The Brother She Trusted
1541 Words
Nathaniel changed the locks within an hour.
By noon, two additional guards were stationed outside the house. By one, a security technician was checking every camera and window sensor on the property.
Elena watched from the kitchen with increasing disbelief.
“You always respond to problems by invading a small country?”
Nate looked up from his phone. “Only on weekdays.”
She almost smiled.
“You did not answer the question.”
“No, we did not always have this much security.”
“When did it start?”
“About forty minutes after you told me someone had been inside the house.”
“That seems excessive.”
“You were run off a road.”
“Allegedly.”
“The impact on your car was not alleged.”
Elena sighed.
She hated that he had a point.
A security officer crossed the kitchen carrying a small device.
“What is that?” Elena asked.
“Signal detector,” Nate said.
“For what?”
“Cameras. Listening devices.”
She stared at him. “You think someone bugged our house?”
“I think someone entered it without permission while you were investigating twenty eight million dollars in missing funds.”
When he said it like that, the guards seemed slightly less dramatic.
The front door opened before Elena could answer.
Jaden walked in.
Nate's entire body tightened.
“What are you doing here?”
Jaden stopped inside the entryway. “Nice to see you too.”
Elena looked between them.
“Did you call him?”
“No,” Nate said.
Jaden's gaze moved immediately to Elena.
“I heard you were discharged.”
“From who?”
“Your mother.”
That made sense.
Jaden approached her slowly.
“How are you?”
“Confused.”
“Sounds about right.”
His smile was familiar enough to make Elena relax for half a second.
Then she remembered the voice in her office.
You need to stop looking at this.
Her stomach tightened.
Jaden glanced toward the security team. “What happened?”
Nate answered. “We found something.”
Jaden went still.
Only for a second.
But Elena noticed.
“What?”
“A letter.”
Jaden looked at her. “What letter?”
Something about his voice bothered her.
“One I wrote to Nate.”
Jaden nodded slowly. “Okay.”
“You do not seem surprised.”
“Should I be?”
“I do not know.”
Nate stepped closer. “Why are you here, Jaden?”
His brother's expression hardened. “Elena almost died. I am checking on her.”
“You have checked.”
“Nate,” Elena warned.
Jaden laughed without humor. “Still doing this?”
“Doing what?”
“Treating everyone like they are trying to take something from you.”
Nathaniel's face changed.
Elena felt the tension immediately.
“This is not about me,” Nate said.
“Everything is about you.”
“Stop.”
Both brothers looked at her.
Elena rubbed her forehead.
“I cannot remember five years of my life, and somehow I still remember you two being exhausting.”
Jaden smiled.
Nate did not.
Elena looked at Jaden.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“During the investigation, did I trust you?”
Nate's eyes moved toward his brother.
Jaden hesitated.
“Yes.”
“With everything?”
“Yes.”
“More than Nate?”
Silence.
Jaden glanced at Nathaniel, then back at her.
“At the end?”
“Yes.”
The answer hurt.
Elena looked at Nate.
His jaw tightened, but he did not deny it.
“Why?”
Jaden pulled out a chair. “Because I believed you.”
“And Nate did not.”
“Elena,” Nate said quietly.
She ignored him.
“What did I tell you?”
Jaden's expression softened. “That you were scared.”
“Of what?”
“The board. Losing the company. Losing your marriage.”
“Anything else?”
He paused.
Elena noticed.
“Jaden?”
“You thought someone was setting you up.”
Her pulse jumped. “Did I tell you who?”
“No.”
Too fast.
Nate heard it too. Elena could tell by the way his shoulders shifted.
She leaned back.
“Did you help me investigate?”
Jaden smiled faintly. “I tried.”
Something inside her recoiled.
No memory.
No image.
Just instinct.
Elena stared at him.
Jaden noticed. “What?”
“Nothing.”
He reached toward her hand.
Elena nearly pulled away.
She stopped herself just in time.
Jaden's fingers closed gently over hers.
“You know you can ask me anything, right?”
The touch triggered something.
A kitchen that was not hers.
A glass of wine.
Her wedding ring on a counter.
Jaden's hand covering hers exactly like this.
You deserve someone who chooses you.
Elena inhaled sharply.
His grip loosened. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“You sure?”
She forced a smile. “Headache.”
Nate watched them from across the room.
Jaden's phone rang.
He glanced at the screen. “I need to take this.”
He stepped through the patio doors.
Nate waited until the glass door closed.
“He is lying.”
Elena turned. “You do not know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Because you hate him?”
“He is my brother.”
“That was not an answer.”
Nate lowered his voice. “Jaden told me you never discussed the investigation with him.”
Elena went still.
“When?”
“After the accident.”
Her stomach tightened. “Maybe he forgot.”
“Jaden does not forget.”
Elena looked through the window.
Her brother in law stood outside with his back to them.
The man she had apparently trusted when she stopped trusting her husband.
Then another memory surfaced.
Jaden pouring wine.
Her wedding ring sitting on his kitchen counter.
His thumb brushing over her knuckles.
You do not have to keep protecting Nate.
Then another.
Different.
Later.
Angrier.
Jaden standing in her office.
You were not supposed to find out.
Elena's breath stopped.
The memory disappeared.
“Elena?”
She looked toward the patio.
Jaden had turned around.
He was staring directly at her through the glass.
For one second, neither moved.
Then he smiled.
Warm.
Familiar.
The smile of someone she had trusted for years.
Elena felt cold.
“Nate.”
“Yes?”
She kept her eyes on Jaden. “I think I remembered who was in my office.”
Nathaniel moved beside her. “Who?”
The patio door opened.
Elena turned toward Jaden and smiled.
“Not yet.”
Nate stared at her.
Jaden walked inside.
“What did I miss?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Elena said.
She folded her hands calmly in her lap.
Because she had remembered something else too.
Something Jaden had said immediately after she discovered the truth.
If Nate finds out what I have done, I will lose everything.
The sentence sat inside her mind with terrible clarity.
Elena looked at Jaden, then at Nate.
If she told Nathaniel now, he would confront his brother. She knew that much about him even without five years of memories. Nate did not wait when someone threatened what he loved.
But if Jaden was involved, confrontation would warn him.
And if he had been involved in her accident, warning him could get someone killed.
Possibly her.
Possibly Nate.
Elena forced herself to breathe normally.
Jaden sat across from her.
“You are staring at me.”
She lifted one shoulder. “I am trying to remember you.”
His expression softened.
There it was.
Relief.
Not sadness.
Not grief.
Relief.
Elena suddenly understood that her memory loss was not only a weakness.
It was camouflage.
Jaden believed the accident had erased exactly what he needed gone.
She could let him keep believing that.
For now.
Jaden leaned back in his chair and studied her with an ease that suddenly felt practiced.
“You used to tell me everything,” he said.
Elena kept her expression neutral. “Apparently I used to tell everyone things I cannot remember.”
“Not everyone.”
The words were soft.
Too soft.
Nate's gaze sharpened from across the kitchen.
Elena pretended not to notice.
“What made me trust you?” she asked.
Jaden smiled. “I listened.”
There was no hesitation this time.
“And Nate did not?”
His eyes flicked toward his brother. “You said that, not me.”
Interesting.
Even now he was careful to let Elena make the accusation for him.
A memory stirred, not an image this time but a feeling. Jaden sitting beside her while she cried, never directly insulting Nate, only asking questions that made every disappointment feel larger.
Had he been comforting her?
Or guiding her somewhere?
Elena reached for her water and smiled at him as though nothing had changed.
Because for the first time since the accident, she knew more than Jaden thought she did.
And Elena Marquez Mercer had no intention of wasting the advantage.
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