Chapter 4 - THE WATCH THAT DIDN’T BELONG TO A DELUCA
The watch felt too heavy for its size.
Gold.
Scratched.
Old enough that the leather band had been replaced more than once.
G.M.
My father.
Not Antonio DeLuca.
Not Daniel Bennett.
Somebody else.
I looked at Dad.
“Who was he?”
Daniel lowered himself into a chair.
“His name was George Mercer.”
Victoria inhaled sharply.
Gabriel turned toward her.
“You know the name.”
She hesitated.
“Mercer Shipping.”
Gabriel did too.
I could see it.
“What was Mercer Shipping?” I asked.
Gabriel answered.
“A company my father destroyed.”
“Why?”
“He claimed they were stealing from DeLuca freight contracts.”
Daniel looked at him.
“That was the story Antonio told.”
“And the truth?”
“George Mercer had proof Antonio was using legitimate shipping routes to move contraband.”
Gabriel’s face went cold.
My stomach twisted.
“And Elena?”
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face.
“She met George while trying to get away from Antonio.”
“Were they in love?”
“Yes.”
That simple answer changed everything again.
Victoria spoke quietly.
“Then Nora is George’s child.”
Daniel nodded.
“And I’m Antonio’s?”
“Yes.”
Victoria turned away.
For the first time, I felt something other than anger toward her.
Because I saw it happen.
The moment a person realized the monster in a family story might be her own father.
Gabriel stared at Victoria.
If Daniel was right, Gabriel and Victoria shared a father.
Brother and sister.
The engagement dinner came rushing back into my mind.
The ring.
The champagne.
Sixty guests.
My stomach turned.
Victoria understood at the same moment.
She ripped the engagement ring from her finger.
It hit the table.
“Oh, God.”
Gabriel didn’t touch her.
He looked almost sick.
Neither of them had known.
Whatever else Victoria had done to me, that horror belonged to Evelyn and Antonio.
Not them.
Daniel continued.
“Elena discovered she was pregnant after she had already separated from George. She went back to Antonio because George was being threatened.”
“With twins?” I asked.
“No.”
I frowned.
Daniel looked at us.
“The doctors believed there was one baby.”
Victoria whispered, “Until delivery.”
“Yes.”
Two infants.
Two fathers.
It sounded impossible.
Gabriel said it aloud.
“Twins can have different biological fathers.”
Daniel nodded.
“Rare, but possible. Elena had been with George and Antonio within days of each other.”
I stared at Victoria.
Half sisters.
Born minutes apart.
Different fathers.
One mother.
Everything suddenly fit and became stranger at the same time.
“Antonio found out?”
“Not immediately.”
Daniel touched the watch.
“Elena convinced one doctor to keep the second baby off the standard record. She thought she could protect both girls.”
“But Evelyn knew,” Gabriel said.
Daniel nodded.
“She was Elena’s closest friend then.”
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“My mother doesn’t have friends.”
“She did once.”
That surprised her.
Daniel’s voice softened.
“Evelyn loved Elena.”
“Then why betray her?”
“Because Antonio threatened Victoria.”
Victoria stopped breathing.
“What?”
“He discovered one infant matched his blood type and one didn’t. He didn’t know which was which. He told Evelyn that unless she solved the problem, both babies would disappear.”
The word landed hard.
Disappear.
The nurse had used the same word.
“So Evelyn chose one,” I said.
Daniel looked at me painfully.
“She arranged for Rebecca to take you.”
“Why me?”
“Because Elena begged her to.”
That was the reversal I hadn’t expected.
Evelyn had not stolen me from Elena.
At least not at first.
She had helped save me.
“Then the payment?”
“Antonio paid Evelyn afterward. He believed she had arranged your death.”
My skin went cold.
“He thought I was dead?”
“For twenty-eight years.”
Gabriel paced toward the fireplace.
“And Evelyn kept the money?”
“No,” Daniel said.
“She gave most of it to George.”
My head snapped up.
“My father?”
“He used it to run.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You just said he was my father like you knew him.”
“I met him once.”
“When?”
“The night Rebecca brought you home.”
Dad’s voice broke slightly.
“He gave her the watch and asked us to tell you something if the truth ever came out.”
I waited.
“What?”
Daniel looked directly at me.
“That he did not abandon you.”
My eyes burned.
“He left.”
“He was being hunted.”
“Same result for a child.”
“I know.”
The answer was so quiet that my anger faltered.
Gabriel picked up the watch.
“Does it open?”
I hadn’t noticed the tiny ridge along the back.
Daniel nodded.
Gabriel pressed it.
The case popped open.
Inside wasn’t a photograph.
It was a sliver of paper.
Four numbers.
2—13—47—9.
Victoria frowned.
“Another code?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I never knew.”
Gabriel stared at it.
“Two-thirteen.”
“The transfer time,” I said.
2:13 a.m.
The number on the nursery card.
Dominic spoke from the doorway.
“Forty-seven and nine could be locker numbers.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“At the hospital?”
“St. Catherine’s old maternity building was demolished twelve years ago.”
Victoria looked at the music box.
“Maybe not the hospital.”
I remembered the train ticket.
The second box.
Rebecca knew where it was.
I looked at Dad.
“Did Mom keep a music box?”
His eyes changed.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
“She kept something she never let me touch.”
“What?”
“A blue tin case.”
“Where?”
“I thought she threw it away.”
“What did it look like?”
“About this big.”
He measured twelve inches with his hands.
“Painted flowers. Brass latch.”
“Crescent-shaped?”
He nodded.
We drove to Bridgeport before dawn.
Gabriel insisted I ride in his car because of my shoulder.
Victoria came too.
I almost objected.
Then I remembered what she had just learned.
She sat across from me without her engagement ring.
Neither of us spoke.
At the Bennett house, Dad led us to the detached garage.
Rebecca had kept boxes of Christmas ornaments, school papers and old clothes there.
We searched for almost an hour.
Then Victoria found it.
Hidden inside the sleeve of Rebecca’s winter coat.
A small blue tin box.
Its lock had two numbered wheels.
Gabriel looked at the paper from the watch.
“Forty-seven. Nine.”
We entered 47-09.
The latch opened.
Inside lay a child’s drawing.
Two little girls holding hands beneath a yellow sun.
One had dark hair.
One had light brown hair.
Above them, in Elena’s handwriting:
MY GIRLS. ONE DAY.
Beneath the drawing was a cassette tape.
And beneath that—
A pearl button.
Identical to the one found on the staircase after I was pushed.
Victoria stared at it.
“That came from my mother’s jacket.”
Dad shook his head.
“No.”
He picked up the button.
“Rebecca had this for years.”
Gabriel frowned.
“Then the button on Nora’s staircase may not belong to Evelyn.”
I felt the air leave my lungs.
For hours, we had assumed the person who pushed me had been connected directly to Evelyn.
Victoria whispered, “Who else owned a jacket with those buttons?”
Dad looked toward Rebecca’s old coat.
Then his face changed.
“Someone who came here yesterday.”
I stepped closer.
“Who?”
He looked terrified.
“A man asking for Nora.”
Gabriel’s voice sharpened.
“What man?”
May you like
Dad swallowed.
“He said his name was George Mercer.”
