Chapter 3 - THE BROTHER WHO LIEDThe tunnel smelled of wet stone, rust, and forgotten years.
Viktor crawled through the darkness with one hand gripping the flash drive and the other dragging against the concrete wall.
Ahead of him, Milan helped Jeanne through the narrow passage.
Water dripped from overhead pipes.
Somewhere behind them, heavy footsteps echoed inside the cellar.
Bennett's men had discovered the entrance.
Viktor heard a metal object scrape across the floor.
Then a voice.
“There's a passage down here!”
Milan stopped.
“They found us.”
“Keep moving,” Viktor whispered.
“But Gabriel—”
“Move!”
Milan flinched.
Viktor immediately regretted his tone.
For most of their lives, he had been the one who protected Milan.
After their father abandoned the family, Viktor had worked construction jobs to keep food on the table.
When their mother became ill, he had borrowed money from people he should never have trusted.
Those debts had eventually led him into the robbery that destroyed his life.
He had always told himself that everything he did was for Milan.
Now he wondered whether that belief had simply made it easier to excuse his worst decisions.
Ahead, the tunnel narrowed.
Jeanne struggled to crawl.
“My knees,” she whispered.
Viktor moved beside her.
“Put your weight on me.”
“You should leave me.”
“No.”
“You don't understand. I'm slowing you down.”
Viktor looked at her.
“Mrs. Morel, your son just risked his life for us. I'm not leaving you here.”
Jeanne studied him in the dim light from Milan's phone.
“You sound different from the man Gabriel described.”
Viktor almost smiled.
“Maybe he didn't know me very well.”
“Maybe neither of you knew the other.”
Behind them, a flashlight beam appeared.
“Stop!” someone shouted.
Viktor pushed Jeanne forward.
“Go!”
A gunshot thundered through the tunnel.
The bullet struck concrete inches from his shoulder.
Dust filled the air.
Milan screamed.
Viktor grabbed a rusted maintenance bar lying beside the wall and swung it against an old drainage valve.
The valve broke.
Water surged from the pipe.
Within seconds, the narrow passage filled with a violent spray.
The attackers cursed and stumbled backward.
Viktor seized the opportunity.
“Move!”
They crawled toward the distant patch of daylight.
When they finally emerged behind the orchard, the afternoon had turned gray.
Rain clouds gathered above the trees.
Viktor helped Jeanne climb onto the muddy bank.
Milan followed, gasping.
For several seconds, all three remained motionless.
Then Jeanne looked toward the farmhouse.
Smoke was rising from the roof.
“My home,” she whispered.
Viktor followed her gaze.
One of the SUVs had moved closer to the house.
The other remained near the driveway.
He couldn't see Gabriel.
His stomach tightened.
“We need to go.”
Jeanne shook her head.
“My son is still there.”
“I know.”
“Then we can't leave him.”
Viktor looked at Milan.
His brother's face was pale.
Too pale.
And when Viktor stepped closer, Milan instinctively moved backward.
Something in that movement made him stop.
“Milan.”
His brother swallowed.
“What?”
“What did Bennett mean?”
Milan stared.
“About what?”
“When he said you'd told him everything.”
Milan's eyes filled with fear.
“I don't know.”
Viktor stepped closer.
“Don't lie to me.”
“I didn't—”
“Don't.”
The word came out quietly.
Milan looked toward Jeanne.
Then toward the forest.
Finally, he whispered, “They contacted me before the escape.”
“I know that.”
“No.”
Milan's voice cracked.
“I mean months before.”
Viktor felt the ground shift beneath him.
“How many months?”
“Six.”
Viktor stared.
Six months.
For half a year, Milan had been communicating with the people responsible for framing his brother.
“Why?”
Milan wiped his face.
“They told me they could prove you didn't kill Bennett.”
“And you believed them?”
“They showed me documents. Photographs. Things nobody else knew.”
Viktor struggled to remain calm.
“What did they want?”
Milan looked down.
“They wanted me to convince you to trust the transfer.”
“And?”
“They said if you escaped, they'd take us somewhere safe.”
Viktor closed his eyes.
The truth was becoming painfully clear.
Milan hadn't simply been manipulated into helping him escape.
He had been recruited.
Perhaps willingly.
Perhaps out of desperation.
But recruited nonetheless.
“Did they pay you?”
Milan said nothing.
Viktor opened his eyes.
“How much?”
“Viktor—”
“How much?”
“Twenty thousand dollars.”
The number hung between them.
Jeanne looked away.
Viktor felt something inside him collapse.
“You sold me for twenty thousand dollars?”
“No!”
Milan stepped forward.
“I was going to use it to hire another lawyer!”
“You already had a lawyer!”
“A lawyer who hadn't gotten you out in three years!”
Viktor grabbed his brother's shoulders.
“Did you ever think about what would happen if these people were lying?”
Milan's face crumpled.
“Every day.”
For a moment, neither spoke.
Rain began falling through the branches.
Then Milan whispered something Viktor would never forget.
“I thought if I could bring you home, you'd forgive me for everything else.”
Viktor released him.
He wanted to shout.
He wanted to strike something.
But when he looked at Milan, he saw a frightened young man who had spent three years carrying guilt and loneliness.
That didn't excuse what he had done.
It made the betrayal harder to understand.
Jeanne suddenly raised her hand.
“Listen.”
A distant engine sounded beyond the orchard.
The second SUV was moving.
Viktor looked toward the road.
They were being hunted.
He turned to Milan.
“Did Bennett give you a phone?”
Milan hesitated.
Then slowly reached into his jacket.
He removed a black cellphone.
Viktor stared at it.
“Is it tracking us?”
“I don't know.”
Viktor took the phone.
The screen lit up.
One unread message.
He opened it.
The words made his blood run cold.
YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES TO BRING VIKTOR TO THE OLD MILL. COME ALONE, OR YOUR BROTHER LEARNS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO HIS MOTHER.
Viktor looked up.
Milan was crying.
And suddenly, the betrayal was no longer about money.
May you like
It was about a secret their family had buried years before.
A secret Viktor's brother had been hiding since the day their mother died.
Related Stories
