Chapter 4 - THE DESPERATE VISIT
At 2:00 PM that afternoon, while Marcus was at the federal courthouse presenting the preliminary evidence to the grand jury, the doorbell of the Lincoln Park brownstone rang.
I checked the security camera monitor near the front door.
Standing on the porch steps, shivering in the cold autumn wind, was Austin.
He wasn't wearing his Army dress uniform today. He was in a wrinkled polo shirt and jeans, his hair disheveled, his eyes red-rimmed and bloodshot. He looked small, broken, and utterly terrified.
I hesitated for a moment, then unlocked the heavy oak door and pulled it open, keeping the iron security gate locked between us.
"Claire," Austin gasped, stepping toward the gate, his hands gripping the black iron bars. "Claire, please. You have to answer your phone. Mom and Dad are losing their minds."
I looked at my younger brother—the golden child who had spent his entire life stepping on my back to reach the pedestals our parents built for him.
"What do you want, Austin?" I asked, my voice flat and emotionless.
"You have to fix this!" he pleaded, his voice cracking into a high-pitched whine. "The Army suspended me this morning! They took my command, Claire! Two CID agents came to my apartment and stripped my rank badges right off my desk! They’re talking about a court-martial! They’re talking about Leavenworth!"
"You lied about your service, Austin," I said coldly. "You took credit for another man’s sacrifice while you were high in a private clinic in Switzerland. Did you think that would last forever?"
"Dad set that up!" Austin screamed, his hands tightening on the iron bars. "Dad told me it was taken care of! I didn't know he forged those manifests, Claire! I swear to God I didn't know!"
"You knew you weren't in Kandahar," I replied, staring directly into his panicked eyes. "You knew you didn't earn that medal. You sat at family dinners and listened to Dad brag about your bravery while you knew it was all built on a stolen life."
Austin fell back against the stone railing of the porch, burying his face in his hands. He began to weep—a pathetic, desperate sound that carried no remorse, only self-pity.
"Dad was arrested two hours ago," Austin sobbed through his fingers. "The police took him out of the house in handcuffs in front of the local news cameras. And Mom... Mom is burning documents in the backyard fireplace right now. She’s completely out of her mind, Claire. She said if you don't go to the prosecutor and tell them you made it all up, she’s going to disown you permanently."
I actually laughed. A short, quiet laugh that startled Austin into looking up.
"Disown me?" I said, leaning closer to the iron gate. "Austin, she disowned me thirty-three years ago the moment I was born without a golden future she could use to impress her friends. Tell Mom she can keep her inheritance. The federal government is going to seize every penny of it by Friday anyway."
"Claire, please," Austin whimpered, dropping to his knees on the cold stone steps. "I’m your brother. We’re blood. You can't let them send me to military prison. I won't survive in there!"
I looked down at him. For twenty years, I would have done anything to hear him ask for my help. I would have sacrificed my own happiness, my own career, my own sanity just to feel like we were a real family.
But as I looked at him kneeling there, I didn't see my brother. I saw a hollow creation built by two arrogant, cruel people who had destroyed everything they touched.
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"You should get a good lawyer, Austin," I said softly. "Because I’m testifying before the grand jury on Monday morning. And I’m not leaving a single detail out."
I closed the heavy oak door, turned the deadbolt, and walked back into the quiet house, leaving my brother weeping on the cold stone steps.
