Chapter 7: The Body in His Brother's Grave
At 4:36 Friday morning, Victor Romano stood in front of his brother's grave with a shovel in his hands.
Rain tapped against the black marble headstone. Behind him, Detective Sarah Mitchell spoke quietly into her radio while two forensic officers prepared the equipment they would need to exhume the coffin.
Victor barely heard them.
Anthony Romano's name was carved into the stone beneath the dates of his birth and death. Someone had placed fresh white lilies beside the grave, even though no member of the family had visited in months.
Victor recognized the arrangement.
Eleanor sent flowers every anniversary.
Every year, she stood beside him, held his hand, and whispered that Anthony would have wanted them to remain united.
Every year, Victor believed her.
Now he wondered whether she had been visiting a grave she knew contained someone else.
"Mr. Romano," Detective Mitchell said, approaching him.
"I need you to step back. The forensic team is ready.""
Victor stared at the headstone.
"Six years," he whispered.
"Sir?""
"For six years, I brought flowers here and apologized to a man who might still be alive.""
Detective Mitchell didn't answer.
There was nothing comforting she could say.
The officers began removing the earth.
Victor stood beneath a black umbrella, watching the grave open one shovelful at a time. He had attended his father's burial in the same cemetery. His mother's ashes rested beneath another marble monument nearby. The family had always treated the grounds as sacred.
Now every stone seemed to conceal a lie.
When the coffin emerged, the forensic team photographed its condition before opening it.
One of the officers examined the contents.
Then he looked up.
"Detective, we have a problem.""
Mitchell approached.
Victor followed until she raised a hand to stop him.
"What is it?"" she asked.
"The remains don't match the medical description in the original death report.""
"Explain.""
"The report says Anthony Romano had a healed fracture in his left forearm and a distinctive surgical plate in his right shoulder. These remains show neither.""
Victor felt the umbrella slip in his hand.
"Then whose body is it?""
"We don't know yet.""
The officer pointed toward the skull.
"There is evidence of trauma, but the remains are too degraded for a visual identification. We'll need DNA.""
Victor stared into the coffin.
He had spent six years imagining Anthony's final moments. He had pictured his brother alone in the car, fighting the steering wheel as rain blurred the road. He had imagined the impact, the broken glass, the cold darkness.
But the man in the coffin had never been identified.
Someone had taken a stranger's body and buried it under Anthony's name.
Someone had made Victor mourn a lie.
Detective Mitchell turned to the forensic officer.
"Prioritize the DNA comparison against Victor's reference sample. Contact the lab directly.""
Then she faced Victor.
"Until we have results, we cannot establish who these remains belong to or what happened to Anthony.""
Victor nodded, but his attention had shifted to his phone.
A message had arrived from the unknown number.
You wanted the truth. Now you have it.
A second message followed.
Tell the police about the night you argued with Anthony.
Victor's expression changed.
Detective Mitchell noticed.
"What is it?""
He handed her the phone.
She read both messages.
"Did you argue with your brother shortly before his death?""
Victor hesitated.
"Yes.""
"How serious was it?""
"Serious enough that I told him never to come back to the company.""
"Did you threaten him?""
"No.""
"Did he threaten you?""
Victor looked away.
"He said that if I exposed what he had done, he would destroy me.""
Mitchell waited.
"What had he done?""
Victor rubbed his forehead.
"I discovered money missing from a development fund. Anthony had diverted it through three companies. When I confronted him, he said the money was his share of the business.""
"Was it?""
"No. But I didn't report him. I gave him forty-eight hours to return it.""
"And then?""
"He disappeared.""
Victor swallowed.
"Three days later, Martin told me Anthony had died.""
Detective Mitchell studied him.
"Did you tell the police about the missing money?""
"No.""
"Why not?""
"Because I thought I could protect my family without destroying it.""
The detective's expression remained neutral.
"Sometimes protecting a family means allowing the truth to come out.""
Victor looked back at the open grave.
"I know that now.""
His phone vibrated again.
This time, the message contained a video.
Victor pressed play.
The footage showed Adrian sitting in a bare room, holding his stuffed rabbit. He looked tired, but he was conscious.
A man's voice came from behind the camera.
"Your father has been busy digging up the past, Adrian.""
The boy looked up.
"Please let me go home.""
"Home?"" the man replied.
"Your father has spent years choosing his business over you.""
"That's not true.""
A hand entered the frame and placed a plate of food on the floor.
"Then why did he let Eleanor treat you like this?""
Adrian stared at the plate.
The man chuckled.
"Eat. We have a long day ahead.""
The video ended.
Victor's hands began to shake.
Detective Mitchell took the phone.
"Do you recognize the voice?""
Victor listened to the recording again.
"No.""
"Could it be Martin?""
"I don't think so.""
"Anthony?""
Victor closed his eyes.
"I don't know.""
The detective immediately forwarded the video to her digital forensics team.
"We'll work on identifying the location. Don't respond to the sender.""
Victor turned away.
"I promised Adrian I would bring him home.""
"And we will do everything we can to find him.""
He stared at the grave.
"Then we need to stop looking only at the people who want my money.""
Mitchell raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?""
Victor pulled out the photograph of Anthony and Martin outside the clinic.
"They're both involved. But someone else has been controlling the records, the security cameras, and the trust. Someone who knows every room in my house.""
"Who?""
Victor looked toward the mansion beyond the cemetery wall.
"Someone who never needed to break in.""
At 7:15 a.m., Eleanor Romano arrived at the estate's front entrance with two suitcases.
She wore sunglasses despite the rain and carried a leather folder beneath her arm.
The security officer on duty stepped forward.
"Mrs. Romano, Detective Mitchell has instructed us not to allow anyone to leave the property without authorization.""
Eleanor removed her sunglasses.
"I'm not leaving. I'm collecting my personal belongings.""
"Please wait here while I contact the detective.""
She smiled at him.
"Of course.""
Then she reached into her handbag and produced a folded document.
"My attorney has prepared a statement confirming that I am entitled to remove my possessions. You can call him if you'd like.""
The officer accepted the paper.
As he examined it, Eleanor looked past him toward the service corridor.
A kitchen assistant hurried through the doorway carrying a stack of folded linens.
Eleanor caught her by the elbow.
"Tell me something, Sophie. Has Margaret been speaking to Victor?""
Sophie stiffened.
"I don't know, ma'am.""
"Don't lie to me.""
The girl lowered her eyes.
Eleanor released her.
"Go on, then.""
Sophie hurried away.
Eleanor watched her disappear.
Then she took out her phone and sent a message.
Victor has opened the grave. The plan has changed.
She deleted the message.
But she did not notice the security camera above the entrance.
Daniel Brooks did.
From the security room, he watched Eleanor put her phone away and walk toward the staircase.
He immediately called Detective Mitchell.
"Detective, we have a problem. Eleanor just sent a message from the front entrance.""
"To whom?""
"We don't know yet. But I can recover the transmission from the estate's network if she used the internal connection.""
"Do it. And keep eyes on her.""
Daniel hesitated.
"There's something else.""
"What?""
"Eleanor's access card opened the old archive room at 3:12 this morning.""
Mitchell went silent.
"The archive room was supposed to be sealed.""
"It was. Someone used an override.""
"What did she take?""
Daniel opened the inventory list.
Most of the documents were still in place.
But one item was missing.
The original trust agreement signed by Victor, Anthony, and their father.
The document that determined who would inherit the controlling shares of Romano Holdings if one of the brothers died.
Daniel stared at the empty space in the cabinet.
"Detective, I think Eleanor knows something we haven't discovered yet.""
Across the mansion, Eleanor entered her private office and locked the door.
She opened her leather folder.
Inside was a photograph of three men standing outside a courthouse.
Victor.
Martin.
And a third man whose face had been scratched out.
Eleanor ran her finger across the damaged photograph.
Then she opened a drawer and removed a small envelope.
The front carried a single name.
*Isabella Romano.*
Victor's first wife.
Adrian's mother.
Eleanor unfolded the letter inside.
It contained a message written in Isabella's handwriting.
If anything happens to me, Victor must know the truth about Anthony.
Eleanor read the sentence twice.
Then she fed the letter into a paper shredder.
As the machine swallowed the final strip of paper, she whispered, "You should have stayed dead, Anthony.""
Her phone vibrated.
A message appeared.
The boy is asking about his mother.
Eleanor typed a response.
Then tell him what happened to her.
She paused.
Then added another sentence.
It's time Victor learned that his brother wasn't the only person who survived that night.
And somewhere in the city, inside a locked room with bare walls, Adrian Romano sat beside his untouched breakfast.
The man who had taken him entered carrying a second plate.
Adrian looked up.
"Can I ask you something?""
The man set the plate down.
"That depends.""
"Did you know my mother?""
For a moment, the man's expression changed.
Then he pulled a chair closer and sat opposite the boy.
"Yes," he said quietly.
"I knew Isabella very well.""
Adrian clutched his rabbit.
"Did you hurt her?""
The man looked toward the closed door.
May you like
"No, Adrian. But I know who did.""
And for the first time since his disappearance, the boy heard something in the man's voice that sounded almost like regret.
