Chapter 5 - THE MAN HIS WIFE HAD WARNED HIM ABOUT
Alessandro read the warning twice.
Then he sat down as though his legs had stopped supporting him.
I had never seen him look that way.
Not angry.
Not powerful.
Simply afraid of what he might remember.
“Who is Daniel Mercer?” I asked.
Alessandro kept staring at the photograph.
“He used to work for me.”
Victoria, standing near the doorway, went pale.
Alessandro looked up at her.
“You knew that?”
She hesitated.
“I knew you'd had business disagreements.”
“That's not what I asked.”
Victoria's hands tightened.
“Daniel told me you had treated him unfairly.”
Alessandro let out a humorless laugh.
“Of course he did.”
Benjamin stood beside the cedar box.
“Daddy, is that Mommy's friend?”
His father looked at the photograph.
“No, buddy.”
“Then why was she with him?”
Alessandro turned the picture over.
“I don't know yet.”
Benjamin considered that.
Then he reached into the box.
“Mommy wrote letters.”
Alessandro gently stopped him.
“Let's look at those together later.”
“Are they for me?”
“Some might be.”
Benjamin nodded.
“Okay.”
I offered my hand.
“Come on, sweetheart. Mrs. Romano made grilled cheese.”
“Can Daddy come?”
Alessandro looked at his son.
For a moment, I thought he would make the familiar excuse.
A meeting.
An urgent call.
Something at the office.
Instead, he set the photograph down.
“Yes, buddy. Daddy can come.”
At the kitchen table, Benjamin ate two grilled cheese sandwiches while Alessandro listened to him describe a school project.
It was a simple conversation.
Dinosaurs.
A science poster.
A classmate named Owen who couldn't spell Tyrannosaurus.
But Benjamin smiled more during those twenty minutes than I had seen him smile in weeks.
After lunch, Alessandro helped him begin repairing one of Eleanor's small paintings.
They couldn't fix the canvas themselves, but they carefully matched the broken pieces of its wooden frame.
Benjamin held the corners while his father arranged them.
“This goes here,” the boy said.
Alessandro nodded.
“You're right.”
“Mommy said you were bad at art.”
His father laughed.
“She wasn't wrong.”
Benjamin grinned.
Then his smile faded.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Are you still marrying Victoria?”
The question settled between them.
Alessandro put down the frame.
“No, buddy.”
Benjamin looked startled.
“Because of me?”
“No.”
“But she doesn't like me.”
Alessandro moved his chair closer.
“Benjamin, listen carefully. Victoria and I were going to get married because I believed we could build a good life together. I know now that we can't.”
The boy looked down.
“Because I told?”
“Because she made choices that hurt you and lied about them. Telling me the truth was the right thing.”
Benjamin watched his father.
“Are you mad at her?”
“I'm very upset.”
“Are you mad at me?”
Alessandro took his son's hand.
“Never for telling me when something is wrong.”
Benjamin nodded slowly.
Then he climbed into his father's lap.
I quietly left them together.
Later that afternoon, Alessandro met with Julian in the library.
I was present only because Alessandro asked me to bring the cedar box.
Julian looked older than he had at the engagement dinner.
His suit was wrinkled.
He hadn't shaved.
“I should have checked the ownership records,” he said.
Alessandro stood near the fireplace.
“Start with the money.”
Julian nodded.
“Victoria used the four-hundred-thousand-dollar deposit to cover a debt.”
“What debt?”
Julian hesitated.
“Mine.”
Alessandro turned.
Julian looked ashamed.
“My development company nearly collapsed after a project in Connecticut failed. Daniel offered to arrange private financing.”
“And?”
“The terms were terrible. I missed two payments. He threatened to take the company.”
Alessandro watched him.
“So Victoria sold Eleanor's painting to rescue you?”
Julian nodded.
“She said she'd find another way to repay the money before anyone noticed.”
“Why didn't you come to me?”
Julian gave a tired smile.
“Would you have helped?”
Alessandro said nothing.
Julian looked down.
“That's what I thought.”
Then he added, “Daniel knew exactly how much Victoria wanted this marriage. He convinced her the house had to change before you two could start over.”
I frowned.
“Why would an art broker care whether Benjamin went to school in Vermont?”
Julian's expression tightened.
“Because Daniel wasn't just buying a painting.”
Alessandro stepped closer.
“Explain.”
“He wanted access to Eleanor's remaining artwork. Said there might be other valuable pieces.”
Alessandro glanced at the cedar box.
“Why?”
Julian shook his head.
“I don't know. But he was furious when Victoria told him Benjamin kept going into the art room.”
The room fell silent.
I remembered something Margaret had said.
Victoria's behavior changed after she met Daniel.
The school placement.
The empty bedroom.
The clearing of the art room.
Perhaps those decisions weren't separate.
Perhaps someone had been trying to remove the one person who remembered where Eleanor kept her belongings.
Alessandro appeared to reach the same conclusion.
“Daniel wanted Benjamin out of the house.”
Julian nodded reluctantly.
“I think he did.”
That evening, Alessandro opened the envelopes from Eleanor's cedar box.
There were five.
Each bore a date.
One was labeled:
Benjamin—Age Ten.
Another:
Benjamin—When You Finish School.
A third:
For My Son's Wedding Day.
Alessandro closed his eyes.
Eleanor had known she might not survive her illness.
She had prepared for moments she would never witness.
The fourth envelope was addressed to Alessandro.
But it was already open.
He carefully removed the letter.
Only one sheet remained.
At the top, Eleanor had written:
My love, if you are reading this, I hope you have finally forgiven yourself.
Alessandro's hands trembled.
But the rest of the letter had been cut away.
A clean line crossed the paper beneath the first paragraph.
Someone had removed most of it.
“Victoria?” I whispered.
He looked toward the door.
“Maybe.”
Then he examined the final envelope.
This one was still sealed.
On the front were the words:
For Benjamin, when he asks why I stayed.
Alessandro stared.
I frowned.
“Why she stayed where?”
He shook his head.
“I don't know.”
He placed the sealed letter aside.
“We won't open Benjamin's letter without him.”
That was when I noticed the bottom of the cedar box.
The velvet lining had lifted slightly near one corner.
I reached inside.
“Alessandro?”
He looked up.
“There may be something underneath.”
He carefully peeled back the loose fabric.
Beneath it lay an old silver watch.
Its crystal was cracked.
The hands had stopped at 4:17.
Alessandro stared at it.
Then he whispered, “That's impossible.”
“Why?”
He picked up the watch.
“My father gave this to Daniel Mercer the day he became our chief financial officer.”
I looked at the cracked glass.
“Then how did Eleanor get it?”
Alessandro turned it over.
On the back were two engraved initials.
D.M.
Beneath them, scratched into the silver by hand, was one word.
STOLEN.
Alessandro's expression changed.
And when he looked back at me, there was something close to horror in his eyes.
May you like
“Eleanor wasn't protecting this watch,” he whispered.
“She was keeping it as evidence.”
