I came home to visit my elderly mother, but when I offered to help bathe her, she shrank back in terror

“Mom?”

She appeared in the doorway.

“Did you put something inside your coat?”

Her eyes widened.

“I forgot.”

I found a small pair of scissors and carefully opened the seam.

A flash drive fell into my palm.

Taped beside it was a folded sheet of paper.

Mother stared at the objects as though seeing a ghost.

“What is this?” I asked.

She looked toward the officers in the living room.

“Your father gave it to me before he died.”

My father had been gone for four years.

“Why did you hide it?”

“He told me never to let Julian find it.”

I unfolded the paper.

It contained a series of account numbers, dates, and the name of a private investigator.

At the bottom, my father had written one sentence.

If Julian ever comes after the house, Elena must learn what happened to the first family.

I read it twice.

“What first family?”

Mother lowered herself into a chair.

Her face had become pale again, but this time the fear in her eyes was different. Older. Deeper.

“Julian is not your brother’s real name,” she whispered.

I stared at her.

“What are you talking about?”

Before she could answer, the evidence technician emerged from the office carrying one of the recovered hard drives.