Were You Trying to Kill Him

Chapter 05 - Sarah's Discovery

Nathan brought his discovery to Sarah Whitcombe the following morning, laying out the adoption paperwork, the attorney's card, and the photograph side by side on her desk.

"I think Victor Cole and I might be brothers," he said. "Possibly twins, given how close our features look and the fact that Harold Reeves personally arranged my adoption."

Sarah studied the materials carefully, her investigator's instincts clearly sharpening with each new detail. "If you're twins, and one of you was quietly given up for adoption while the other remained the sole heir to a considerable construction empire, that changes everything about why Victor might have wanted you specifically gone."

"Inheritance," Nathan said slowly. "You think this is about money."

"I think it's worth investigating thoroughly," Sarah said. "I have a contact in probate records. I'd like to pull Harold Reeves's estate filings, and I'd like to request a DNA comparison between you and Victor, formally, as part of this investigation."

Nathan agreed immediately, understanding the specific, considerable weight of what confirmation might mean, not just for the sabotage case, but for an entire identity he'd never once questioned before this week.

The DNA request moved forward within days, a court order compelling Victor's cooperation given the active criminal investigation already underway, and Sarah's probate contact returned with information considerably more significant than either of them had anticipated.

"Harold Reeves's will contains an unusual provision," Sarah told Nathan, reviewing the documents she'd obtained. "A clause specifying that in the event a second biological heir is ever identified, the estate's controlling shares transfer to whichever son was born first, rather than splitting evenly."

"Born first," Nathan repeated. "You're saying this isn't just about splitting an inheritance. It's about who was actually the firstborn."

"That appears to be exactly what the will specifies," Sarah confirmed. "And given twins, the difference between first and second birth can be a matter of minutes, documented, if at all, in hospital records from over three decades ago."

Nathan sat with the weight of that provision, understanding now with devastating clarity exactly why Victor might have panicked so completely upon discovering his brother's existence.

"If I'm the firstborn," Nathan said slowly, "the entire company, everything Victor's built his life around, would transfer to me instead."

"That's my current understanding of the clause's language," Sarah said. "Which gives Victor a considerable, calculated motive to make sure you never lived long enough to have that determination made formally."

Nathan felt the full shape of the danger finally, completely crystallize, understanding now that the sabotaged scaffold hadn't been a single, desperate act, but likely the first attempt in what Victor probably intended as a sustained campaign to eliminate a threat to everything he'd built his entire adult identity around.