Chapter 3

That night, I didn't drive home. Instead, I checked into a hotel near the hospital.

I sat alone in the pitch-black room, staring at the countless lights twinkling outside the window. The pain in my chest was so intense that it felt as though my heart had been put through a meat grinder.

Our parents had died when we were young, and I'd entered the workforce at just 22.

Back then, my salary was barely enough to make ends meet, but I'd gritted my teeth and scraped together every penny I could to put Anthony through school.

The two of us had endured some incredibly difficult years together.

Eventually, I climbed the corporate ladder through sheer hard work and determination. Once I started earning more, I made sure Anthony had everything he wanted.

When he wanted to attend graduate school, I paid his tuition. When he wanted a designer watch, I bought him one. When he told me he wanted to date Paige, I had my reservations about her. But I knew how much he liked her, so I merely warned him in private to be careful.

I'd always believed I was the only person Anthony could truly rely on in this world. But as it turned out, I was nothing more than a walking ATM to him.

At 2:00 a.m., a lawyer friend sent me a document.

He was confident we had a strong case.

"The evidence of fraud is pretty clear, and the facts are overwhelmingly in your favor. But there's something else you need to look into. There are several personal accident insurance policies in your name," he said.

My heart skipped a beat. I immediately opened the insurance company's app and logged into my account.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I found. The moment I saw the records, an icy chill swept through me.

Five high-value personal accident insurance policies had been taken out in my name without my knowledge.

I was listed as the policyholder on every one of them, and Anthony was the sole beneficiary of all five.

As a senior executive, I kept copies of numerous personal documents at home. It would've been child's play for Anthony to get his hands on my ID and samples of my signature.

Every policy had taken effect during the second month after his supposed cancer diagnosis.

Even more chilling was the signature in one of the agent signature fields. At first glance, it looked remarkably like mine. But the distinctive way certain letters connected was unmistakably Anthony's.

He wasn't just stealing my money. He was waiting for something to happen to me. No. He was planning to make something happen to me.

Only my death would trigger the insurance payouts, worth millions of dollars. That money would be enough to wipe out Paige's gambling debts and allow the two of them to live lavishly overseas.

I slumped to the floor, cold sweat soaking through my pajamas.

This was the younger brother I'd loved and protected for twenty years. And for money, he actually wanted me dead.

Why would he go to such lengths? If he needed money, why couldn't he simply ask me? Why resort to something so elaborate and cruel? Why would he risk murdering the only immediate family he had left in the world just to get his hands on a fortune?

Just then, my phone erupted with a barrage of notifications.

The company group chat was in chaos.

[Emergency! Ryan's been in a car accident near the office! An SUV was going the wrong way and slammed straight into the passenger side of his car!]

[Oh my God! How's Ryan? Is he okay?]

[I heard they rushed him to the hospital. There was blood everywhere at the scene!]

I stared at the photos that flooded the group chat.

Beside the wrecked car lay a men's cashmere coat.

It was the very coat I'd left draped over my office chair when I'd rushed out earlier.

Ryan had been on his way to a business meeting when he'd remarked that the weather was getting colder. He hadn't dressed warmly enough, so when he spotted my coat on the chair, he'd asked to borrow it.

That coat held a special place in my heart. Before our parents died, Anthony had spent an entire year saving his allowance to buy it for my 18th birthday.

A deafening buzz filled my head as I recalled what the lawyer had told me earlier that night about the accident insurance policies.

Ryan and I were roughly the same height and build, and even our hairstyles were similar. With my coat on, he could easily be mistaken for me at a glance. From a distance, we looked almost identical.

Which meant that car hadn't been targeting Ryan. I'd been the intended target all along!