Chapter 4 - The Brother I Thought I Knew
Spencer called me that night.
I was sitting beside Gemma’s hospital bed, watching her sleep. She had finally eaten half a bowl of soup, taken medication for the pain, and fallen into an exhausted sleep with her hand still wrapped around mine.
When my phone lit up, I nearly ignored it.
Then I saw his name.
Spencer Calling.
I stepped quietly into the hallway.
“Where are you?” I asked the second I answered.
“Mason, calm down.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m trying to fix this.”
“You locked my wife in a storage room.”
“I didn’t lock her in there.”
“You knew.”
Silence.
That was all I needed.
“You knew,” I repeated.
Spencer exhaled shakily. “Mom and Valerie took it too far.”
“Too far?” I said. “She was trapped for three days.”
“They weren’t supposed to leave her that long.”
The hallway blurred around me.
“You’re telling me there was a planned amount of time?”
“Mason, you don’t understand the pressure we’re under.”
“No. You don’t understand what happens next.”
“I need money.”
“You stole from our father’s trust.”
“I borrowed it.”
“You defrauded elderly people.”
“That was Valerie’s idea.”
“Of course it was.”
“Don’t act like you’re better than me,” Spencer snapped. “You got the stable job. You got the good life. You got the wife who handles money and makes everyone think she’s perfect.”
My anger turned cold.
“Gemma is not perfect,” I said. “She is kind. And you people mistook kindness for weakness.”
Spencer laughed bitterly.
“You always took her side.”
“She is my wife.”
“She is the reason this family is falling apart.”
“No,” I said. “The family fell apart the moment you decided you could hurt her and call it business.”
He was quiet for a long time.
Then he said, “I have the money.”
“What?”
“The eighty-five thousand. It hasn’t cleared yet, but I can stop it. Meet me.”
“Where?”
“Valley Ridge’s warehouse. South Phoenix. Come alone.”
I knew it was a trap.
Daniel knew it too when I told him.
“You absolutely cannot go alone,” he said.
“He has our money.”
“And he may have evidence, records, or access to accounts. But your brother is desperate now. Desperate people are unpredictable.”
Gemma had woken up while we talked. She listened quietly from the bed.
“Mason,” she said, “don’t go.”
“I have to.”
“No.” Her voice was stronger than I expected. “You have to come back to me.”
I sat beside her.
“I will.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
Daniel contacted Detective Riley. Within an hour, a plan was in place.
I would meet Spencer at the warehouse.
Police would remain nearby.
But we needed him to reveal where the money and the documents were before moving in.
The warehouse sat behind a row of auto repair shops, hidden between cracked pavement and chain-link fences. Valley Ridge Property Solutions was printed on a faded sign above the door.
It looked abandoned.
But when I stepped inside, I saw desks, file cabinets, printers, stacks of contracts, and boxes filled with folders.
Spencer stood near the back wall.
He looked terrible.
His shirt was wrinkled. His eyes were red. He had not shaved in days.
A duffel bag sat at his feet.
“Is the money in there?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Most of it.”
“Most?”
“Some was already used.”
I laughed once, without humor.
“You used money meant for Gemma’s medical treatment.”
“I told you, I had no choice.”
“You always had a choice.”
Spencer looked around the warehouse.
“You don’t understand. Mom put the trust money in my name because she believed in me. I thought this business would work. I thought I could pay it back before anyone noticed.”
“Then you started stealing from people.”
“At first, we just inflated invoices. Then Valerie brought in people who knew how to get signatures. She said it was easy. She said old people never read contracts.”
My hands clenched.
“You let her do it.”
“I was drowning.”
“So you pulled everyone else under with you.”
Spencer looked at the duffel bag.
“The documents are here. Every contract. Every account. Valerie kept copies in case someone tried to blame her.”
“And my mother?”
His face twisted.
“Mom knew enough. She didn’t ask questions because she liked the money coming in. She thought we deserved it.”
“She thought she deserved to lock Gemma up.”
“She thought Gemma was turning you against us.”
“She was turning me toward the truth.”
A noise came from the front of the warehouse.
Spencer’s head snapped up.
Then Valerie walked in.
She had a gun.
For the first time in my life, I saw genuine fear on my brother’s face.
“Valerie,” he said, “what are you doing?”
She smiled.
May you like
“Cleaning up your mess.”
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