Chapter 2 - The Stranger With His Brother's Face
The man standing in the ballroom doorway looked so much like Nicholas Vescari that Adrian forgot how to breathe.
For twenty-three years, Adrian had remembered his brother at thirty-one.
Dark hair.
Gray eyes.
A small scar beneath his left eyebrow.
The stranger standing beneath the ballroom chandelier had all three.
But he was younger.
Perhaps thirty.
And he was wearing a faded navy coat that Adrian recognized immediately.
Nicholas had owned that coat.
Adrian remembered stealing it as a teenager, then being chased through their mother's kitchen while Nicholas laughed.
Now someone else was wearing it.
“Who are you?” Adrian demanded.
The stranger looked directly at him.
“My name is Daniel Mercer.”
Caroline made a sound behind Adrian.
Not quite a gasp.
More like someone trying to stop herself from screaming.
Daniel glanced at her.
“Hello, Caroline.”
Adrian turned.
“You know him?”
Caroline's face had gone white.
“Adrian, please. Don't do this in front of everyone.”
Daniel reached into his coat.
Marcus immediately stepped forward.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Daniel slowly withdrew a worn photograph.
“I came because Nicholas told me something would be waiting behind that painting.”
Adrian didn't take the photograph.
“Where is my brother?”
Daniel looked down.
“I don't know.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because three weeks ago, someone mailed me this.”
He held up the picture.
It showed Nicholas standing beside a fishing boat at Providence Harbor.
Next to him was a young woman holding a baby.
On the back, in Nicholas's handwriting, were four words.
Keep my son safe.
Adrian stared at the picture.
Nicholas had never told him about a child.
Never mentioned a serious relationship.
And according to their father, Nicholas had disappeared while handling a business dispute.
Adrian looked at Caroline.
“You knew?”
She shook her head.
But Daniel spoke before she could answer.
“She knew my mother.”
Caroline stepped backward.
“That's enough.”
Daniel's voice hardened.
“You were there the day she disappeared.”
The ballroom had become completely silent.
Two hundred guests stood watching a private family tragedy unfold beneath crystal chandeliers.
Adrian raised one hand.
“Everyone leaves. Now.”
Within minutes, Marcus had cleared the guests from the ballroom.
Only Adrian, Caroline, Daniel, and two trusted security men remained.
Adrian placed Nicholas's envelope on the table.
“Tell me everything.”
Daniel looked toward the painting.
“First, open that.”
Adrian carefully unfolded the blue velvet.
Inside was a silver pocket watch.
His father's watch.
The same watch Nicholas had supposedly been wearing the night he vanished.
Adrian opened it.
The hands had stopped at 11:17.
On the inside cover, someone had scratched three letters.
E.M.R.
“What does that mean?” Adrian asked.
Daniel swallowed.
“My mother's name was Evelyn Rose Mercer.”
Caroline closed her eyes.
Adrian felt something cold settle in his chest.
“Caroline?”
His sister began trembling.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
She looked at Daniel.
“From what Nicholas did.”
Daniel stepped forward angrily.
“My father didn't do anything to deserve what happened.”
Adrian's gaze sharpened.
“You're telling me Nicholas was your father?”
Daniel didn't look away.
“Yes.”
For a moment, Adrian heard nothing but the faint ticking of the grandfather clock across the room.
His brother had a son.
A son who had grown up without him.
And Caroline had apparently known.
“Why didn't you come sooner?” Adrian asked.
“Because I only learned who my father was six months ago.”
“From whom?”
“My grandmother. Before she died.”
Daniel pulled a folded letter from his pocket.
“She told me my mother worked for the Vescari family. She said your father paid her to leave Rhode Island.”
Adrian stared at Caroline again.
She was crying now.
But he had seen his sister cry before.
Usually when she wanted something.
This time, however, she looked genuinely terrified.
“Where's Evelyn?” Adrian asked.
Daniel's expression changed.
“My mother died when I was seven.”
The words struck harder than Adrian expected.
“What happened?”
“A car accident. At least that's what I was told.”
Caroline turned away.
Daniel continued.
“My grandmother raised me. She never spoke about the Vescari family until she got sick.”
“Why?”
“Because she thought someone would come for me.”
Adrian slowly closed the pocket watch.
His father had always insisted Nicholas's disappearance was the result of an internal betrayal.
He had warned Adrian never to investigate.
And Adrian, young and desperate for his father's approval, had obeyed.
That decision had haunted him for twenty-three years.
Now he wondered whether his father had known far more than he'd admitted.
Marcus approached quietly.
“Boss, we need to talk.”
“What?”
“The stranger at the gate wasn't alone.”
Daniel looked confused.
“I came alone.”
Marcus held up a security tablet.
“Someone followed his car from Providence. Black SUV. Stayed two blocks away until he entered the property.”
Adrian examined the image.
The license plate was obscured.
But something else caught his attention.
A small gold anchor emblem on the rear window.
He knew that emblem.
It belonged to Harbor Crest Logistics.
A company his father had helped establish decades earlier.
A company Caroline now controlled.
Adrian slowly turned toward his sister.
“Why is one of your vehicles following him?”
Caroline looked genuinely stunned.
“That isn't my vehicle.”
Marcus checked the tablet.
“The company registration says otherwise.”
Caroline shook her head.
“No. That's impossible.”
Daniel's phone vibrated.
He looked at the screen.
His expression drained.
Adrian noticed.
“What is it?”
Daniel held up a photograph.
It had just been delivered from an unknown number.
The image showed Sophie Bennett sitting in the private lounge, ice pressed against her injured ankle.
Someone had photographed her through the partially open doorway.
Beneath the picture was a message.
Tell your uncle the maid saw more than she admitted.
Adrian snatched up his radio.
“Marcus, secure Sophie. Nobody enters that room.”
But before Marcus could respond, Caroline grabbed the edge of the table.
“Adrian, listen to me.”
He faced her.
“What?”
“Daniel isn't the person you should be afraid of.”
“Then who is?”
Caroline looked toward the photograph of Sophie.
May you like
And whispered something that made Adrian's blood run cold.
“Ask your maid why her mother has been receiving money from Nicholas Vescari for twenty-three years.”
