Chapter 4 - My Brother-in-Law Came to Comfort Me“Hospital paperwork.”
The lie came out so quickly that even I believed it for a second.
Ethan looked at me.
Then at the envelope.
Detective Mitchell had stepped into the bathroom before he entered. Nathan had gone into the hallway.
My mother stood beside the window, pale and rigid.
Ethan nodded.
“Of course.”
He placed the flowers on the counter.
“They’re beautiful,” I said.
I hated myself for sounding normal.
Mark used to say I had a terrible poker face.
That afternoon, grief became my disguise.
I didn’t need to pretend I was shaken.
I was.
I didn’t need to manufacture tears.
They came every few minutes without warning.
Ethan pulled a chair toward my bed.
“How are you holding up?”
“I don’t know.”
He nodded sympathetically.
“I still can’t believe he’s gone.”
Neither could I.
That was the cruelest part.
I could look at Ethan and remember him standing beside Mark at our wedding.
Mark’s best man.
His younger brother.
The boy Mark defended in high school.
The teenager Mark worked two jobs to help send to college after their mother died.
How did love turn into this?
Or had I misunderstood Ethan all along?
He reached toward Grace.
“Can I hold her?”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
I wanted to say no.
Instead, Detective Mitchell’s warning echoed in my mind.
He may not know what Mark discovered.
I handed him my daughter.
It was the hardest thing I had ever done.
Harder than watching Mark die.
Ethan cradled Grace carefully.
“She’s tiny.”
“She came early.”
“Because of the stress?”
“I guess.”
His eyes moved toward me.
“Did Nathan say anything unusual before you left this morning?”
There it was.
My heartbeat accelerated.
I forced confusion onto my face.
“Unusual?”
“About Mark.”
“No.”
“Nothing?”
“He told me the donation process had started.”
Ethan looked down at Grace.
“That’s Mark.”
“What?”
“Always trying to save everybody.”
The words nearly broke me.
Because they were true.
After a few minutes, Ethan returned Grace.
He stood.
“I’ll handle the funeral.”
“No.”
He blinked.
I softened my tone.
“I mean… I need to do it.”
“Emily, you just gave birth.”
“I’m his wife.”
“I know.”
“I need something to do.”
Ethan studied me.
Then smiled.
“Okay.”
He hugged me.
His mouth came close to my ear.
“If you need anything, I’m here.”
My skin crawled.
After he left, Detective Mitchell emerged.
My mother immediately locked the door.
“How did I do?” I asked.
Mitchell stared at me.
“You lied well.”
“Apparently grief improves me.”
Nobody laughed.
Mitchell moved toward the envelope.
“He noticed it.”
“I know.”
“We need to move these materials.”
“Take them.”
“We already copied everything.”
I looked at her.
“When?”
“While you were in labor.”
Of course they had.
I was learning that life continued brutally fast whether I was ready or not.
That evening, Detective Mitchell explained what came next.
They would subpoena records from the clinic that sold the supplements.
They would investigate the insurance policy.
They would review security footage from our neighborhood.
And they would examine Mark’s organs and tissue samples for toxic exposure.
That last part crushed me.
Mark’s donation process had already been interrupted.
Several organs remained eligible.
Some didn’t.
I sat beside Grace, staring at the wall while Nathan explained that potential recipients had already been notified.
“Will his organs still save anyone?”
“Some may.”
“How many?”
“We don’t know yet.”
I nodded.
Mark would have hated that his final act of generosity had been complicated by the person who harmed him.
Around midnight, after my mother fell asleep in the recliner, I opened Mark’s flash drive.
The detective had returned it after making a forensic copy.
There were sixteen folders.
Most contained documents.
One was labeled:
FOR EMILY.
Inside were videos.
The first was dated three weeks before Mark died.
I clicked.
Mark appeared on my laptop screen.
He was sitting in our home office.
Thinner.
Paler.
But unmistakably Mark.
“Hey, Em.”
My hand flew over my mouth.
His voice.
I had heard it that morning.
Yet suddenly it felt as though someone had opened a door into another universe.
Mark looked straight into the camera.
“If Nathan gave you this, then I’m probably gone.”
I started sobbing.
Grace stirred in the bassinet.
I lowered the volume.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what I was investigating.”
Mark looked away.
“I know you’re going to be furious.”
I laughed through my tears.
“Yes.”
He smiled faintly, as though he had predicted my answer.
“But I needed you focused on the baby. And I needed Ethan to believe I hadn’t told you.”
Mark explained that the private investigator had uncovered more than debt.
Ethan had been secretly selling interests in the inherited commercial properties.
Interests he did not legally own.
He had forged Mark’s signature.
If the fraud was discovered, Ethan could lose everything.
Prison.
Properties.
Reputation.
Mark had confronted him indirectly.
Ethan realized Mark was getting close.
“That’s when my symptoms got worse,” Mark said.
My stomach turned.
Then Mark leaned toward the camera.
“There’s something else.”
He held up a document.
“I changed my will.”
I froze.
“I moved everything I own into a trust for you and Grace. Ethan gets nothing from me personally.”
I whispered, “Good.”
“But the business partnership is different. There’s an old clause Dad wrote years ago. If I die, Ethan can buy my interest at a fixed valuation.”
Mark inhaled carefully.
“If he gets control of my shares before the fraud is uncovered, he may be able to hide what he did.”
I listened.
Then Mark said something I did not understand.
“So I placed one final safeguard in the company records.”
He almost smiled.
“One Ethan doesn’t know about.”
The video ended.
“What safeguard?”
I clicked the next file.
It was corrupted.
I tried again.
Nothing.
The third video opened.
Mark was in his hospital room.
“Em, if the second file doesn’t work, ask Harold.”
Harold?
I searched my memory.
Then it hit me.
Harold Pierce.
Mark’s father’s old attorney.
A man we had not seen in four years.
Mark continued.
“Harold has the original.”
Original what?
I leaned closer.
“Don’t call him from your phone.”
My heart stopped.
“Ethan has access to more than you think.”
The video ended.
I stared at the black screen.
Then my phone lit up beside me.
An automated security alert.
NEW LOGIN DETECTED — DAWSON FAMILY CLOUD ACCOUNT.
Location:
Ethan Dawson’s residence.
I opened the account activity.
Someone had tried to access Mark’s files.
Three times.
Then another alert appeared.
PASSWORD RESET REQUESTED.
Ethan wasn’t grieving.
May you like
He was searching.
And whatever Mark had hidden with Harold Pierce, Ethan wanted it badly enough to expose himself.
Related Stories
