Chapter 4 - The Brother Who Knew Too Much
I had never seen Arthur frightened until he heard his brother's name.
His jaw tightened.
His shoulders went rigid.
He looked toward the hospital door as though something terrible stood on the other side.
"Richard is downstairs?" he asked.
The nurse nodded.
"He says it's urgent."
Arthur took a slow breath.
"Tell him I'm unavailable."
The nurse left.
My mother reached for him.
"Arthur, please listen."
He turned toward her.
"You think Richard was involved?"
She looked down.
"I know he was."
Silence filled the room.
I stared at them both.
I had just found my mother.
I might have found my father.
And now I was hearing that a man I had never met could be responsible for destroying both their lives.
Arthur sat beside my mother's bed.
"Tell me everything."
She swallowed.
"Richard came to see me three weeks before Maya was born."
Arthur's expression hardened.
"He told me you didn't want the baby."
I gasped.
Arthur shook his head.
"That's impossible."
"I know that now."
Her eyes filled.
"But he brought documents. He said you had signed them."
"What documents?"
"A settlement agreement. He said you wanted me gone and were paying me to keep quiet."
Arthur looked sick.
"I never signed anything."
My mother nodded.
"Richard said I had two choices. Leave quietly or lose my child."
I grabbed her hand.
"Mom..."
She squeezed my fingers.
"I refused."
Her voice broke.
"Two nights later, Denise came to my apartment."
Arthur leaned forward.
"Why?"
"She said she was helping me escape Richard."
My mother began shaking.
"I trusted her. She was my sister."
I felt a terrible ache in my chest.
Denise hadn't just lied to me.
She had betrayed her own family.
My mother wiped her eyes.
"She took me to a house outside the city. She said we'd stay there until the baby came."
Arthur stared at her.
"And then?"
"The doors were locked."
I felt cold.
"She kept you there?"
My mother nodded.
"Richard visited once. He said the baby would be taken away after birth."
Arthur stood so suddenly his chair scraped the floor.
"I'll destroy him."
My mother raised her hand.
"Arthur, please."
He stopped.
"Keep listening."
She closed her eyes.
"When Maya was born, Denise let me hold her. She let me feed her. She let me believe we'd be together."
I could barely breathe.
"How long?"
"Six weeks."
Tears rolled down her face.
"Then one morning, my baby was gone."
My entire body began trembling.
My mother reached toward me.
"I searched every room. I screamed until I lost my voice."
Arthur's eyes were wet.
"Where did they take her?"
"Denise told me she'd given Maya to another family."
I shook my head.
"But she raised me."
"She lied to both of us."
My mother looked at me with unbearable sadness.
"She told me you were safe and that if I tried to escape, she'd make you disappear."
For years, Denise had controlled me with fear.
Now I understood she'd done the same to my mother.
Arthur paced toward the window.
"How did you survive?"
My mother looked ashamed.
"They moved me between properties. They had a doctor who said I was mentally unstable."
"Who?"
"Dr. Calvin Moore."
Arthur stopped.
"I know that name."
My mother nodded.
"He worked at the Bennett family clinic."
Arthur leaned against the wall.
"Richard was on the clinic's board."
I watched him slowly connect the pieces.
The family.
The money.
The documents.
The doctor.
They were all linked.
"Why did they bring you to the salon today?" I asked.
My mother frowned.
"What salon?"
I explained what had happened.
How Jordan had found me.
How Arthur had stopped him from cutting my hair.
How Denise had suddenly appeared.
My mother's face turned pale.
"She found the locket."
I nodded.
"She saw it through the glass."
My mother closed her eyes.
"That's why."
Arthur looked at her.
"What do you mean?"
She stared at my dreadlocks.
"There's something hidden in Maya's hair."
My breath caught.
I grabbed my locks.
"What?"
My mother reached toward me.
"When you were born, I hid something inside one of your locks. It was small, and as your hair grew I carefully wrapped and protected it."
I stared at her.
"But I was a baby."
She nodded.
"I attached it beneath the locket chain first. Later, when I could see you briefly during your childhood, I moved it deeper into your hair."
My heart stopped.
"You saw me?"
She started crying.
"Only a few times. Denise allowed short visits when she wanted my cooperation. She told you I was a family friend."
A memory flashed through my mind.
A woman in a blue cardigan.
Gentle hands.
A whispered song.
I pressed my hand against my mouth.
"The lady who used to braid my hair?"
My mother nodded.
"That was me."
I began sobbing.
For years, I had remembered that woman.
Denise told me she was a neighbor who moved away.
My mother had been standing right in front of me.
And I hadn't known.
"What did you hide?" Arthur asked.
"A tiny metal capsule containing a memory card."
Arthur frowned.
"What was on it?"
"Evidence."
"What evidence?"
My mother looked at me.
"Richard and Denise discussing their plan."
Arthur stepped closer.
"Do you know where it is?"
My mother shook her head.
"I remember securing it within a small braid near the back of her neck. I don't know whether it survived all these years."
I raised my hands to my hair.
A strange memory surfaced.
Denise had tried to cut my dreadlocks when I was eleven.
I had screamed.
She told me my hair was filthy.
But I remembered the panic in her eyes when I refused.
Suddenly, everything made sense.
"She's been trying to cut it for years," I whispered.
Arthur stared at me.
"Why didn't she force you?"
"Sometimes she did cut pieces. But she always stopped when I fought hard enough. She seemed afraid of being seen hurting me."
My mother began crying again.
"I told Denise the evidence would be released if anything happened to Maya. She never knew exactly where I'd put it."
Arthur reached for his phone.
"We need someone trustworthy to examine her hair carefully."
I grabbed my locks.
"No."
He immediately stopped.
"No one will touch it without your permission."
My mother squeezed my hand.
"Sweetheart, you don't have to do anything tonight."
I looked at them.
Then I remembered twenty years of fear.
Twenty years of Denise telling me I had no one.
I took a shaky breath.
"No."
Arthur frowned.
"Maya?"
"I want to find it."
I looked toward the mirror across the room.
"I want the truth."
That night, Jordan came to the hospital with a small styling kit.
He didn't bring scissors.
Only his fingers, a comb, and a promise.
"I won't cut a single strand unless you ask me to."
For nearly an hour, he carefully separated my tangled locks.
Arthur stayed beside me.
My mother watched from the bed.
Finally, Jordan stopped.
"Wait."
My heart hammered.
He gently lifted a thick lock near the base of my neck.
There was something hard inside.
Something small.
Wrapped in old thread.
Jordan looked at me.
"May I?"
I nodded.
He slowly unwound the thread.
A tiny silver capsule fell into his palm.
My mother began crying.
"That's it."
Arthur held out his hand.
Jordan placed it carefully on a clean cloth.
And before any of us could say another word, Arthur's phone rang.
The caller was Marcus.
Arthur answered.
His face changed immediately.
"What do you mean Richard has disappeared?"
I stared at him.
Marcus said something else.
Arthur went pale.
He looked directly at me.
Then at the capsule.
May you like
And whispered:
"He knows we found it."
