Chapter 14 - My Brother’s Name
Ethan had one brother.
Caleb.
Two years younger.
Funny.
Charming.
Always broke.
Always somehow landing on his feet.
Ethan had not considered him part of this story.
That was a mistake.
Caleb lived in Worcester and worked irregular construction jobs.
He also owed Nolan Pierce $64,000.
Moreno laid it out in the hospital conference room.
“Pierce managed an investment account for your brother before he lost his license. The investment collapsed. Your brother says Nolan kept threatening to sue him for unpaid loans.”
Ethan stared at the printed messages.
“What does that have to do with Natalie?”
“Allison offered to clear Caleb’s debt.”
Natalie whispered, “For what?”
Moreno slid across another page.
A text from Allison to Caleb.
Need a believable screenshot from Ethan’s email. Nothing traceable after. $10k when done, rest settled with Nolan.
Ethan felt something inside him turn to stone.
“My own brother.”
“He claims he thought Allison wanted to break you up because she hated you.”
“That makes it better?”
“No.”
Caleb had used an old password Ethan once shared for a streaming account.
The same password pattern opened an abandoned email account.
He recreated the appearance of Ethan’s current email in a mock browser window, wrote the message, and sent Allison a screenshot.
Crude.
Simple.
Devastating.
Ethan called him.
Moreno did not stop him.
Caleb answered on the fourth ring.
“Hey.”
“You made it.”
Silence.
“The divorce screenshot.”
“Ethan—”
“You made my wife think I was leaving her while she had cancer.”
“I didn’t know she had cancer.”
“You knew you were lying.”
“I needed the money.”
Ethan laughed once.
“You needed money.”
“Don’t act like you’ve never been desperate.”
“I have been desperate.”
His voice cracked.
“I came home from my mother’s funeral and went to work the next morning because I needed money. I sold my truck because I needed money. I did not manufacture the end of somebody else’s marriage.”
Caleb started crying.
Ethan did not care.
Then Caleb said something that changed the room.
“Allison said it wasn’t forever.”
“What?”
“She said she only needed Natalie away from you for two months.”
“Why two months?”
“I don’t know.”
Moreno leaned toward the phone.
“Ask him what happens in two months.”
Ethan did.
Caleb breathed hard.
“She said after two months, it wouldn’t matter whether you got back together.”
Natalie’s face went pale.
Ethan whispered, “Why?”
“I swear I don’t know.”
Then Caleb said, “Wait.”
Paper rustled.
“There was a date.”
“What date?”
“Allison kept talking about November second.”
Natalie looked at Ethan.
Their anniversary was September eighteenth.
November second was six weeks away.
Moreno started searching.
Insurance.
Retirement.
Trusts.
Then he found it.
Natalie’s life insurance policy had a contestability clause related to beneficiary changes.
After sixty days, certain changes became harder to reverse without written fraud evidence.
But that still did not explain the date exactly.
Natalie suddenly gasped.
“My airline pension.”
Ethan turned.
“What about it?”
“If I medically retired instead of taking temporary leave, I could elect a lump-sum rollover.”
“How much?”
Natalie whispered, “About three hundred and eighty thousand.”
Moreno looked at the calendar.
“Election window?”
“Sixty days after separation.”
The room went silent.
Allison did not need Natalie dead.
She needed her isolated, medically frightened, unemployed, declared impaired if necessary, and financially dependent long enough to move nearly everything.
Then the conference room door opened.
A detective stepped in.
“Mrs. Cole, your sister wants to speak with you.”
Natalie’s face hardened.
“Why?”
“She says she’ll confess to everything.”
Moreno added, “On one condition.”
Ethan already knew he would hate it.
“What condition?”
“She’ll only speak to Natalie. Alone.”
— — —
The next chapters are on the left side of your screen.
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