
I shook my head.
"You were my brother."
"And you were the only family I had left."
The police officers watched silently.
Tobias continued.
"When our parents' car crashed, I wasn't unconscious."
He looked at Garrett.
"I saw who cut the brake line."
Garrett's expression collapsed.
"No."
"I saw who followed us."
Tobias's voice became colder.
"And I saw who pulled our father out of the driver's seat before the car went over the cliff."
My hand covered my mouth.
"Who?"
Tobias looked at me.
Then he said the name.
A name I had never expected.
A name that made the entire world feel unreal.
"Your uncle."
My breathing stopped.
"My father's brother?"
Tobias nodded.
"The man who became temporary CEO after their deaths."
The detective immediately looked at Garrett.
"And your connection to him?"
Garrett didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
Because Penelope did.
Her voice was barely audible.
"He was my father."
Everyone turned.
She looked at Garrett.
Then at me.
"I wasn't Garrett's affair."
My heart sank.
"I was his partner."
The world went silent.
She touched her stomach.
"And this baby..."
She looked at Garrett.
"...isn't the only thing we planned together."
Detective Bennett reached for her radio.
But before she could speak, Tobias's phone began ringing.
Not mine.
His.
He looked at the screen.
And all the color disappeared from his face.
I stepped closer.
"What is it?"
He didn't answer.
"Tobias?"
Slowly, he turned the phone toward me.
A message had appeared.
From an unknown number.
Only one sentence.
I told you not to dig into the past. Now your sister knows too much.
Then another message appeared.
A photo loaded beneath it.
A photo taken moments earlier.
Of us standing by the river.
But the person who took it wasn't on the shore.
They were close.
Too close.
May you like
Because behind us, hidden between the trees...
Someone was still watching.
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