The Billionaire’s Forbidden Toy

Chapter 11: His Brother’s Shadow

The message sat on my screen like a blade.

For a moment, everything else disappeared.

The red room.

The names.

My mother’s empty hospital bed.

The voice.

The pier.

Even Cassian.

All I saw was the photograph.

Cassian as a boy, maybe twelve or thirteen, standing stiffly beside another boy who looked almost exactly like him.

Same dark hair.

Same sharp jaw even in youth.

Same eyes.

But where Cassian’s face was closed and serious, the other boy smiled like he knew the whole world would forgive him before he even sinned.

A brother.

Cassian had a brother.

And no one had mentioned him.

Not Vivienne.

Not Elias.

Not even Cassian.

I lifted the phone slowly.

“Who is he?”

Cassian had been moving toward the elevator, already in command again, already thinking ten steps ahead, but my voice stopped him.

He turned.

Then he saw the screen.

Everything in him changed.

Not visibly to anyone who did not know how to read him.

But I did now.

God help me, I did.

His shoulders went still. His eyes hardened. His mouth became a flat, dangerous line.

Tessa leaned over my arm and looked at the photo.

“Oh, fantastic,” she said. “A secret brother. Because apparently the murder room wasn’t enough.”

I ignored her, eyes fixed on Cassian.

“Who is he?”

Cassian’s silence was answer enough.

But I needed words.

I was done being fed pieces of truth like scraps from a table.

“My mother is missing,” I said, my voice trembling with anger. “Someone sent me a photo of your brother and asked why he wants me. So you’re going to talk. Right now.”

Cassian glanced toward the elevator doors.

“We don’t have time.”

I stepped closer.

“Make time.”

His eyes flashed. “Alina—” “No.” I cut him off so sharply even Tessa went quiet. “You don’t get to use my name like a leash.

Not now.”

That landed.

Good.

Let it hurt.

Cassian looked at me for one long second. Then he exhaled through his nose, low and controlled, like patience was something he had to physically force back into his body.

“His name is Adrian Voss.”

The name moved through the hallway like a ghost waking.

Tessa frowned. “Never heard of him.”

“You weren’t supposed to,” Cassian said.

My stomach tightened.

“Why?”

“Because he died seven years ago.”

Silence.

The kind that makes the skin on your arms rise.

I looked down at the photograph again.

The smiling boy.

Adrian Voss.

Dead.

And apparently wanting me.

I laughed once, sharp and terrified. “Dead men don’t send texts.”

“No,” Cassian said quietly. “They don’t.”

His face gave nothing else away, but something about that frightened me more.

“Then who sent this?”

“I don’t know.”

“You keep saying that.”

“Because people keep opening graves I buried for a reason.”

The words hit.

Not soft.

Not sad.

Buried.

A brother did not just die in Cassian’s life. He was buried inside it. Hidden beneath money, silence, control, and locked red doors.

Tessa crossed her arms. “Let me guess. Adrian was charming, rich, secretly awful, and everybody loved him until people started disappearing?”

Cassian looked at her.

She lifted her chin. “What? I’m catching up.”

For one impossible second, his mouth moved like he might actually respect her.

Then it was gone.

“Adrian was my father’s favorite,” he said. “The son who smiled. The one who entertained guests. The one who knew how to make monsters feel like gentlemen.”

A chill moved through me.

“And you?”

“I learned where the bodies were hidden.”

The hallway seemed colder.

I swallowed. “Was Adrian involved with Celeste?”

Cassian’s jaw tightened.

“Yes.”

That one word opened another hole beneath my feet.

“And you didn’t think to mention that?”

“I didn’t know it mattered.”

“Everything matters!”

My voice cracked and echoed down the corridor.

I hated how close to breaking I sounded.

But my mother was gone.

My life had been studied.

A dead woman’s name was tied to mine.

And now a dead brother was apparently standing in the middle of the nightmare, smiling from an old photograph like he had been waiting for me to notice him.

Cassian’s gaze softened by one dangerous inch.

“I know.”

“No, you don’t.” I pressed the phone against my chest. “You know secrets. You know control.

You know how to make everyone around you move where you want them. But you do not know what it feels like to have your mother dragged into something because you trusted the wrong man.”

He flinched.

Tiny.

Almost nothing.

But I saw it.

And for one second, I wanted to take the words back.

Then I remembered the empty hospital bed.

I let them stay.

Elias appeared at the far end of the hallway, phone pressed to his ear, face grim.

“Cassian.”

Cassian turned.

“What?”

Elias lowered the phone.

“The hospital confirmed Isabelle Moreau was transferred out forty minutes ago.”

My heart stopped.

“Transferred?” I repeated. “Transferred where?”

Elias’s eyes moved to me, then back to Cassian.

“The paperwork says Voss Private Medical.”

Cassian went utterly still.

Tessa whispered, “You have a private medical center?”

Cassian did not answer her.

His eyes stayed on Elias.

“I didn’t authorize that.”

“I know,” Elias said.

The meaning landed hard.

Someone had used Cassian’s name.

His systems.

His power.

His world.

And my mother had been taken because of it.

I grabbed the wall to steady myself.

Tessa’s arm came around me instantly.

“I’m okay,” I whispered.

“No, you’re not, but keep lying if it helps.”

Cassian stepped toward me.

I stepped back.

Pain flashed across his face.

Good.

Maybe I wanted it there.

Maybe I needed to know I was not the only one bleeding from this.

“We go to the pier,” I said.

“No,” Elias said sharply. “You go nowhere near the pier. This is an extraction setup.”

Tessa nodded. “I dislike the lawyer, but he’s correct.”

I glared at both of them. “My mother is somewhere because of that message.”

Cassian spoke quietly. “And whoever took her expects fear to make you obedient.”

I turned on him. “Then what? We wait? We discuss strategy in your haunted hallway while she’s alone?”

“No,” he said. “We split the lie.”

I blinked.

“What does that mean?”

His gaze moved to Elias.

“Send a decoy car to the pier. Make it look like I’m bringing Alina.”

Elias nodded slowly. “And the real destination?”

“Voss Private Medical.”

“No,” I said immediately. “I’m coming.”

Cassian looked back at me.

“I know.”

That surprised me enough to stop.

He continued, “They expect you at the pier. Which means the medical center may be where they think we won’t look first.”

“And if my mother isn’t there?”

“Then we burn the next lie.”

The way he said it should have scared me.

It did.

But it also steadied something wild inside me.

Tessa raised her hand. “I’m coming too.”

Cassian and Elias both said, “No.”

She smiled sweetly.

“Adorable.”

“Tessa,” I said softly.

She looked at me.

“Bestie, don’t.”

That hurt more than I expected.

Because I wanted her close.

I wanted the one person in the world I trusted beside me.

But I also remembered the message.

No loyal little friend.

Whoever this was knew about Tessa too.

And if I pulled her deeper, I might lose her next.

My throat tightened.

“You need to go home.”

Her face changed.

“No.”

“You said smart girls find exits.” I squeezed her hand. “I need you to be mine.”

Tessa’s eyes filled.

She blinked it back angrily.

“I hate this.”

“I know.”

“If you die, I’ll never forgive you.”

“I know that too.”

Cassian watched us silently.

Maybe he understood loyalty.

Maybe he envied it.

Maybe he was only calculating how fast we were running out of time.

Elias arranged a car for Tessa with two guards he personally trusted. She argued for another three minutes, threatened everyone twice, hugged me hard enough to crack something, then finally left with my phone location shared to hers and a promise to call every five minutes until someone physically stopped her.

When she was gone, the hallway felt emptier.

Too empty.

Cassian turned to me.

“We move now.”

I followed him into a private elevator with Elias beside us. No one spoke as it dropped. The silence pressed against my ears.

My phone buzzed again.

Unknown number.

Cassian’s eyes moved to it.

“Show me.”

“No.”

His gaze snapped to mine.

I lifted my chin. “You don’t get to own my fear, remember?”

Something dark moved through his expression.

Then, to my surprise, he nodded once.

“Fine. Read it.”

I opened the message.

No photo this time.

Just words.

He will tell you Adrian died. Ask him what he did to the body.

My skin went cold.

I looked up.

Cassian had read it over my shoulder.

For the first time since I met him, he looked genuinely shaken.

Elias swore under his breath.

The elevator doors opened into an underground garage.

A black SUV waited with its engine running.

Cassian’s hand hovered near my back, then stopped before touching me.

I noticed.

I hated that I noticed.

“What did you do to the body?” I asked.

His face tightened.

“Not here.”

I laughed, hollow. “Of course.”

He opened the car door.

I didn’t move.

“Alina.”

“No. You answer me, or I walk.”

His eyes hardened. “This is not the time.”

“My mother is missing, your dead brother might not be dead, and someone knows enough about you to move inside your world like they own it.” My voice dropped. “So yes, Cassian. This is exactly the time.”

Elias looked between us, tense.

The garage lights flickered overhead.

Cassian stepped closer.

Not too close.

Close enough that I had to tilt my head to keep his eyes.

“Adrian died in a fire,” he said quietly. “At the old Voss estate.”

My breath caught.

“Did you see him die?”

“No.”

“Did they find his body?”

A pause.

Too long.

My stomach dropped.

“No.”

The garage seemed to tilt.

Elias said, “Cassian—” He ignored him.

His eyes stayed on me.

“They found remains,” he said. “Enough to declare him dead. Enough for my father to bury the scandal with the son.”

“But not enough to be sure.”

His silence answered.

A new message buzzed.

This time, the text made my knees weaken.

Your mother is not at the pier. She is where Adrian burned.

Below it was an address.

Cassian went pale.

Not afraid.

Worse.

Haunted.

I whispered, “The old Voss estate?”

He took the phone from my hand this time, and I let him.

His jaw clenched so tightly I thought it might break.

Elias stared at the screen.

“That place has been sealed for years.”

Cassian looked toward the SUV.

“Not anymore.”

We got in.

The car tore out of the garage and into the night.

I sat beside Cassian, close enough to feel the heat of him, far enough to remember he was still a stranger with too many graves behind him.

The city thinned into dark roads and trees.

No one spoke.

Then, twenty minutes later, we reached the old Voss estate.

Or what was left of it.

The mansion rose behind iron gates like a burned skeleton, blackened stone and broken windows hidden under moonlight.

My heart pounded.

Somewhere inside that ruin, my mother might be waiting.

Or a trap.

Or Adrian.

Cassian stepped out first.

Then froze.

I followed his gaze.

The front gates were open.

And hanging from them was a strip of red silk.

The same shade as the dress he had sent me.

Beneath it, written on the stone wall in black paint, were four words: WELCOME HOME, FORBIDDEN TOY.