Chapter 3
The Trust Office
The next morning, I drove downtown.
Bennett & Sons Private Trust occupied the upper floors of an old limestone building. The receptionist saw my name on the visitor sheet and went pale.
“Mr. Bennett didn’t say you were coming,” she said.
“I need to access an account.”
I put the photograph on the desk.
“I don’t think I can help you.”
“You haven’t even asked which account.”
“My husband told me to come here.”
She disappeared behind a security door.
A few minutes later, a tall man in a navy suit came out. He introduced himself as Daniel Mercer, counsel for the trust.
“Tell me what Liam Bennett had here.”
Daniel looked down at the photograph.
“That picture is seven years old.”
“Then tell me who the man beside him is.”
He looked again, and his expression changed.
“Mrs. Bennett, your husband did not have an account here.”
“Then why is he in front of your building?”
Daniel pointed to the picture.
“The man on the left is Liam.”
Then he pointed to the stranger.
“The man on the right is Elliot Bennett.”
I had never heard that name before.
“Who is Elliot?”
Daniel’s face went still.
“He was declared dead nine years ago.”
The Dead Brother
I went home and tore through every document Liam had ever kept.
Then I remembered a conversation from our first year of marriage. I had asked him why there were no childhood photographs in the house.
“Some families aren’t worth remembering,” he had said.
I thought he meant his father.
I called Liam’s old college roommate. He answered on the fourth ring.
“I need to ask you something about Liam.”
I sent him the photograph.
There was a long silence.
“Apparently he had a brother,” I said.
“Emily, I don’t know what you’re getting into.”
“Did Liam ever mention Elliot?”
“Seven years ago, Liam disappeared for almost four months. He said he was traveling.”
“And Elliot?”
“He told me something once. He said if anyone ever told me Elliot died, I shouldn’t believe them.”
“What else?”
“He said there was a woman involved. Someone who was supposed to be dead too.”
That afternoon, I found an old newspaper article.
LOCAL WOMAN KILLED IN HOUSE FIRE.
The woman had supposedly died nine years earlier at the Bennett family home. Her body was never found. The article said two sons survived the fire.
Elliot was later declared dead.
Then I found a sealed identity-change petition buried in public records.
The filing was not under Liam Bennett’s name.
Before I could understand what it meant, I called Dr. Barrett.
“Did Liam have a brother?”
“Emily, you need to stop investigating this.”
“Did Liam donate something before he died?”
His breathing changed.
“I can’t discuss another patient’s medical information.”
“There was no other patient.”
May you like
But there had been.
Not a stranger. Someone tied to Liam’s past.
