Blood Ties

Blood Ties
Rain poured down as they raced through the dark alley behind Elijah's building. The fire escape ladder rattled behind them, voices shouting from above.
"This way!" Elijah led them to a rusty door half-hidden behind a dumpster.
They squeezed through into a dimly lit hallway that smelled of old food and cigarettes.
"Where are we?" Aidan asked, trying to catch his breath.
"The restaurant next door," Elijah explained. "The owner lets me use this passage in emergencies."
Maya pulled out her phone. "We need somewhere safe to regroup."
"Not the safe house," Asher warned. "If they found Elijah's apartment, they might know about that too."
Elijah nodded. "I have another place. But first, we need to grab something."
He led them through the restaurant's kitchen, nodding to an old man chopping vegetables who didn't seem surprised by four people rushing through his workplace. They slipped out the front door and into a waiting taxi.
"North Station," Elijah told the driver.
"We're leaving the city?" Aidan asked quietly.
"Just a quick stop," Elijah replied. "I have a storage locker there with emergency supplies."
Twenty minutes later, they stood in front of a small metal locker in the train station's basement. Elijah spun the combination lock and pulled out a duffel bag.
"Change of clothes, cash, and fake IDs," he said, unzipping the bag. "We'll need to split up. It's safer that way."
"No," Asher said firmly. "We stick together."
"He's right," Maya agreed. "Victor's men are watching all transportation out of the city. We need a different plan."
While they argued, Maya noticed a folder sticking out of the locker. Curious, she slid it out and opened it.
Inside were several documents — medical records, school transcripts, and what looked like a birth certificate. Her eyes widened as she read it.
"Elijah..." she said, her voice strange. "What is this?"
The others fell silent, turning to her. Elijah's face paled when he saw what she was holding.
"Where did you get that?" he demanded, reaching for the paper.
Maya stepped back, keeping it out of his reach. "It was in your locker. This birth certificate..." She looked up at the twins, then back to Elijah. "It lists Victor Carter as your father."
The world seemed to freeze. Aidan and Asher stared at Elijah, whose face had gone completely white.
"That's impossible," Asher whispered. "You just told us your mother was friends with our mother."
"She was," Elijah insisted, but his voice wavered.
"Then explain this," Maya said, holding up the document. "Father: Victor Carter. Mother: Elena Hart. Born: May 12, eighteen months before the twins."
Aidan stepped forward, his hands trembling as he took the paper from Maya. His eyes scanned it once, twice, three times, as if hoping the words would change.
"You lied to us," he said finally, looking up at Elijah. "All that talk about fulfilling your mother's promise... you're our half-brother."
Elijah's shoulders slumped. "It's not what you think."
"Then what is it?" Asher demanded, his voice rising. "You've been working your way into our lives for months! Was this all just some twisted revenge plot?"
People nearby glanced their way, drawn by the rising voices.
"Not here," Maya hissed. "We need to move."
They found a quiet corner of the station, far from curious ears.
"Talk," Aidan ordered once they were alone. "The truth this time."
Elijah ran a hand through his hair, his cool composure finally cracking. "Yes, Victor is my biological father. But I didn't know until a year ago."
"How is that possible?" Asher asked.
"My mother never told me. She raised me alone, telling me my father died before I was born." Elijah pulled out his wallet and removed a worn photo. "This is the only picture she kept of him. She never would say his name."
The photo showed a much younger Elena with Victor, both smiling at a company party.
"After my mother died, I started digging into her past," Elijah continued. "I found letters she'd written but never sent to Victor. She worked for Carter Enterprises as your mother's assistant. They had an affair while Victor was already married."
"And our mother knew about this?" Aidan asked, trying to make sense of it all.
"Not at first. But she found out eventually." Elijah's voice grew quiet. "According to my mother's diaries, your mother was kind to her, even after discovering the affair. She helped my mother when Victor cast her aside after learning she was pregnant."
Maya was studying the birth certificate more carefully now. "This hospital doesn't exist anymore. It was shut down twenty years ago for falsifying records."
Elijah nodded. "That's why I kept digging. Something didn't add up. Victor paid the hospital to create a fake birth certificate showing another man as my father. But my mother kept the real one hidden."
"So our father knew about you all along," Asher realized.
"He knew. He paid my mother to stay silent and disappear." Elijah's eyes darkened. "When she died in that 'accident,' I was put in foster care. Victor could have claimed me then, but he didn't. He pretended I didn't exist."
The twins exchanged troubled glances.
"Why didn't you tell us this when we first met?" Aidan asked.
"Would you have trusted me?" Elijah countered. "I needed to get close to you, to learn what you knew about your mother's death. I couldn't risk you running to Victor."
"So everything between us was a lie?" Asher's voice cracked slightly.
Elijah's eyes softened. "Not everything. Not for a long time now."
An uncomfortable silence fell between them.
"What about Alex?" Maya asked, breaking the tension. "Did you know about him too?"
"Only rumors at first. Former employees who remembered a Carter child who suddenly vanished." Elijah pulled a file from his bag. "But then I found hospital records from when he was ten. A mysterious fall that required surgery. The patient's name was blacked out, but the blood type matched, and the emergency contact was Victor."
"Dad always told us we were his only children," Aidan said. "Why hide Alex? Why hide you?"
"I don't know about Alex," Elijah admitted. "But for me, it was simple—I was the living proof of his betrayal. Catherine could have used me to destroy his reputation and take half the company in a divorce."
Maya was still examining the documents. "There's something else here." She pulled out another paper, yellowed with age. "It's a letter from your mother to Victor, dated a week before she died."
She read aloud: "'I know what you did to Catherine. I have copies of everything she gave me for safekeeping. If anything happens to me, the evidence goes public. Stay away from my son.'"
"Evidence of what?" Asher wondered.
"Whatever it is, it's at the summer house," Elijah said firmly. "That's why we need to get there before Alex does."
"Or our sister," Aidan added, still reeling from all these revelations.
Elijah's phone buzzed. His face paled as he read the message.
"What now?" Maya asked.
"It's from her," Elijah said quietly. "Our sister. She says Victor's men found her at the summer house. She's hiding, but won't be safe for long."
"We need to go. Now." Asher was already standing.
"Wait," Aidan said, turning to Elijah. "How do we know we can trust you? After all these lies?"
Elijah met his gaze steadily. "You don't. But right now, I'm your only chance of finding the truth about your mother."
"He's right," Maya said reluctantly. "Besides, we need answers about Alex too."
"Fine," Aidan conceded. "But after this, we're done."
As they hurried toward the parking garage, Maya pulled Aidan aside.
"There's something odd about that birth certificate," she whispered.
"What do you mean?"
"The doctor who signed it—Dr. Mercer—I've seen that name before in the Carter Enterprises files. He wasn't just any doctor. He was one of your father's closest friends from college."
"So?"
"So why would Victor's friend be delivering his secret child? Wouldn't he want to keep that hidden from people he knew?"
Aidan frowned. "Unless..."
"Unless the birth certificate is real, but the information on it isn't," Maya finished. "I think there's more to Elijah's story than even he knows."
Before Aidan could respond, a sleek black car pulled up beside them. The window rolled down to reveal a face they'd never seen before—a young woman with familiar eyes.
"Get in," she said urgently. "Alex is already on his way to the summer house. And he's not alone."
The twins hesitated.
"Who are you?" Asher demanded.
The woman's eyes—Carter eyes—met his. "I'm Audrey Carter. Your sister. And I know who really killed our mother."