The Brother's Wife Chapter 5

"Ten years is a long time to play house with my family," James said, lounging in the leather chair across from me in my—our—home office.

He looked older, harder. Success with Miranda clearly hadn't lasted. I'd heard she'd lost everything in a bad investment deal six months ago.

"I was young and stupid when I ran off," he continued, lighting a cigarette despite Claire's no-smoking rule. "But my wife and daughter are still mine. Time to stop playing pretend, little brother."

I clenched my fists. "You abandoned them. I was the one—"

"Who took advantage of the situation?" He laughed coldly. "Come on, Ryan. You seduced my wife, raised my daughter as your own, lived in luxury off the empire my wife built to compensate for losing me. That's not exactly noble."

"I never—"

"You really want the world to know the truth?" He leaned forward. "That you've been impersonating your brother for a decade? That you stole his identity, his family, his life? Let's see how Claire and Sophie feel about that."

The threat hung in the air between us.

"I'm giving you three days," James said, standing. "Clean up your mess. Write me a detailed report on Claire and Sophie's lives so I can slip back in seamlessly. And then disappear."

He tossed Miranda's new address on my desk. "Your girlfriend's waiting for you. She still loves you, you know. She told me so."

After he left, I sat alone in the dark for hours.