Chapter 3 - The Brother Who Was Never Supposed to Survive
“Michael saved that little boy's life,” Victoria said. “And your father never forgave him for what happened afterward.”
Julian stepped toward her.
“Explain.”
Victoria glanced at Daniel, then at the security guards gathering near the mansion.
“Not here.”
“You don't get to decide where we have this conversation.”
“Then arrest me if you've got something to charge me with.”
Julian's face hardened.
“Don't tempt me.”
Victoria opened the sedan door.
“Ask your brother about the bus station in Clearwater. Ask him why Elliot's mother refused to come home.”
She climbed inside before Julian could answer.
The sedan disappeared down the driveway.
Daniel watched it leave.
“Want me to have her followed?”
“Discreetly. I want to know where she goes.”
Julian turned toward the mansion.
The front windows reflected the emergency lights still flashing along the driveway.
Thirty minutes earlier, he had believed Victoria was planning a wedding with him.
Now he didn't know whether she'd ever loved him.
Worse, he didn't know whether he truly knew his own family.
At Tampa General Hospital, Allison Reed was sitting upright when Julian entered her room.
Her face was pale, and a monitoring lead rested against her collarbone.
She immediately pulled the blanket higher.
“Mr. Ricci.”
“Julian is fine.”
“Am I fired?”
The question caught him off guard.
“No.”
“Because Victoria said I embarrassed your guests.”
“You were poisoned, Allison.”
Allison looked away.
She had spent three years working for wealthy families who treated an accusation as enough reason to dismiss someone.
She couldn't afford another lost paycheck.
Her daughter, Lucy, was staying with Allison's sister, Diane, that night.
Allison had already called twice to make sure she was asleep.
“I need that job,” she said quietly.
“I know.”
“With respect, Mr. Ricci, you don't.”
Julian accepted the correction.
“No,” he admitted. “I don't know what it's like to choose between rent and groceries.”
Allison studied him.
He was a powerful man, accustomed to people agreeing with him.
But he wasn't arguing.
“Then please don't make promises you can't keep.”
Julian pulled a chair beside the bed.
“You have my word that no one will fire you for what happened tonight.”
Allison's eyes filled with tears.
She turned her face away before they fell.
Julian let the silence settle.
Then he showed her the photograph from his father's coat.
“Is this the picture Victoria dropped?”
Allison nodded immediately.
“Yes. That's it.”
“Did you hear anything else?”
She hesitated.
“Victoria said the boy should have died during surgery.”
Julian looked down.
“Those were her exact words?”
“Almost. She said, 'He wasn't supposed to survive St. Anne's.'”
That changed something.
Perhaps Elliot hadn't been declared dead.
Perhaps someone had simply counted on him never leaving the hospital.
Allison touched the edge of the photograph.
“Who is he?”
“My brother.”
She looked surprised.
“I didn't know you had another brother.”
“Neither did I.”
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Allison noticed Michael standing beside their father in the photograph.
“He looks worried,” she said.
Julian examined the image.
Michael was holding the wheelchair handle with both hands.
The boy was smiling.
But Michael's face showed none of the confidence Julian remembered from his younger brother's childhood.
He looked frightened.
Across the hall, Nora Perez was recovering in another hospital room.
She was thirty-six, with dark hair pulled into a loose knot.
Daniel had already spoken with her physician, who confirmed that both women had been exposed to the same sedating substance.
Investigators were examining the drinks to determine exactly what had been used.
Nora sat forward when Julian entered.
“I'm sorry about Allison.”
“Why?”
“Because I was the reason she got hurt.”
Julian pulled up a chair.
“Start at the beginning.”
Nora gripped the bed sheet.
“I worked in the accounting department at St. Anne's Children's Hospital. Eight years.”
“Why were you serving drinks at my party?”
“Because someone had been taking money from the hospital's charitable accounts, and I needed to see who was involved.”
Julian studied her.
“Go on.”
“Six months ago, I found payments from a Ricci trust account going to a company called Harbor Meridian Holdings.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Neither had I. But the payments were categorized as pediatric treatment grants.”
“How much?”
“Almost eleven million dollars over five years.”
Julian felt his anger rise.
His father had established grants specifically for children whose families couldn't afford treatment.
Some of those children needed expensive heart surgeries.
“Who authorized the transfers?”
“That's what I was trying to find out.”
Nora swallowed.
“I reported the discrepancies. Two days later, I lost my job.”
“And tonight?”
“I took a temporary catering position at your charity reception. I knew someone from Harbor Meridian was attending.”
“Who?”
“I never got the chance to find out.”
Nora closed her eyes.
“I saw Victoria near the water table. She was opening something in her purse. Michael walked over a minute later.”
“Did he put anything in the glasses?”
“I don't think so.”
Julian leaned forward.
“Tell me exactly what you saw.”
“Michael noticed Victoria touching the glasses. He grabbed one, smelled it, and pushed it behind the centerpiece.”
“Then?”
“He looked straight at me and shook his head.”
Julian frowned.
“Warning you?”
“I think so.”
“Why didn't you tell someone?”
“I didn't understand.”
Nora's voice broke.
“I thought he was angry because I'd been asking questions. Then Allison took a glass from the table.”
Julian remembered the recovered footage.
Michael reaching forward.
Victoria beside him.
Three words silently spoken.
She knows everything.
Perhaps the warning had been directed at someone other than Allison.
“Did anyone know you were investigating?”
Nora hesitated.
“One person.”
“Who?”
“Elliot Hayes.”
Julian sat back.
His missing brother's name had surfaced again.
“How do you know Elliot?”
“He contacted me after I lost my job. He'd been tracking the missing hospital money for months.”
“Why?”
“Because that money was supposed to help children like him.”
Nora looked at the photograph in Julian's hand.
“He was seven when doctors told his mother he might not survive. Your father paid for a risky operation. Elliot recovered.”
“Then why did he disappear?”
“His mother discovered someone was stealing from the hospital's charity fund. She became frightened after reporting it.”
Julian remembered Victoria's accusation about Michael sending Elliot away.
“Where did they go?”
“North Carolina. Michael arranged the tickets and transportation. Elliot told me he believed Michael was protecting them.”
“From whom?”
Nora shook her head.
“That's what Elliot has been trying to find out.”
Outside the hospital, Daniel was waiting beside the car.
“The original trust account is real,” he said. “Your father registered it as a protected charitable trust with a family oversight provision.”
“Meaning?”
“You hold approval rights for major changes. Michael handles routine administration.”
“And Elliot?”
Daniel handed him a copy of a publicly filed summary.
“He was named successor trustee when he turned twenty-five.”
Julian stared at the page.
Elliot had turned twenty-five three months earlier.
His father had planned this years ago.
“The trust wasn't supposed to become Elliot's personal fortune,” Daniel explained. “He was supposed to administer money for St. Anne's and receive a limited family distribution.”
Julian understood.
The document Victoria wanted him to sign would have removed those restrictions.
Someone was trying to steal the hospital's money using Elliot's name.
Daniel handed him another page.
“This is where it gets worse.”
It was a bank transaction report.
For five years, millions had moved into Harbor Meridian Holdings.
The same company Nora had discovered.
Julian examined the authorization column.
Michael's name appeared on several transfers.
Then he reached the final page.
A recent authorization bore Julian's own signature.
He studied it carefully.
The letters looked right.
Even the unusual curve of the R matched his handwriting.
But he had never approved that transaction.
And beneath his name was a second signature.
Elliot Ricci.
Daniel spoke quietly.
“Someone has been using both your identities.”
Julian looked up.
“Find Michael.”
Daniel hesitated.
“There's something else. The company receiving the money owns the building where Victoria's family operates its private investment office.”
Julian slowly lowered the paper.
His fiancée.
His brother.
Eleven million dollars missing from a children's hospital fund.
And now his own signature on a document he'd never seen.
Then Daniel pointed to the date on the last authorization.
It had been submitted three days earlier.
At 8:12 p.m.
The exact time Allison filled her water glass at the reception.
Julian looked at him.
“Daniel, pull the original electronic records.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever submitted that transfer wasn't just stealing money.”
May you like
Julian tapped the date.
“They were using tonight's party to complete the theft.”
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