Chapter 6 - THE WATCH THAT DIDN'T BELONG TO JULIAN
"Put the watch on the desk."
Julian looked at me.
"Vincent."
"Now."
He slowly placed the silver pocket watch beside Caroline's photograph.
For years, I'd associated that watch with my grandfather.
Every Sunday, he'd sit beneath the apple tree and wind it while telling us stories about the old country.
When he died, Julian inherited the watch.
I inherited the family business.
We'd both pretended those gifts were equal.
They weren't.
Julian knew it.
So did I.
Emma pointed toward the engraving.
"May I?"
Julian nodded.
She turned the watch over.
On its back were the initials J.C.
And beneath them, a small scratch shaped like a crescent.
Emma opened Daniel's notebook.
She placed the drawing beside the watch.
The same scratch appeared on the sketch.
My chest tightened.
"Julian?"
He stared at the notebook.
"I didn't go to Harbor Industrial."
"Someone saw your watch."
"That doesn't mean they saw me."
Dominic folded his arms.
"Who else had access to it?"
Julian was silent.
Then he whispered, "Rebecca."
I stared.
"Why would Rebecca have your grandfather's watch?"
Julian shut his eyes.
"We were seeing each other."
The room seemed to go completely still.
Julian was married.
His wife, Margaret, had stood beside him at Caroline's funeral.
Their daughters were twelve and fifteen.
I felt disgust rise in my throat.
"How long?"
"Eight months."
"Before the explosion?"
He nodded.
I turned away.
The betrayal wasn't mine to forgive.
But it told me something important.
Rebecca had access to Julian's life.
His possessions.
His routines.
Possibly his passwords.
Julian's voice broke.
"Margaret doesn't know."
Emma spoke quietly.
"That isn't the first secret your wife deserves to hear."
Julian looked at her.
She didn't look away.
Then he took the watch and opened its back.
Inside the mechanism was a second engraving.
H.M.
I frowned.
"Who is H.M.?"
Julian swallowed.
"Harold Mercer."
The name was familiar.
Twenty years earlier, Harold Mercer had been our grandfather's accountant.
He'd disappeared after a federal investigation into missing company funds.
I'd always believed he'd stolen money.
Julian shook his head.
"Grandfather gave me the watch, but he said it originally belonged to Mercer."
"Why?"
"He told me Harold had saved our family once."
Dominic frowned.
"Mercer was accused of stealing six million dollars."
"That's what the company records said," Julian replied.
I suddenly remembered something Caroline had told me six months before her death.
She'd been researching old Calder Holdings accounts for a charitable foundation.
She said the company's history had gaps.
Names that disappeared.
Payments that led nowhere.
I'd told her not to waste her time on old business.
Now I wished I'd listened.
Emma turned another page in Daniel's notebook.
"There are references to Harold Mercer."
She read aloud.
"Mercer established a private reserve account connected to employee emergency funds. Later, the account was redirected."
I looked at Julian.
"Redirected where?"
"East Wharf Cooperative."
My company.
My name.
My responsibility.
Julian lowered his head.
"When you absorbed the cooperative, you inherited obligations nobody explained to you."
"What obligations?"
"Payments to families harmed by operations your grandfather authorized."
I stared at him.
"You're telling me my grandfather operated a secret compensation fund?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Julian looked miserable.
"Because some of the people working for him died doing things they never should have been asked to do."
For the first time, our family's wealth looked different to me.
Not merely dangerous.
Burdened.
Built on debts no one had properly repaid.
Emma stepped toward the desk.
"Daniel believed someone was stealing that money."
I looked at her.
"Rebecca?"
"She processed the transfers. But Daniel thought she was being threatened."
Dominic's phone vibrated.
He checked the screen.
"Vincent, we've got a problem."
I turned.
"What?"
"The estate's central server just logged an unauthorized shutdown request."
"From where?"
"The executive office."
"My office?"
He nodded.
"Someone is wiping security archives."
I moved immediately.
Dominic followed.
Emma called after us.
"Don't delete anything else trying to stop it. Preserve what remains."
I ran down the corridor toward my office.
The computer monitor showed a security administrator session.
Files were disappearing.
I disconnected the network cable.
The screen froze.
Dominic stood beside me.
"The deletion was scheduled."
"By whom?"
He examined the audit record.
Then his expression changed.
"Your father."
I stared at him.
"My father has been dead almost two years."
"The credentials belong to his old account."
A dead man's password.
Another stolen identity.
I leaned against the desk.
"This entire system is compromised."
Dominic looked ashamed.
"I should have found it."
"Yes," I said.
He nodded once.
"I know."
Then Emma entered the room with Julian.
She carried Noah's bracelet.
My stomach tightened.
"Why do you have that?"
"Noah asked me to bring it."
"Is he all right?"
"Mrs. Alvarez is with him."
She placed the bracelet beside the keyboard.
"I think Caroline used the same system Daniel used."
"What system?"
"Hidden storage in ordinary objects."
She opened the lighthouse charm.
I'd already found the paper inside.
But Emma examined the clasp more closely.
"There are two compartments."
She pressed a tiny metal ridge.
A second panel opened.
Inside lay a thin square of black plastic.
A memory card.
My heart began pounding.
"Can we read it?"
Dominic retrieved an isolated reader from his equipment case.
We inserted the card into an offline laptop.
One video file appeared.
Its date was the morning before the explosion.
I clicked it.
Caroline appeared on the screen.
Alive.
Her hair was tied back.
She wore her green coat.
For one terrible second, I couldn't breathe.
Then she began speaking.
"Vincent, if you're watching this, it means I wasn't able to explain everything."
I sat down.
Caroline looked directly into the camera.
"I found money being taken from families who were promised help. I found false approvals under your name."
Her eyes filled.
"I don't believe you ordered it. But someone has been using your authority."
She paused.
Then her expression changed.
"I've discovered that the person behind this knows Noah's schedule."
My hands clenched.
"I planned to take him somewhere safe tomorrow. But first, I need you to understand something."
She glanced away from the camera.
A man's voice spoke from somewhere nearby.
"Caroline, we need to hurry."
I knew that voice.
But I couldn't place it.
Caroline turned back.
"If they tell you the bomb was intended for you, don't believe them."
My heart stopped.
She swallowed.
Then she said the words that destroyed the last piece of certainty I possessed.
"Vincent, the bomb wasn't meant to kill you."
May you like
Her voice broke.
"It was meant to kill Noah."
