Chapter 6 — The Brother Who Wanted the Throne
Chapter 6 — The Brother Who Wanted the Throne
The name on the metal tag was not a coincidence.
Luca knew that before the laboratory finished examining it.
D.C.
His father's initials.
Daniel Costello.
A man who had been dead for nine years.
A man whose portrait still hung in the east corridor of the estate.
A man Luca had spent most of his life trying to understand.
But there was another person who had benefited from Daniel's death.
Someone who had inherited access.
Someone who had known where Luca was.
Someone who had stood beside Luca's hospital bed during those first terrible months.
His younger brother.
Adrian Costello.
For twelve years, Adrian had told everyone he loved Luca.
For twelve years, Adrian had helped manage the empire.
For twelve years, Adrian had waited.
And now Luca began to wonder what he had been waiting for.
Adrian arrived at the estate at 8:15 that morning.
He entered through the front doors without knocking.
He had always done that.
He was forty-one, six years younger than Luca, and had inherited their father's polished appearance without inheriting his brother's intimidating presence.
Where Luca had been broad-shouldered and quiet, Adrian was lean, charming, and constantly smiling.
It was the kind of smile people trusted before realizing they had agreed to something.
He walked into the study.
"Luca."
Luca looked up from the security reports.
"Adrian."
His brother stopped.
"You look terrible."
"I was attacked last night."
Adrian's smile disappeared.
"What?"
"Someone entered the estate."
"Is everyone safe?"
"Maya and Elena are."
"Thank God."
Adrian moved toward him.
"What happened?"
Luca watched him carefully.
"Someone disabled the security system."
"That's impossible."
"It happened."
"Who?"
"We don't know."
Adrian's expression tightened.
"Did they take anything?"
"No."
"Then what did they want?"
Luca leaned back.
"Maybe they wanted me to know they could get inside."
Adrian was silent.
Then:
"Are you accusing me?"
"No."
"Because you keep looking at me like that."
"Like what?"
"Like you don't trust me."
Luca smiled faintly.
"I've been in a wheelchair for twelve years, Adrian."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"People become very good at reading faces when they can't move."
Adrian stared at him.
For the first time that morning, neither brother smiled.
Maya was in the garden.
She had drawn a picture with colored chalk.
Three people stood beneath a large yellow sun.
One man.
One woman.
One little girl.
Luca watched from the porch.
Elena came beside him.
"She drew you."
"I know."
"She says you're taller in real life."
Luca laughed.
"That's disappointing."
Elena smiled.
Then her expression changed.
"Adrian."
Luca nodded.
"You don't trust him."
"No."
"Why?"
"Because my father trusted him."
Elena looked at him.
"And?"
"My father trusted people who betrayed him."
She was silent.
Luca looked toward the garden.
"Last night, the man left a tag with my father's initials."
Elena's face tightened.
"Daniel."
"Yes."
"Do you think your father was involved?"
"I don't know."
"But Adrian might."
Luca didn't answer.
That was answer enough.
At noon, Luca called a private board meeting.
Not at the company.
At the estate.
There were six people in the room.
His chief financial officer.
Two independent directors.
His family attorney.
His security chief.
And Adrian.
Luca wheeled to the head of the table.
Adrian sat opposite him.
Luca placed a folder down.
"We have a problem."
Adrian leaned back.
"What kind?"
"Someone attempted to access my home."
The CFO frowned.
"Was anything stolen?"
"No."
"Then why is the board involved?"
"Because this wasn't a burglary."
Luca opened the folder.
"Someone used a security credential that belonged to Costello Holdings."
The room went silent.
Adrian's face hardened.
"What credential?"
"A master access token."
"Who has one?"
"Four people."
Luca looked around the table.
"My security chief."
"My chief operating officer."
"My brother."
"And me."
Adrian stared at him.
"Are you saying one of us did this?"
"I'm saying someone with authorized access did."
"That's not an answer."
"No."
Luca looked directly at Adrian.
"It's a question."
Adrian leaned forward.
"Then ask it."
"Where were you last night?"
"At home."
"Anyone with you?"
"My assistant."
"Name?"
"Carla."
"Can she confirm?"
"Yes."
Luca nodded.
"Good."
Adrian smiled.
"Anything else?"
"Yes."
Luca pushed another document across the table.
"Your access token was used at 2:16 a.m."
Adrian's smile disappeared.
"That's impossible."
"Why?"
"I didn't use it."
"Then someone copied it."
"Apparently."
Luca studied him.
Adrian looked at the security chief.
"You think I did this?"
The security chief said nothing.
Adrian turned back to Luca.
"You're paranoid."
"Maybe."
"You've been poisoned."
"Yes."
"Someone attacked your house."
"Yes."
"You've discovered a daughter you never knew existed."
"Yes."
Adrian shook his head.
"And now you think your brother is behind everything."
Luca's voice was calm.
"I think someone is."
The meeting ended without an accusation.
But Adrian did not leave.
He waited until everyone else was gone.
Then he closed the door.
"Do you remember what Dad used to say?"
Luca looked at him.
"Which thing?"
"That power isn't inherited."
Adrian smiled.
"It's taken."
Luca said nothing.
"He taught us both that."
"I remember."
"You were always the favorite."
"Don't start."
"I'm not starting anything."
Adrian walked toward the window.
"You got the company."
"I built the company."
"You got the trust."
"Because Dad assigned it."
"You got the house."
"Because he left it to me."
"You got everything."
Luca looked at him.
"And what did you get?"
Adrian turned.
"A seat beside you."
Silence.
"You never understood what that meant."
"Explain it."
"It meant I spent twelve years watching you sit on a throne that you couldn't even stand up from."
Luca's expression hardened.
Adrian's smile returned.
"I never wanted you dead."
Luca's eyes narrowed.
"Interesting."
"I wanted you irrelevant."
The room went silent.
Adrian continued.
"You were too powerful to kill."
"Because of the shareholders?"
"Because of the trust."
"Go on."
"If you died, everything would become complicated."
"But if I stayed incapacitated..."
"Your voting authority remained manageable."
Luca's blood went cold.
"Manageable by whom?"
Adrian smiled.
"By the people you trusted."
Luca understood.
"Richard."
"Richard."
"Voss."
"Voss."
"And you."
Adrian didn't deny it.
Luca stared at his brother.
"You poisoned me."
Adrian shook his head.
"No."
"Then who did?"
"I didn't administer it."
"But you knew."
Adrian's silence was enough.
Luca felt something inside him break.
"You watched."
"I watched."
"For twelve years."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Adrian's eyes hardened.
"Because every time I tried to take responsibility, someone reminded me that I was only the second son."
Luca stared at him.
"You wanted the throne."
"I wanted what should have been mine."
"You poisoned your own brother."
"I didn't."
"You knew it was happening."
"Yes."
"That's the same thing."
Adrian looked away.
"No."
"It isn't."
Luca laughed bitterly.
"You're right."
He pointed toward the door.
"You didn't poison me."
"You simply made sure nobody stopped the person who did."
Adrian said nothing.
Luca's voice dropped.
"Get out."
Adrian walked to the door.
Before leaving, he stopped.
"You don't understand something."
"What?"
"You think you won because you're walking again."
Luca looked at him.
"You haven't even seen what Dad left behind."
The door closed.
That night, Luca opened his father's old safe.
He had avoided it for years.
Daniel had left instructions that it not be opened until Luca reached forty-five.
Luca was forty-eight.
The lawyer had told him the condition was merely ceremonial.
Luca had never cared enough to check.
Now he did.
The safe contained:
Three ledgers.
A black envelope.
A key.
And a handwritten letter.
Luca opened the letter.
My son,
If you're reading this, something has gone wrong.
He stopped.
His heartbeat increased.
I have spent years believing the greatest threat to this family would come from outside. I was wrong.
Luca continued.
The danger is inside the family.
He looked at the three ledgers.
Do not trust Adrian.
Luca closed his eyes.
His father had known.
But the next line made his blood run cold.
Do not trust me either.
Luca read it twice.
Then a third time.
There are things I did that I justified as necessary. Some of them protected our family. Some of them destroyed it.
The letter continued.
If you ever discover what happened to your health, do not assume the person responsible acted alone.
Luca looked toward the door.
Adrian.
Richard.
Voss.
Three names.
Three pieces.
But there was another.
A name his father had not written.
Instead, he had written:
Find the woman who stood outside the gates.
Luca's breathing stopped.
Elena.
He kept reading.
She came to me once.
She was carrying something I should have protected.
I failed her.
Luca's hands began to shake.
The baby.
Maya.
His father had known.
Before Luca ever knew.
Before Maya was born.
Daniel had known Elena was pregnant.
Then why had nobody told him?
Elena entered the study.
"Luca?"
He quickly folded the letter.
"What happened?"
"Nothing."
She looked at him.
"You are terrible at lying."
He almost smiled.
"So I've been told."
She walked closer.
"What did you find?"
"My father knew about you."
Elena froze.
"What?"
"He knew you were pregnant."
Her face drained of color.
"No."
"He wrote it."
"Let me see."
Luca handed her the letter.
Elena read.
Her hands began trembling.
"He knew."
"Yes."
"Then why did he let me believe you were dead?"
"I don't know."
Elena looked at him.
"Maybe he didn't."
"What?"
"Maybe he told someone to find you."
Luca frowned.
"What are you saying?"
Elena pointed to the letter.
"Your father says he failed me."
"So?"
"He doesn't say he abandoned me."
Luca stared at the sentence.
Then suddenly understood.
There was a difference.
A terrifying one.
Maybe Daniel had tried to protect Elena.
Maybe someone had intercepted him.
Maybe Richard hadn't acted alone.
Maybe the family had been divided long before Luca's paralysis.
Elena looked at him.
"There's something else."
"What?"
"The night I came here."
Luca waited.
"I wasn't alone."
"Who was with you?"
"My mother."
Luca froze.
"The woman you thought was dead."
Elena nodded.
"She came with me."
"What happened?"
"She told me to wait outside."
"Then?"
"She went inside."
Luca stared.
"She went inside this house?"
"Yes."
"Did you see her leave?"
"No."
"How long did you wait?"
"Three hours."
"And then?"
"A man came out."
"Who?"
Elena looked at him.
"I never knew his name."
"But?"
"He was wearing your father's ring."
Luca's expression changed.
"My father had several rings."
"Not like this."
She reached into her pocket.
She pulled out an old photograph.
The same photograph Maya had found.
But now Luca saw something he had missed.
In the background.
Near the mansion's entrance.
A man stood beside the door.
His face was blurred.
But his hand was visible.
And on that hand was a distinctive black ring.
Luca knew it immediately.
It had belonged to Daniel Costello.
At 11:48 p.m., Luca called the family attorney.
"Did my father have a private security team?"
"Yes."
"Who ran it?"
"Victor Hale."
Luca froze.
"Where is he?"
"He died."
"When?"
"Eleven years ago."
"Cause?"
"Heart failure."
Luca looked at Elena.
Another death.
Another convenient ending.
"Did he have children?"
"One daughter."
"Name?"
The attorney hesitated.
"Rebecca Hale."
Luca's blood ran cold.
"Where is she now?"
"I believe she works for Costello Holdings."
"Doing what?"
"Executive administration."
Luca looked at Elena.
Then at the photograph.
"How long?"
"Almost thirteen years."
Before his paralysis.
Before Maya.
Before everything.
Luca whispered:
"Bring me her file."
The file arrived at 1:07 a.m.
Rebecca Hale.
Thirty-eight.
No criminal record.
No unusual financial activity.
Perfect employment history.
Too perfect.
Luca turned the final page.
There was an old photograph.
Rebecca at twenty-five.
Standing beside Richard.
Luca's blood ran cold.
The same scar on her wrist.
The same black ring.
The same woman who had been inside the mansion the night Elena came.
Not Richard.
Her.
Luca stared at the photograph.
"She's been here the entire time."
Elena looked at him.
"Who is she?"
"The person who may have been there from the beginning."
At 1:22 a.m., Luca received a message.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE PAST BURIED.
Then another.
YOUR FATHER DID.
Then a third.
ADRIAN WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING.
Luca stared at the screen.
For the first time, he understood.
Adrian hadn't been the mastermind.
He had been a piece.
A brother hungry for power.
A man willing to look away.
But someone else had been moving the pieces.
Someone who had been inside the family before Luca's accident.
Someone who knew about Elena.
Someone who knew about Maya.
Someone who knew about the poison.
And someone who apparently knew what Luca's father had hidden.
Luca looked toward the dark hallway.
His legs were aching.
His body was exhausted.
But something inside him had changed.
For twelve years, he had fought to recover his ability to walk.
Now he understood that walking was only the beginning.
He needed to uncover the truth.
Not just for himself.
For Elena.
For Maya.
And for the father he had spent nine years believing was simply a difficult, ruthless man.
Because perhaps Daniel Costello had not been the villain in the story.
Perhaps he had been the first person who tried to stop it.
And perhaps the reason he died was because he had discovered who was really sitting behind the throne.
Luca closed the file.
Then he looked at Elena.
"Tomorrow, we find Rebecca Hale."
Elena nodded.
"And after that?"
Luca's eyes hardened.
"We find out who poisoned me."
Outside, hidden beyond the estate's gates, a black car waited beneath the trees.
Inside, Rebecca Hale watched the mansion.
She held an old photograph in her lap.
It showed Luca at thirty-six.
Standing.
Smiling.
Alive.
Beside him stood Adrian.
And behind them stood Daniel Costello.
Rebecca touched Daniel's face with one finger.
Then whispered:
"You were supposed to take the secret to your grave."
She looked toward Luca's window.
"But you left him a map."
Her phone rang.
She answered.
A man's voice asked:
"Does Luca know?"
Rebecca smiled.
"Not yet."
"And Adrian?"
"He knows enough to be dangerous."
"What do we do with him?"
Rebecca looked at the mansion.
"Nothing."
"Why?"
"Because Luca will destroy his brother himself."
A pause.
"And the girl?"
Rebecca's smile disappeared.
"That's the problem."
"Why?"
"Because Maya is the one person Luca will never sacrifice."
Rebecca closed the photograph.
"And that makes her the perfect weakness."
The call ended.
Rebecca started the car.
But before she drove away, she looked once more at the mansion.
May you like
"Let's see how far a father will go to save the daughter he never knew."
Then the car disappeared into the darkness.
