Chapter 2 - THE BROTHER WHO CAME TO SAVE ME
Colin arrived before the police finished questioning Jenna.
He rushed through the front door in a tailored gray suit and crossed the room with his arms open.
“Rach, are the kids okay?”
I stepped away from him.
“Why are you here?”
“Jenna called me.”
The officer beside the carrier looked up. “She’s had no access to her phone since we arrived.”
Colin paused.
Only for a second.
“She called before you got home.”
I watched my brother carefully.
He had been the first person at the hospital after Adam’s fatal car accident. He arranged the funeral, handled insurance calls, and brought groceries every Sunday for three months.
When I forgot to pay the electric bill, he covered it.
When I cried in the laundry room because Adam’s shirts still smelled like him, Colin sat outside the door until I could breathe.
He had made himself essential.
Now he looked at the carrier and shook his head in practiced disbelief.
“This is horrible,” he said. “But Jenna wouldn’t intentionally hurt a child. There has to be an explanation.”
“Leo asked to be let out.”
“I’m not saying he didn’t.”
“You’re defending her.”
“I’m trying to keep you calm.”
The phrase irritated me more than it should have.
For months, Colin had been telling relatives I needed rest. He encouraged me to take medication, sell the house, and let the twins stay with him and his wife, Beth, “until I got stable.”
I had believed he was worried.
The officer held up the hidden device in an evidence bag.
“Do you recognize this?”
Colin barely glanced at it. “No.”
Jenna looked at him from across the room.
He refused to meet her eyes.
The officers took her to the station for further questioning. Colin stayed behind, offering to bring the children to his house.
“No,” I said.
“Rachel, you’ve had a shock.”
“They stay with me.”
“I’m not trying to take them.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
His face changed.
The expression disappeared almost immediately, replaced by wounded concern.
“You know I would never do that.”
After he left, I checked every room in the house.
I found nothing in the twins’ bedroom or the kitchen. In my office, however, the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet was unlocked.
Inside, the folder containing Adam’s life-insurance documents had been disturbed.
The policy had paid $900,000 after his death. Most of it remained in a protected trust for Leo and Lily. I was the trustee and legal guardian.
If I died or became legally incapable of caring for the children, control passed to Colin.
Adam had chosen him five years earlier, when Colin was still the brother I trusted more than anyone.
I called our family attorney, Melissa Grant.
“Has Colin asked you about the trust?”
There was a long silence.
“He called twice,” she admitted. “He said you were having memory problems.”
“When?”
“The first call was six months ago.”
Six months earlier, Colin had convinced me to see a grief counselor. Two days after my appointment, my mother called and asked whether I was safe alone with the children.
At the time, I blamed small-town family gossip.
Now every conversation felt different.
Melissa told me Colin had requested information about emergency guardianship. He claimed he was only preparing in case my grief became dangerous.
“He asked what evidence a judge would require,” she said.
My knees weakened.
That evening, the police returned the twins’ belongings but kept the carrier and hidden device as evidence.
The detective, Lauren Shaw, sat at my kitchen table.
“The device was recording to cloud storage,” she explained. “We need a warrant to access the account.”
“Whose account?”
“We’re tracing it.”
My phone rang.
Beth’s name appeared on the screen.
I answered on speaker.
“Rachel,” my sister-in-law said breathlessly. “Colin told us what happened. Everyone’s worried about the children.”
“Who is everyone?”
“Your mom, Aunt Denise, some people from church.”
The humiliation spread through me like heat.
Less than eight hours after I rescued my son, my family had already been told I left the twins in a dangerous situation with an unqualified sitter.
Not that Colin had recommended her.
Not that Leo had been locked inside a carrier.
Beth lowered her voice.
“Maybe the twins should stay with us until this settles down.”
Detective Shaw watched my face.
“No.”
“Rachel, please don’t become defensive.”
“They’re my children.”
“No one is disputing that.”
Someone spoke quietly in the background.
Colin.
Beth repeated his words.
“He says fighting help will only make you look unstable.”
I ended the call.
Detective Shaw leaned back in her chair.
“Mrs. Morgan, do you know anyone who would benefit from making you appear incapable of caring for your children?”
May you like
I stared at Adam’s photograph on the mantel.
“Yes,” I said. “I think my brother has been preparing for this longer than I have known.”
