Chapter 6 - THE SISTER I NEVER KNEW
I felt the floor tilt beneath my feet.
"Elena… your sister?" I repeated, the words feeling thick and clumsy in my mouth. "That's impossible. Elena was an only child. Her parents died years ago. She had no brothers. No sisters."
"She had a brother she never told you about," Marcus said. He walked past me and sat comfortably in the armchair that had belonged to Elena. It felt like sacrilege. "Our parents sent me away when I was small. I grew up in another home. Another name. Elena and I found each other only months before she died."
He paused, staring into the fireplace.
"And she told me everything, Adrian. Everything about you. About the fights. About the fear. About the night she died."
My blood turned to ice.
"She was ill," I said, my voice rising, desperate to hold onto the version of truth I had lived with for years. "She had an accident. She fell—"
"She didn't fall," Marcus said, cutting through my words like a blade. "She ran. She was trying to get away from you. And you… you chased her. You caught her on the stairs. And that is where she died."
I stood frozen, unable to breathe. The memories rushed in—screaming, shoving, a terrible cracking sound, silence. I had told myself it was an accident. I had told myself I didn't mean to push her hard enough. I had buried the truth as deeply as I had buried her.
And now this stranger sat in her chair and spoke the words I had never let pass my own lips.
"You don't know what happened that night," I managed to say, though my hands were trembling. "Elena slipped. It was raining. She lost her footing—"
"She was running from you because she was afraid," Marcus said, leaning forward, his eyes burning into mine. "She wrote me a letter that morning. She said you had changed. That you were angry all the time. That she was afraid for the baby she was carrying."
The room seemed to spin.
"Baby?" I whispered.
Marcus nodded slowly.
"Elena was pregnant, Adrian. With our second child. She didn't tell you because she was afraid you would hurt the baby, too. She planned to leave you. To come to me. And that is why she died. Because she tried to walk away from you."
I gripped the back of the sofa to stay upright. I had never known. Elena had never told me she was carrying another child. I had grieved her loss endlessly, but I had never known I had lost everything that night.
And Vanessa… Vanessa stood near the stairs, watching me with tears in her eyes.
"You married me," I said, turning to her as the realization slowly dawned. "You married me because Marcus asked you to. To come here. To find the truth. To find the proof."
Vanessa nodded slowly. "Marcus is Elena's family. He wanted answers. He wanted justice. And he knew that the only way to find the truth was to have someone inside this house. Someone you would trust."
"So you agreed to marry me?" I asked, my voice cracking. "To live a lie? To play the part of a loving wife… all to dig up the worst night of my life?"
"I didn't know it would be like this," Vanessa said, her voice breaking. "I didn't know I would…"
She stopped herself, glancing quickly at Marcus.
"You didn't know what?" Marcus asked sharply, turning toward her. "Finish your sentence, Vanessa."
Vanessa pressed her lips together and stepped back, shaking her head. "Nothing. I just didn't know how hard it would be."
Marcus stood up and walked toward me. He pulled a folded piece of paper from his coat pocket and held it out.
"This is Elena's letter to me," he said. "Every word she wrote. Read it. And then tell me, Adrian—did she deserve to die that night? Did she deserve to be pushed down the stairs and buried in silence while you carried on with your life as if nothing had happened?"
I reached out with trembling hands and took the letter. My fingers brushed Elena's handwriting. The words swam before my eyes. He scares me. He doesn't know. I have to leave before he finds out.
I folded the letter slowly. I looked up and saw Marcus watching me. Waiting.
"What do you want?" I asked him quietly. "Money? Confession? Prison?"
May you like
Marcus smiled, and this time there was no warmth at all.
"I want what was stolen from my sister," he said. "Your estate. Your fortune. Your name. Everything you built while she lay silent in the cold earth. And I am going to take it all, Adrian. Starting tonight."
