Chapter 3 - THE SILVER WATCH
Adrian did not move.
His left hand remained at his side.
The silver watch beneath his cuff suddenly seemed louder than any accusation Isabella could have screamed.
Sophia looked from the watch to the terrified child.
“Bella,” Adrian said carefully, “what do you mean?”
Isabella pointed.
“Like yours.”
Not yours.
Like yours.
The distinction changed the room.
Adrian slowly removed his watch.
“Was the man wearing this?”
Isabella stared at it.
Then shook her head.
“Same picture.”
Adrian turned the watch over.
Engraved into the back was a small crest—an M surrounded by laurel branches.
Sophia understood.
A family piece.
“Who else has one?” she asked.
Adrian's gaze moved toward her.
“My brother.”
The answer landed heavily.
“Gabriel?”
A man's voice came from the doorway.
Everyone turned.
The man standing there looked enough like Adrian to make the relationship obvious, although he was younger and leaner. Gabriel Moretti had softer features and none of Adrian's intimidating stillness.
He looked from the children to the watch.
“What about me?”
Adrian's voice hardened.
“Leave us.”
Gabriel frowned.
“Adrian—”
“Now.”
Gabriel's eyes found Isabella.
Something crossed his expression.
Not anger.
Fear.
He left.
Isabella immediately began crying.
“I made Uncle Gabe mad.”
Adrian crouched.
“You didn't make anyone mad.”
“You yelled.”
“At him. Not you.”
“But because I talked.”
Adrian closed his eyes for one brief second.
Sophia saw the realization strike him.
Isabella had not stayed silent because she had forgotten.
She had stayed silent because every adult reaction frightened her.
Sophia knelt beside them.
“Isabella, nobody is in trouble because you told the truth.”
Isabella looked at her father.
“Promise?”
Adrian hesitated.
Sophia almost wanted to shake him.
Then he took his daughter's hand.
“I promise you will never be punished for telling me something you're afraid to say.”
It was not the promise Isabella had asked for.
But perhaps it was the only honest one he could give.
Later Adrian asked Sophia to bring Emma downstairs.
He questioned Isabella alone for fifteen minutes.
When he emerged, his face looked carved from stone.
“What did she say?” Sophia asked.
“That she woke that night and heard her mother arguing downstairs. She came to the landing. Elena left through the side entrance with a man wearing the family watch.”
“Did she see his face?”
“No.”
“So it might not have been Gabriel.”
Adrian looked at her sharply.
“You defend him quickly.”
“I don't know him.”
“Exactly.”
Sophia folded Emma's coat over her arm.
“But Isabella does. If she thought she saw her uncle, wouldn't she have said Uncle Gabriel instead of ‘the man with your silver watch’?”
Adrian said nothing.
That was when Emma tugged Sophia's sleeve.
“Mommy.”
“What?”
“Bella's picture.”
“What about it?”
“The lady has stars.”
Sophia looked down.
Emma tapped her own wrist.
Three little stars.
The bracelet.
And suddenly Sophia remembered.
She had seen it inside Margaret's sewing basket.
That afternoon.
Sophia's stomach tightened.
She found Margaret in the laundry room twenty minutes later.
“I need to ask you something.”
Margaret looked up.
Sophia closed the door.
“Why do you have Elena's bracelet?”
Margaret went pale.
For a long moment neither woman spoke.
Then Margaret sat down.
“I was hoping nobody would notice.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“Elena gave it to me.”
“When?”
“The afternoon before she died.”
Sophia's pulse quickened.
“Why?”
Margaret opened a cabinet and removed a small wooden sewing box.
Inside lay the silver bracelet.
Three stars.
“She said if anything happened, I was to give this to Isabella when she was older.”
“Anything?”
“She was frightened.”
“Of Gabriel?”
“I don't know.”
Margaret looked exhausted.
“Elena didn't tell me everything. She said someone close to Adrian had been moving money through businesses without his knowledge. She had discovered it accidentally.”
Sophia stared.
“And you never told Adrian?”
“I tried.”
“What happened?”
“His security chief stopped me.”
“Who?”
Margaret's eyes lifted.
“Victor Hale.”
Sophia had seen Victor. He was the expressionless man who had met her at the mansion gates.
“He told me Adrian was dealing with his wife's death and that unverified accusations would only create chaos. He said he would investigate.”
“Did he?”
“I assumed so.”
Sophia looked at the bracelet.
“Seven weeks later you're still hiding it.”
Margaret's shame answered for her.
A sound behind them made both women turn.
Emma stood in the doorway.
Sophia's heart jumped.
“How long have you been there?”
Emma ignored the question.
She pointed into the sewing box.
“Stars.”
“Yes, sweetheart.”
Emma reached toward the bracelet, but Sophia stopped her.
“Don't touch.”
Emma frowned.
“Bella has one.”
Sophia stared.
“What?”
“Bella has stars too.”
Margaret leaned forward.
“Where?”
“In her bear.”
Sophia's skin prickled.
They hurried upstairs.
Isabella was sitting beside her bed.
When Sophia gently asked about the bear, Isabella clutched the stuffed animal against herself.
“Emma said there's something inside.”
Isabella looked betrayed.
Emma climbed beside her.
“I didn't tell bad.”
Sophia softened.
“No, baby. You didn't.”
Isabella slowly turned the bear around.
A seam along its back had been crudely opened and stitched again.
“My mommy put something inside,” she whispered.
“When?”
“The last day.”
Sophia's breath caught.
“She told you?”
Isabella nodded.
“She said if she didn't come home, I should keep Mr. Buttons safe.”
“Did she tell you what was inside?”
“No.”
Adrian arrived before they opened it.
He sat beside Isabella and asked permission.
After a long hesitation, she nodded.
Margaret cut the thread.
Inside the stuffing was a small brass key wrapped in tissue paper.
No label.
No explanation.
Just a number stamped into the metal.
317.
Adrian stared at it.
Gabriel, standing near the door now, suddenly swore under his breath.
Everyone turned.
Adrian rose.
“You recognize it.”
Gabriel's face had lost its color.
“No.”
“Don't lie to me.”
Gabriel looked toward Isabella, then Sophia.
Finally he exhaled.
“It's a locker key.”
“Where?”
Gabriel rubbed both hands over his face.
“Grand Central.”
Adrian stepped toward him.
“How do you know?”
“Because Elena asked me to rent it.”
Silence swallowed the room.
Isabella's fingers tightened around Emma's.
Adrian's voice became dangerously quiet.
“When?”
“The morning she died.”
“And you said nothing for seven weeks?”
Gabriel looked at his brother.
“Because she made me promise.”
“What did she put inside?”
“I don't know.”
Adrian grabbed Gabriel's jacket.
Isabella screamed.
“Daddy!”
Adrian released him immediately.
Gabriel stumbled backward.
Sophia saw something then that changed her understanding completely.
Gabriel was not frightened of Adrian.
He was frightened for him.
“Elena didn't trust someone in this house,” Gabriel said.
Adrian stared.
“Who?”
“I don't know. She wouldn't tell me.”
Gabriel's eyes dropped to the silver watch on Adrian's wrist.
“But she told me one thing.”
“What?”
“She said if you ever learned what was in locker 317, you wouldn't know which member of your family to trust anymore.”
Emma suddenly whispered from beside Isabella.
“Bella?”
Isabella looked down.
Emma was holding the photograph again.
But this time she was pointing to something in the background.
May you like
Behind Elena, reflected faintly in the lake-house window, stood a man.
And on his wrist gleamed a silver watch.
