Chapter 6 - THE WATCH INSIDE THE TEDDY BEAR
“My daughter received Frank's watch?”
Damian stood so abruptly that his chair scraped across the floor.
Detective Ruiz motioned for him to sit.
“According to the delivery record, yes.”
“But Lily never told me.”
The detective studied him.
“Would she have had an opportunity?”
Damian couldn't answer.
He looked at the photograph of the cracked silver watch.
Frank Donnelly had worn it for more than thirty years.
Damian remembered sitting on his godfather's knee as a boy, listening to the watch tick.
Frank always said the same thing.
Time is the one thing a rich man cannot buy.
As a child, Damian had laughed.
As a father, he had ignored it.
Now those words felt unbearable.
“Where is the watch?” he asked.
“We believe your wife may know.”
Damian reached for his phone.
Then stopped.
Claire had asked him to leave her alone.
He could not keep treating her wishes as obstacles.
Detective Ruiz noticed.
“I'll contact Mrs. Moreland through the proper channels.”
Damian nodded.
“Thank you.”
That evening, he returned to the mansion.
Margaret was preparing to leave.
The housekeeper paused when she saw him standing outside Lily's bedroom.
“Mr. Moreland?”
“Did Lily receive a package from Frank?”
Margaret's expression changed.
“Yes.”
“What was inside?”
“A silver watch.”
“Where did she put it?”
Margaret looked toward the little bed.
“She said Mr. Donnelly told her to keep it somewhere safe.”
“Did Claire know?”
“Yes. Your wife opened the package with her.”
Damian entered the room.
He remembered Lily's one-eyed teddy bear.
Claire had taken it to the church.
“Was it inside the bear?” he asked.
Margaret looked startled.
“How did you know?”
Damian closed his eyes.
“Because my father used to hide notes inside toys when I was little.”
Margaret sat down.
“Lily showed me the watch once. She said it was a secret for Mommy.”
Damian looked at her.
“Did she know why?”
“No. She only knew Frank wanted Mrs. Moreland to have it.”
“Why didn't Claire open it?”
“She tried.”
Margaret hesitated.
“Then the threatening photograph arrived.”
Damian stood very still.
“Frank delivered the threat.”
“Yes.”
“Claire must have thought the watch was another trap.”
Margaret nodded.
The next morning, Detective Ruiz arranged a meeting with Claire.
Not at the mansion.
Not at Damian's office.
At a quiet family counseling center near the lake.
Damian arrived carrying Lily's butterfly shoebox.
Claire was already sitting beside the window.
Her eyes moved toward the box.
“What are you doing with that?”
“Margaret showed me the drawings.”
Claire's face tightened.
“You weren't supposed to see those until I was ready.”
“I know. I'm sorry.”
She looked away.
Damian placed the box on the table.
“I haven't changed anything.”
“Did you read them all?”
“Yes.”
Claire folded her arms.
“Then you know.”
He nodded.
“I know she was waiting for me long before the accident.”
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Detective Ruiz entered.
She explained the watch.
The delivery.
Frank's apparent signal.
Claire listened without interrupting.
When the detective finished, Claire reached into her handbag.
She removed the one-eyed teddy bear.
Damian's breath caught.
The toy looked smaller than he remembered.
One ear was bent.
The stitching along its back had been repaired with blue thread.
“Lily asked me to keep him safe,” Claire whispered.
She touched the bear's fabric.
“She put something inside him. I thought it was another little drawing.”
Detective Ruiz asked permission to examine the toy.
Claire nodded.
With a small seam cutter, the detective opened a few stitches along the repaired section.
A silver watch slid onto the table.
Its cracked face reflected the light.
Damian stared.
Frank's watch.
The detective carefully opened the back with a watchmaker's tool.
Inside was a folded strip of paper.
Three numbers.
417 — 206 — 11.
Claire frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Damian recognized the first two.
“Vehicle 417. The route change at 2:06.”
“And eleven?” Detective Ruiz asked.
Damian shook his head.
Then he noticed something etched into the watch case.
A date.
Six years earlier.
The year Lily was born.
Below the date were the initials:
E.M.
Eleanor Moreland.
Damian's mother.
She had died four years ago.
The watch had belonged to Frank, but the inscription connected it to Eleanor.
Claire looked at the initials.
“Your mother knew something?”
“I don't know.”
Detective Ruiz examined the paper.
“There may be more.”
She held it beneath a bright light.
Faint writing appeared beneath the numbers.
A sentence.
THE FIRST PAYMENT WAS MADE BEFORE LILY WAS BORN.
Damian frowned.
“What payment?”
Claire stared at him.
“Damian, what did your mother leave Lily?”
“A trust.”
“How much?”
“Approximately twenty-eight million dollars when it was established.”
Claire looked stunned.
“You told me it was ten.”
“It was originally ten. My mother transferred additional assets into it before she died.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I didn't think the amount mattered.”
Claire gave him a look filled with disbelief.
“You didn't think it mattered that our daughter inherited nearly thirty million dollars?”
Damian lowered his eyes.
“No. I was wrong.”
Detective Ruiz placed another document on the table.
“Our financial investigators found something unusual.”
She showed them a series of transfers.
Funds had moved through Harbor Crown Logistics.
Then through a foreign holding company.
Finally into accounts controlled by Vincent Moreland.
But the oldest transaction was dated six years earlier.
Before Lily's birth.
Claire studied the page.
“That's impossible. Vincent couldn't have taken money from Lily's trust before she existed.”
Detective Ruiz nodded.
“Which suggests the trust wasn't the original target.”
Damian leaned forward.
“What was?”
The detective turned the page.
An old insurance policy appeared.
The insured person was Eleanor Moreland.
The beneficiary was the Moreland family holding company.
The policy had been amended shortly before Eleanor's death.
A second name had been inserted.
Vincent Moreland.
Damian felt a chill.
“My mother died from a heart condition.”
“That's what her death certificate says,” Detective Ruiz replied.
Claire looked between them.
“What does that have to do with Lily?”
The detective placed the final page on the table.
It contained an internal payment authorization from the year Lily was born.
Beneath the approval line was a signature.
Damian recognized it immediately.
His own.
Except he had never seen the document.
Detective Ruiz spoke carefully.
“Mr. Moreland, someone may have been using your identity to authorize financial transactions for years.”
Damian stared at the paper.
Then Claire noticed a handwritten note along the bottom.
She read it aloud.
“If Eleanor tells Damian about the child, everything changes.”
Claire looked up slowly.
“What child?”
Damian's face went pale.
May you like
Because beneath the note was a name neither of them expected.
Sabrina Vale.
