Chapter 6: The Brother She Never Expected
Vivienne lunged for the phone.
Marcus passed it to Daniel.
“Lock the door.”
“You have no right to keep my property,” she said.
Grant’s voice came through the speaker.
“It isn’t your property, Vivienne.
You bought that phone under my name.”
Her face emptied.
“Grant, you don’t know what you’re doing.”
“I know you used me to register accounts Adrian couldn’t connect to himself.”
“You owe me.”
“I owed our mother.
Not you.”
Marcus leaned toward the speaker.
“What did you record?”
“A dinner at Adrian’s apartment.
Vivienne said they had to keep you discouraged until the wedding.
Adrian said the guardianship would cover them if you recovered too soon.”
Vivienne folded her arms.
“A secret recording from my alcoholic brother?
No court will trust it.”
Grant’s voice stayed level.
“I’ve been sober for four years.”
“And living in a room I paid for.”
“Not anymore.”
A knock sounded at the door.
Owen opened it, and a tall man with a worn leather bag stepped inside.
Vivienne stared at him.
“You were outside?”
Grant removed a tiny recorder from his coat.
“I wanted to see whether you would lie before I gave Marcus this.”
She stepped toward him.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“I can make your old charges public.”
“You already did.
That’s why I brought the court-certified dismissal.”
Grant placed three documents beside the recorder.
Marcus picked up the first.
“Payments to Dr.
Simon Reed.”
“He isn’t a doctor,” Grant said.
“He owns a private consulting company Adrian uses.”
Daniel examined the second page.
“These are pharmacy records.”
Grant nodded.
“Vivienne collected Marcus’s prescriptions.
The pharmacy logs show additional sedatives ordered through Reed’s account.”
“I never put anything in his medication,” Vivienne said.
Claire’s voice cut across hers.
“You changed the bottles.”
Vivienne swung toward her.
“I watched you remove the labels in the kitchen,” Claire continued.
“You said the pharmacy had made a mistake.”
“Why didn’t you say that before?”
“Because I didn’t understand it before.”
Marcus’s hand shook around the page.
“Were the pills making me worse?”
Daniel crouched beside him.
“We need bloodwork and a physician’s review.
But the records could explain the confusion and extreme fatigue.”
Vivienne backed toward the desk.
Grant pressed play on the recorder.
Adrian’s voice filled the room.
“If he starts therapy again, we lose the incapacity argument.”
Then Vivienne answered, clear and cold.
“His legs can recover after the wedding.
By then, his shares will be mine.”
Marcus’s eyes closed for one second.
“You sat beside my bed,” he said.
“You held my hand while you did this.”
Vivienne reached behind the desk and grabbed the recorder’s storage case.
Owen blocked the door.
“Move,” she ordered.
“No.”
She threw the case into the fireplace.
Daniel snatched it from the cold grate before she could reach the matches.
“That was your answer?” Marcus asked.
“Destroy it?”
“That recording proves nothing.”
“It proves why you feared my recovery.”
Vivienne pointed at Grant.
“He approached me for money.
This is extortion.”
Grant opened his bag.
“Every message I sent is printed here.
I asked you to confess.
You offered me fifty thousand dollars to disappear.”
Elena called through the tablet.
“I heard all of that,” she said.
“Grant, bring everything to the courthouse.
The judge has agreed to reconsider the temporary order this afternoon.”
Vivienne’s expression shifted.
Marcus saw it and reached for the prepaid phone.
“What else is on here?”
Grant hesitated.
“Messages about Hartwell Dynamics.”
Marcus opened the thread between Vivienne and Adrian.
The first messages discussed his medical reports.
The later ones contained bank transfers, altered invoices, and the names of shell companies.
Elena drew in a breath.
“Marcus, do not delete or forward anything.
Owen must preserve the phone as evidence.”
Daniel’s own phone rang.
He listened, then looked at Marcus.
“The urgent blood panel is back.”
“Tell me.”
Daniel put the call on speaker.
A physician’s voice filled the room.
“Mr.
Hartwell, we found a strong sedative in your system.
It was never prescribed by your medical team.”
Vivienne stopped moving.
May you like
The physician continued.
“And based on the level we found, you were given another dose this morning.”
