Chapter 4 - The Brother's Ledger
“Why shouldn't I go home, Leander?” I asked, keeping my voice level, watching his pixelated face on the screen.
Leander swallowed hard, looking over his shoulder as if someone were standing in the shadows of the study. “Mom sent two guys from Derrick’s crew to your building an hour ago. They told the super they were family coming to collect your mail and check on your cat. They had duplicate key fobs they got from Mom’s purse.”
Vesper’s hand moved instantly, scribbling a note on her legal pad and texting the building manager of my apartment complex with one thumb.
“What are they looking for, Leander?” Vesper interjected, her sharp voice cutting through the speaker.
Leander blinked at the unfamiliar voice, squinting at the screen. “Who is that?”
“This is Vesper Hayes, Maeve’s legal counsel,” Vesper replied with chilling authority. “And this call is being recorded for an active criminal proceeding before the New York County District Attorney. Answer the question, Leander. What are they looking for in Maeve’s apartment?”
Leander buried his face in his hands, letting out a ragged, trembling sob that rattled the microphone.
“The hospital discharge packet,” Leander whispered through his fingers. “And the evidence container with the metal shard. Mom told Derrick that if the police run metallurgical forensics on the wire, the serial numbers on the industrial spool will trace back to Derrick’s production storage locker in Queens. She told him to scrub your place and make it look like a burglary.”
“My God, Leander,” I breathed. “You sat at that reception table and watched me bleed on the floor. You watched Mom step over me. And you knew?”
“I didn't know about the wire!” Leander shouted, his face suddenly filling the screen, tears cutting tracks through the stubble on his cheeks. “I swear to God, Maeve, on Dad’s grave, I didn't know about the metal! Cressa told me they were doing a ‘staged trip’ to kick off her brand transition! She said it was an influencer prank! She said you were in on it!”
“You really believed I would agree to get thrown through a glass cabinet in front of two hundred people?”
“Mom told me you agreed for twenty thousand dollars!” Leander cried. “She told me you needed the money for your clinic’s expansion! I thought... I thought you were just playing your part! But then when you hit the marble... when I saw the blood coming out of your cheek like a faucet... I tried to run to you! You saw me step forward! But Mom grabbed my arm and whispered that if I broke the frame, she’d cut my trust fund off!”
Leander took a frantic swig of Scotch, coughing violently before looking back at the lens.
“I have the recordings, Maeve.”
Vesper paused her typing. “What recordings, Leander?”
“Mom has been using my laptop to back up Cressa’s cloud accounts for three years,” Leander said, sniffing hard, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. “Because I’m the ‘tech guy’ in the family. Every contract, every WhatsApp voice note, every strategy deck Derrick Vance put together for the wedding—it’s mirrored on my external hard drive. I have the audio recording of the meeting at the Plaza Hotel four days ago.”
“What did they say at the Plaza?” I asked, my heart pounding against my ribs.
“Cressa was crying because the marketing director at Lumière Royale told her that bridal influencers were ‘oversaturated and boring,’” Leander explained. “They told her they needed an edge. A narrative of victimhood, resilience, and personal triumph to launch their new Phoenix skincare line. Mom told Cressa: ‘We need a villain. And nobody plays the bitter, jealous spinster better than your sister.’”
The room went cold.
The bitter, jealous spinster.
For ten years, I had worked sixty hours a week. I had treated thousands of patients, mentored junior therapists, lived in a modest apartment, and stayed out of their vanity-fueled circus. And to my mother, my quiet, honorable life was simply a convenient backdrop to make her golden child shine brighter.
“Where is that hard drive right now, Leander?” Vesper asked, her voice silky and lethal.
“I’m at my place in Greenpoint,” Leander said. “I packed my bags. I’m not staying here. Mom called me ten minutes ago screaming that Cressa’s comment section is starting to ask questions because someone posted a screenshot of the ambulance arriving outside the conservatory. She wants me to run bot farms to bury the comments.”
“Listen to me very carefully, Leander,” Vesper commanded. “Do not touch that hard drive. Do not delete a file. Do not turn your car on. I am dispatching two licensed private investigators and an armed escort to your apartment right now. You will hand that drive directly to my lead investigator, chain of custody will be established, and you will be escorted to a safe hotel in Midtown.”
Leander hesitated. “Will... will they arrest Mom?”
I leaned over Vesper’s desk, looking directly into my brother’s terrified, broken eyes.
“Leander,” I said quietly. “Mom spent thirty thousand dollars to have someone put steel into my face. If you protect her now, you are an accessory after the fact to a felony. Make your choice.”
May you like
Leander closed his eyes for three long seconds. When he opened them, the weakness that had defined him for thirty-two years seemed to crack, revealing a small, desperate ember of real brotherhood beneath.
“Send your people, Maeve,” Leander said. “I’ll be waiting on the stoop.”
