Chapter 4 - The Brother Everyone Buried
Maya slipped the notebook beneath a stack of old tax files.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she said. “I wanted one of Dad’s books.”
Trent’s eyes moved around the room.
Then he smiled.
It was the soft smile he used whenever he wanted her to question her own fear.
“You shouldn’t wander around in the dark.”
He guided her back to the bedroom with one hand pressed firmly against her lower back.
The next morning, every lock on Thomas’s study had been changed.
Trent claimed it was necessary because the company stored confidential documents there.
Maya knew it was a warning.
For two days, she searched through the few boxes Trent had allowed her to keep from her father’s estate.
At the bottom of an old wooden chess set, she found a silver military challenge coin.
It had belonged to Alex.
Maya remembered him giving it to their father before his final deployment.
Beneath the coin was a strip of paper containing eleven numbers.
The first ten resembled a phone number.
The last was the number seven.
Maya waited until Trent left for the office.
Then she walked three blocks to a grocery store and used a prepaid phone purchased with cash.
She dialed the number.
It rang once.
Then the call disconnected.
She tried again.
This time, someone answered.
There was no greeting.
Only silence.
Maya’s voice shook.
“Alex?”
The person on the other end inhaled sharply.
“Maya?”
Her knees nearly gave out.
She gripped the payphone shelf.
Her brother’s voice was older and rougher than she remembered.
But it was his.
“You’re alive.”
“I am.”
“Then why did you let me think you were dead?”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“You always had a choice.”
“Maya, listen carefully. Are you alone?”
She looked through the grocery store window.
A black SUV was parked across the street.
Trent’s father sat behind the wheel.
Watching her.
May you like
“Not anymore,” Maya whispered.
👉 Maya had found her brother—but Richard Holloway had just discovered she was searching for someone.
