Chapter 10 - The Sister I Didn’t Know
The attacker’s name was Travis Cole.
He had three prior arrests, two assault charges, and one surprising connection: six months earlier, Brooke had transferred him twenty thousand dollars through a consulting company that did not actually exist.
That payment happened two days before Dad’s boat disappeared.
Detective Reed stopped calling Brooke a witness after that.
He called her a suspect.
Mom sat beside me all night, staring at the floor.
At 2:13 a.m., I finally asked the question neither of us wanted.
“How long?”
She looked up.
“How long have you known Brooke was in trouble?”
Mom’s eyes filled.
“Almost a year.”
I felt something inside me break that had nothing to do with bone.
She told me Brooke had developed a gambling problem. Private card games. Sports betting. Online accounts. She owed people hundreds of thousands.
Dad found out and cut her off.
Evan offered to “fix it.”
Instead, he taught her how to steal from the company.
“At first she said she was borrowing,” Mom whispered. “Then it got bigger.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I thought your father would handle it.”
“He disappeared.”
Mom flinched.
“And you still said nothing.”
“I was scared.”
“So was I.”
She started crying.
I did not comfort her.
At sunrise, Reed arrived with good news and bad news.
The good news: Travis Cole was talking.
The bad news: he claimed Brooke had hired him not to kill Dad, but to scare him into signing control of the company over to her.
“Evan changed the plan,” Reed said. “According to Travis, Evan decided Daniel was worth more dead.”
“Where is Brooke?”
“We don’t know.”
My eyes narrowed. “You let her leave?”
“Her attorney brought her in voluntarily. We didn’t have enough to hold her at that moment. By the time we got the new evidence, she was gone.”
A nurse rushed into the room holding a phone.
“Claire, reception says there’s a call for you.”
I answered.
Brooke’s voice came through immediately.
“You always were the favorite.”
My hand tightened around the receiver.
“Where’s Dad?”
May you like
She was quiet for one beat.
Then she said, “Ask Mom what she signed.”
