Chapter 13 - The Brother He Chose
His name was Frank Dalton.
To Wade, Frank was more than a friend.
They had built Turner Custom Cycles together.
Frank had been best man at Wade and Sarah's wedding.
After Sarah and Elizabeth supposedly died, Frank had been the person who dragged Wade out of bars, gave him work, and eventually helped him rebuild his life.
“He's my brother,” Wade said.
Not biologically.
In every way that mattered.
Detective Brooks placed an old photograph in front of him.
Sarah stood outside Turner Custom Cycles seventeen years earlier.
The image came from a nearby bank's archived security footage.
Standing beside her was Frank.
Wade stared.
“No.”
“Hayes says Sarah contacted him looking for you. He panicked and called Frank.”
“Why would he call Frank?”
“Because Frank had been receiving payments from Charles Collins.”
Wade stopped breathing.
Records confirmed it.
Small payments at first.
Then larger ones.
Charles had paid Frank to keep Wade away from Sarah's family.
After Sarah disappeared, Frank continued receiving money.
For years.
Kayla sat beside Wade.
“Did Frank know about me?”
Brooks nodded.
“We believe so.”
Wade stood.
“I need to hear it from him.”
This time Brooks allowed it.
With police present.
Frank arrived voluntarily.
He was sixty-two.
Gray-haired.
Heavyset.
He looked like the kind of man who had spent his life beside Wade.
Because he had.
When he saw Wade, he began crying before anyone asked a question.
That was confession enough.
“You knew.”
Frank looked down.
“Grizz—”
“Don't call me that.”
Frank flinched.
“You knew my wife was alive.”
“Yes.”
The word shattered something.
“You knew I had a daughter.”
“Yes.”
Wade's fist hit the table.
Not Frank.
The table.
Kayla jumped.
Wade immediately looked at her.
“Sorry.”
Then back to Frank.
“Why?”
Frank cried.
“Because you were dying.”
“What?”
“After Elizabeth, you were destroying yourself.”
“So you decided I didn't deserve my family?”
“No.”
Frank wiped his face.
“Charles came to me. Said Sarah wanted a clean break. Said she was terrified of you.”
“And you believed him?”
“At first.”
“At first?”
Frank closed his eyes.
“When Sarah came back seventeen years ago, I knew.”
Wade stared.
“She walked into our shop?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn't call me?”
“No.”
“Where was I?”
“Daytona. The motorcycle show.”
Wade laughed.
A broken sound.
“You told her what?”
“That you'd moved on.”
“Had I?”
Frank looked down.
“No.”
“You knew I hadn't dated anyone seriously in ten years.”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“I told her you didn't want contact.”
Kayla covered her mouth.
Wade stared at the man he had called brother for thirty years.
“Why?”
Frank finally said it.
“Money.”
Silence.
“Charles offered me enough to save the shop.”
Wade frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
“You thought our first expansion loan came through.”
“It did.”
“No.”
Frank shook his head.
“The bank rejected us. We were three weeks from closing.”
Wade's face changed.
“Charles paid it?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
Wade stood very still.
Frank continued.
“I told myself I was saving you. Saving the business. Then years passed. The lie got bigger.”
“You watched me wear my dead daughter's bracelet every day.”
Frank sobbed.
“I know.”
“You watched me volunteer here.”
“I know.”
“You knew why.”
“Yes.”
Wade walked toward the door.
Frank called after him.
“Grizz, please.”
Wade stopped.
“You didn't steal seventeen years from me.”
Frank looked hopeful for half a second.
Wade turned.
“You stole seventeen years from her.”
He pointed toward Kayla.
“My daughter grew up thinking her father abandoned her.”
Frank lowered his head.
“And I spent seventeen years thinking my wife never got another day.”
Wade opened the door.
“You can explain the rest to the police.”
Outside, Kayla followed him.
He walked until they reached the hospital chapel.
Then his legs gave out.
He sat in the last pew.
Kayla sat beside him.
“I trusted him.”
“I know.”
“I would've trusted him with my life.”
“I know.”
Wade stared at the floor.
“I'm tired of finding out everyone I loved lied to me.”
Kayla took his hand.
“I haven't.”
He looked at her.
“Not yet.”
Her face tightened.
“Don't do that.”
“What?”
“Punish me for what they did.”
Wade closed his eyes.
She was right.
“I’m sorry.”
Kayla squeezed his hand.
“You know what Grandma wrote.”
“Stay.”
“Yeah.”
Wade nodded.
“I'm staying.”
Then Kayla's phone rang.
It was the NICU.
May you like
Samuel had suddenly deteriorated.
The cardiology team was preparing for emergency surgery.
