Chapter 8 – The Family Lie
Chapter 8 – The Family Lie
The room fell into absolute silence.
Only the steady beeping of the heart monitor reminded them that time had not stopped.
Adrian stared at Elena, searching her face for any sign that she had confused memory with imagination.
"You heard Victor say that?"
Elena nodded slowly.
"I've replayed that night in my mind a thousand times since the accident."
"I never understood the words."
"Until now."
Detective Laura Hayes closed her notebook.
"If Nicholas DeLuca was Robert's older brother..."
"...why doesn't anyone know he ever existed?"
No one had an answer.
Except one man.
Samuel Reeves.
Samuel stood near the hospital window, his reflection staring back at him.
"I hoped this day would never come."
Adrian turned toward him.
"You knew."
It wasn't a question.
Samuel closed his eyes.
"Yes."
"For twenty-five years."
Adrian's voice grew colder.
"You let me believe my father was an only child."
"I obeyed Robert's wishes."
"My father's wishes?"
Samuel nodded.
"He wanted Nicholas erased."
Harold Bennett looked stunned.
"Robert never told me."
Samuel sighed.
"Very few people knew."
"The official records were changed."
"The family photographs disappeared."
"The birth certificates were sealed."
"It was as if Nicholas had never existed."
Hayes frowned.
"You can't erase someone from history."
Samuel looked at her.
"If your family owns judges, politicians, newspapers, and half the city..."
"You'd be surprised."
Adrian felt anger building inside him.
"My entire life..."
"...was built on a lie."
Samuel didn't argue.
"It was."
"But not the lie you think."
He reached into his briefcase once more.
"I've carried this for years."
He placed a faded black-and-white photograph on Elena's bedside table.
Two boys stood beside a fishing dock.
One smiled confidently.
The other looked shy.
On the back of the photograph, written in elegant handwriting, were four words.
Nicholas and Robert — Summer 1985
Adrian picked it up with trembling hands.
"They look happy."
Samuel smiled sadly.
"They were."
"Once."
"What happened?"
Samuel stared out the window.
"Their father happened."
Twenty-eight years earlier...
The DeLuca estate had been filled with life.
Nicholas was twenty-three.
Robert was nineteen.
Nicholas was expected to inherit everything.
He was intelligent.
Charismatic.
The perfect heir.
Robert never wanted the business.
He wanted to become an architect.
Their father, Giovanni DeLuca, refused.
"In this family..."
"...blood serves the business."
Not the other way around.
The brothers obeyed.
At first.
Nicholas became president of the family trust.
Robert studied finance to help him.
For several years...
Everything flourished.
Then Giovanni became ill.
Very ill.
Doctors gave him only months to live.
That's when the family began fighting over the future.
"Nicholas wanted to modernize the company," Samuel explained.
"He wanted transparency."
"He wanted outside audits."
Harold nodded.
"That would've upset a lot of powerful people."
Samuel's expression darkened.
"It did."
"Especially Victor."
Victor Langston wasn't related by blood.
He had married Giovanni's younger sister years earlier.
As the family's legal adviser, Victor had quietly expanded his influence.
Giovanni trusted him completely.
Nicholas never did.
The two men clashed constantly.
Over contracts.
Investments.
Control.
Robert often stood between them, trying desperately to keep the peace.
Then came the night everything changed.
Giovanni died.
The will was opened.
Samuel took a deep breath.
"It shocked everyone."
Hayes leaned forward.
"What did it say?"
"The family business..."
"...was left entirely to Robert."
Adrian blinked.
"My father?"
Samuel nodded.
"Not Nicholas."
"Why?"
"No one knew."
"There was no explanation."
Harold whispered,
"My God..."
"The newspapers claimed Nicholas accepted the decision."
Samuel laughed bitterly.
"He didn't."
"He challenged the will."
"He demanded a new investigation."
"He insisted their father had changed the document before his death."
"Was he right?"
Samuel hesitated.
"I don't know."
"But Robert believed he was."
Adrian frowned.
"If my father thought the will was wrong..."
"...why didn't he give the company back?"
Samuel answered quietly.
"Because Nicholas disappeared."
The room became still again.
"What do you mean?"
"He vanished."
"The day after the funeral."
"No goodbye."
"No luggage."
"No phone calls."
"The police searched for months."
"They found nothing."
Hayes narrowed her eyes.
"So everyone assumed he ran away."
"Exactly."
"But Robert never believed it."
For years...
Robert secretly hired investigators across Europe and North America.
None found Nicholas.
Every lead ended the same way.
A false passport.
An empty apartment.
A witness who suddenly changed their story.
It was almost as if someone had been following behind Robert...
Erasing every trace.
Adrian rubbed his temples.
"My father spent years searching for him?"
Samuel nodded.
"Until the week before he died."
"He found something."
"What?"
Samuel looked at the photograph.
"He found proof that Nicholas had never left the country."
Detective Hayes immediately leaned closer.
"Where was he?"
Samuel answered with obvious regret.
"We never found out."
"Robert died first."
The room remained silent until Elena spoke.
"What if Nicholas didn't disappear?"
Everyone looked toward her.
"What if someone made him disappear?"
Hayes slowly nodded.
"That would explain why every witness vanished."
Samuel looked thoughtful.
"It would."
Harold suddenly stood.
"Wait."
Everyone turned toward him.
"I remember something."
Harold walked to the window, thinking.
"About fifteen years ago..."
"I reviewed some old property taxes."
"There was a hunting lodge."
"Owned by the DeLuca family."
"No one had lived there in decades."
"But..."
He frowned.
"The taxes kept being paid."
Samuel looked surprised.
"Who paid them?"
"I don't know."
"The account was anonymous."
Hayes immediately wrote down the address.
"Where is it?"
"Blackwood Forest."
"Near the old lake."
Adrian's heartbeat quickened.
"If Nicholas was hiding..."
"That lodge would be perfect."
Samuel slowly shook his head.
"Or perfect for hiding him."
Just then, Adrian's phone vibrated.
Sophia.
He answered immediately.
"Sophia?"
Her voice was shaky.
"Mr. DeLuca..."
"I think someone broke into Elena's office."
"What?"
"They didn't take computers."
"They didn't take money."
"What did they take?"
There was a pause.
"Only one file."
Adrian felt a chill.
"Which file?"
Sophia whispered,
"The second will."
The room froze.
Hayes looked up sharply.
"Second will?"
Adrian frowned.
"What second will?"
Sophia's breathing became uneven.
"I didn't know what it meant."
"I thought it was just another legal document."
"But Elena labeled it..."
Her voice almost disappeared.
'The Real DeLuca Will.'
The call ended.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then Samuel whispered the words none of them wanted to hear.
"If there's a second will..."
"...then Giovanni's estate may have been stolen before Robert ever inherited it."
And for the first time, Adrian realized that the conspiracy surrounding his father's death had not begun five years earlier.
May you like
It had begun with the reading of a will nearly three decades ago.
End of Chapter 8
