Chapter 6 - TWO WATCHES, ONE TERRIBLE LIE
“Then who left?”
Vincent stared at the words beneath his father's watch strap.
Margaret gripped the doorframe.
I could hear her breathing.
“Joseph,” she whispered. “What were you trying to tell us?”
Vincent placed both watches on the bedside table.
Gabriel's brass pocket watch.
Anthony's silver wristwatch.
Both stopped at 11:17.
Daniel studied them carefully.
“The matching time wasn't an accident.”
Vincent nodded.
“My grandfather wanted someone to connect them.”
I looked at the handwritten message.
Gabriel wasn't the one who left.
“Maybe he meant Gabriel didn't leave voluntarily.”
Margaret shook her head.
“Joseph already told me Gabriel was alive.”
“Then perhaps somebody else disappeared that night,” I said.
Vincent turned toward his grandmother.
“Who else was there?”
Margaret thought for a moment.
“Joseph. Gabriel. Anthony. Arthur Sterling.”
“And?”
She closed her eyes.
“A young accountant.”
Vincent leaned forward.
“What accountant?”
“His name was Samuel Price. He worked for Arthur.”
Daniel immediately wrote it down.
“Was he reported missing?”
“I don't remember.”
Margaret looked frightened.
“Vincent, there are things about that year I've spent a lifetime trying not to remember.”
He took her hand.
“Then we remember them together.”
The next discovery came from Eleanor.
At the hospital, she recognized Samuel Price's name immediately.
“He was the only employee who knew how Arthur altered the accounts.”
Vincent stood beside her bed.
“What happened to him?”
“He disappeared after Gabriel confronted Arthur.”
“Did Gabriel know where he went?”
Eleanor nodded.
“Gabriel told me Samuel had agreed to testify.”
“Testify against whom?”
“Arthur Sterling.”
Vincent folded his arms.
“But no charges were ever filed.”
“Because Samuel never appeared.”
Eleanor looked toward the window.
“And after that, Gabriel was accused of helping him steal the money.”
I stood near the foot of the bed.
“Did Samuel take the missing funds?”
“No, sweetheart. Those funds were never actually missing.”
Vincent frowned.
“Explain.”
Eleanor took a deep breath.
“Arthur created false debts against the company. He made it appear that Joseph and Gabriel owed enormous sums to creditors.”
“Why?”
“To force them to surrender control.”
“And Gabriel found out?”
“Yes.”
She looked at the pocket watch in Vincent's hand.
“Gabriel intended to expose the entire scheme. But before he could, Samuel disappeared.”
Vincent opened the watch.
“Why are both watches stopped at 11:17?”
Eleanor's eyes filled.
“Because that was the time the warehouse clock stopped.”
“What warehouse?”
“The old office at Pier Nine.”
I looked at Vincent.
“The same pier that burned fourteen years ago?”
Eleanor nodded.
“Joseph kept the original office clock for years. He said it reminded him of a terrible mistake.”
Daniel located an old newspaper archive that afternoon.
The article was dated forty years earlier.
A fire had damaged a small waterfront office.
One employee was presumed dead.
Samuel Price.
There had been no body recovered.
The case was eventually closed as an accidental fire.
Vincent read the article in silence.
Then he turned to me.
“Fourteen years ago, another fire happened at the same pier.”
I nodded.
“And my father was injured.”
Daniel placed the two reports side by side.
Both fires had damaged record-storage areas.
Both occurred during the night.
And both involved companies connected to the Sterlings.
Vincent looked grim.
“Someone kept trying to erase the same history.”
I thought about the crate Charles had preserved.
“But if Charles wanted the records destroyed, why keep Gabriel's belongings?”
“Because he was looking for something,” Vincent answered.
“The ledger,” I whispered.
Vincent nodded.
“But he never found it.”
By late afternoon, Charles Sterling finally agreed to meet Vincent.
They spoke in the mansion library.
I wasn't invited.
But Margaret asked me to remain nearby.
Victoria stood at the opposite end of the hallway.
Her hands were shaking.
“Do you think he'll hurt Vincent?” she asked.
I looked at her.
“Your father?”
She nodded.
“I don't know.”
Victoria gave a sad smile.
“Neither do I anymore.”
Inside the library, their voices rose.
“You've embarrassed my daughter,” Charles said.
Vincent answered calmly.
“Your daughter locked an elderly woman in my basement.”
“She was protecting your family.”
“From what?”
“From the truth about Gabriel Vale.”
Vincent stepped closer.
“Then tell me.”
Charles laughed.
“You think you're prepared to hear it?”
“I think I'm finished listening to lies.”
There was a long silence.
Then Charles said, “Your grandfather was never the saint your grandmother remembers.”
Vincent's voice hardened.
“Be careful.”
“Joseph made a bargain with my father. When Gabriel discovered it, Joseph allowed Anthony to handle the problem.”
“What bargain?”
Charles didn't answer.
Instead, he said, “Ask Margaret why she took Gabriel's coat to the river.”
I heard Victoria inhale.
Inside, Vincent was silent.
Charles continued.
“She knows what happened that night. She's simply never wanted you to know her part in it.”
After Charles left, Vincent went directly to his grandmother.
Margaret was sitting beside the window.
He placed Gabriel's coat in her lap.
“Did you take this to the river?”
Margaret covered her mouth.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She stared at the worn fabric.
“Because Joseph asked me to.”
“What was inside it?”
“An envelope.”
Vincent crouched beside her.
“Where did you put it?”
Margaret began crying.
“I was supposed to destroy it.”
“Did you?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
Vincent's eyes widened.
“Where is it?”
Margaret reached into the coat's lining.
Her fingers searched along an old seam.
Then she frowned.
“It's gone.”
Daniel examined the fabric.
The lining had been cut and carefully resewn.
Someone had removed the envelope.
Margaret looked toward the doorway.
“Charles.”
Vincent stood.
But I noticed something unusual.
A small embroidered mark near the inside collar.
Two initials.
M.D.
“Mrs. DeLuca?”
She looked at me.
“Did you sew this?”
Her eyes widened.
“Yes. I repaired Gabriel's coat before his wedding.”
I touched the stitching.
It was slightly different from the rest.
“Could there be another pocket?”
Margaret leaned forward.
“Joseph always said Gabriel hid important things where people never thought to look.”
Henry brought a small sewing kit.
With Margaret's permission, I carefully loosened the old stitches.
Inside the collar was a narrow strip of paper.
Its ink was faded.
But the words were readable.
The truth was never in the ledger alone.
Below that was a handwritten address.
A church in New Haven.
And one final instruction.
Ask for Samuel's daughter.
Vincent stared at the note.
“Samuel Price had a daughter?”
Margaret nodded slowly.
“A little girl. I remember her now.”
Daniel searched the public records.
Minutes later, he looked up from his tablet.
“Boss, Samuel's daughter is still alive.”
“Where?”
Daniel hesitated.
“She's a retired nurse.”
“Name?”
Daniel looked directly at me.
“Her married name is Rebecca Miller.”
I stopped breathing.
That was my mother's name.
Vincent turned toward me.
May you like
And Daniel finished:
“GRACE, YOUR MOTHER WAS SAMUEL PRICE'S DAUGHTER.”
