Chapter 4

Years passed in the gilded cage. Leo remained lost in his silent world. I remained Julian' s hidden secret.

Isabelle' s son from a previous marriage, a cruel and arrogant boy named Thomas, was a frequent visitor. He was sixteen now, with his mother' s sneer and a deep-seated contempt for anyone he deemed beneath him. He hated Leo. He called him "the retard."

One afternoon, I was in the main house, begging Julian for more time with a specialist for Leo. He was distracted, looking at his phone, preparing for a high-profile political retreat with Isabelle.

"We'll talk about it when I get back, Elara," he said, dismissing me.

I returned to the guesthouse to a scene of horror.

Thomas and his friends were standing over Leo. My brother was on the ground, his face bruised and bleeding.

"He stole my watch!" Thomas shouted. It was a lie. Leo didn't understand the concept of stealing. He liked shiny things, but he would have just held it, not hidden it.

Thomas and his friends had beaten Leo. They kicked him, over and over.

I screamed and ran to my brother. He was barely breathing. His chest was still.

"He's dead," one of Thomas's friends whispered, his voice shaking.

Panic set in. Isabelle' s staff, loyal only to her, swarmed the guesthouse. They didn't call an ambulance. They didn't call the police.

They brought a utility vehicle, the kind they used for trash and yard waste. Two of the staff members lifted Leo' s small, broken body and tossed him in the back like a sack of garbage.

My childhood friend, Marie, who had followed me from Louisiana to the city, tried to stop them. "What are you doing? That's a boy! That's her brother!"

Isabelle appeared at the doorway, her face a mask of cold fury. "Get her out of here," she said, pointing at Marie. "And the rest of you who saw this. You're all fired. You will sign non-disclosure agreements, or you will never work in this city again."

I watched, numb, as they drove my brother's body away.

Julian was there. He stood on the porch of the main house, watching the whole thing. He saw the body. He heard the commotion. He knew.

He said nothing.

He turned, straightened his tie, and got into the black car waiting to take him and Isabelle to their retreat.