Chapter 4 - My Brother's Name on Her Phone
I hadn't spoken to my brother Adrian in nearly eight months.
Seeing his name on my wife's phone felt like watching the past reach into my living room.
Nia quickly silenced the call.
“It's nothing,” she said.
I stared at her.
“Why is my brother calling you?”
“He was checking on us.”
“Adrian doesn't check on me.”
“People change.”
I almost laughed.
Adrian had been my biggest disappointment long before Nia entered my life.
We grew up in the same neighborhood.
We had the same parents.
We were taught the same lessons about responsibility, honesty, and family.
But while I worked construction jobs to pay for college, Adrian chased shortcuts.
He started businesses he couldn't manage.
Borrowed money he rarely repaid.
And blamed everyone else when his plans collapsed.
Despite all that, I loved him.
For years, I helped him.
I paid overdue rent.
Covered medical bills.
Even gave him a supervisory position at Carter Construction.
That decision nearly destroyed our relationship.
Three years earlier, Daniel discovered irregular vendor invoices.
The investigation showed Adrian had approved payments for work that was never completed.
When I confronted him, he insisted it was a misunderstanding.
I gave him a chance to explain.
Instead, he became furious.
He accused me of treating him like a failure.
Then he quit.
Months later, I learned he had started another business.
I wished him well.
But I refused to finance it.
Our final argument ended with him shouting that one day I would regret making him feel small.
Now my wife was receiving his calls.
At the exact moment I was investigating suspicious payments.
“Put the phone down,” I told Nia.
She tightened her grip.
“Marcus, you're being ridiculous.”
“Why is Adrian involved?”
“He isn't.”
“Then call him back on speaker.”
Her face hardened.
“You don't get to interrogate me.”
I stood motionless.
“I asked you a simple question.”
“And I don't have to answer it.”
I nodded.
That was answer enough.
I headed toward my home office.
Nia followed.
“Where are you going?”
“To get my computer.”
“You can't just ignore me!”
I opened the office door.
My laptop was sitting on the desk.
Exactly where I had left it.
But something was wrong.
The charging cable was unplugged.
A drawer beneath the desk stood slightly open.
And the small locked cabinet where I stored business backup drives had been disturbed.
I turned around.
“Have you been in here?”
Nia looked past me.
“It's our house.”
“That wasn't my question.”
“I came in to clean.”
“You don't clean my office.”
She crossed her arms.
“Now I'm not even allowed to clean?”
I walked to the cabinet.
The lock wasn't broken.
But when I opened it, I discovered that one of my backup drives was missing.
My pulse quickened.
“Where is the blue drive?”
“What blue drive?”
“The one that was stored right here.”
“I have no idea.”
I took a photograph of the cabinet.
Then I placed the remaining drives in my bag.
Nia watched.
“What are you doing?”
“Protecting my business.”
She laughed nervously.
“From your own wife?”
I looked directly at her.
“That's what I'm trying to figure out.”
I told her I would be staying elsewhere until we had proper legal advice.
She became furious.
“You're abandoning your marriage because your daughter filled your head with lies!”
“No,” I said. “I'm leaving because you won't tell me the truth.”
She stepped in front of the doorway.
“Marcus, please.”
Her voice softened.
I had heard that tone before.
It was the voice she used when she wanted me to forget an argument.
When she wanted another expensive gift.
When she wanted me to apologize for something I hadn't done.
But this time, it didn't work.
I moved around her.
She began crying.
“You promised to love me.”
I stopped.
“I did love you.”
Her face crumpled.
“Did?”
I looked at her for a long moment.
“Love can't survive without trust, Nia.”
I left.
The next morning, I met Raymond at his office.
Daniel joined us with a thick folder of financial records.
He looked exhausted.
“Boss, this is worse than I expected.”
My stomach sank.
“How much worse?”
Daniel placed several invoices on the table.
There were six payments to Sterling Advisory Group over four months.
Together, they totaled nearly one hundred and eighty thousand dollars.
I stared at the numbers.
“Who approved them?”
“Every request contains your electronic signature.”
“But I didn't authorize them.”
Daniel nodded.
“We also found that the approval requests originated from your home network.”
I leaned back.
Raymond studied the documents.
“Do we know who owns Sterling Advisory Group?”
Daniel slid another page forward.
“The registered manager is a man named Adrian Carter.”
My brother.
I closed my eyes.
For years, I had defended Adrian when others called him irresponsible.
I had believed there was still a good man beneath his anger and envy.
But this was different.
This wasn't another failed investment.
Someone had apparently used my company to send money to my brother.
And my wife had helped arrange at least one invoice.
Raymond asked Daniel to preserve the original records and obtain professional digital-forensic assistance.
He also advised notifying the company's insurer and financial institutions.
“We need facts that will hold up under scrutiny,” he said.
I nodded.
Then he asked a question that made me uncomfortable.
“Marcus, does your wife have access to your personal estate documents?”
“She knows where they are.”
“Has she ever asked about changing your will?”
I remembered what Jasmine had told me.
“Yes.”
Raymond leaned forward.
“Your brother may be involved in a financial scheme. But I need to know whether anyone has attempted to alter your personal documents.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because fraud involving one set of signatures sometimes leads us to others.”
For the next two hours, we reviewed account statements, email records, and authorization logs.
I called my bank and completed additional security steps.
I changed passwords.
I arranged for my company systems to be independently reviewed.
By afternoon, Raymond had enough preliminary evidence to recommend a formal report.
But before we left, his assistant entered the room.
“Mr. Brooks, there's a woman here asking to see Mr. Carter.”
I looked up.
“Who?”
“She says her name is Vanessa Reed.”
The name was unfamiliar.
Raymond frowned.
“Did she explain why she's here?”
His assistant hesitated.
“She says she worked for Sterling Advisory Group.”
I stood.
“Send her in.”
A young woman entered carrying a worn leather bag.
She looked frightened.
Before sitting, she glanced at the office door.
“Mr. Carter,” she whispered, “I don't have much time.”
Raymond offered her a chair.
She refused.
“I worked for your brother for six months.”
My chest tightened.
She reached into her bag.
“I kept copies because I knew something was wrong.”
She placed a small folder on the table.
Inside were records of meetings, payments, and emails.
Then she pulled out a photograph.
It showed Nia and Adrian sitting together at a restaurant.
They were holding hands.
My entire body went cold.
Vanessa watched my face.
“I'm sorry,” she whispered.
I could barely speak.
“How long?”
She looked down.
“They've been planning this since before your wedding.”
I stared at the photograph.
Then I asked the question that frightened me most.
“Planning what?”
May you like
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears.
“Taking everything you built.”
