Chapter 4 - THE WATCH THAT NEVER STOPPED
"What did you do?"
Dominic had been asked that question by police officers, federal investigators, business rivals, and men who believed they had him cornered.
He had learned to answer without revealing anything.
But Clara was different.
Standing in the hospital corridor, holding a photograph of her dead husband, she wasn't asking about a business deal.
She was asking whether the brother who raised her had somehow helped destroy her family.
Dominic reached for the photograph.
Clara pulled it away.
"Answer me."
"I didn't know Michael was involved in any of this."
"Then why did he write your name?"
"I don't know."
"That's not good enough."
The words struck harder than Dominic expected.
Leo took a step forward.
"Clara, maybe we should—"
"No."
She looked directly at him.
"You don't get to explain for him."
Dominic raised one hand.
"She's right."
Gregory Wallace stood several feet away, watching.
For the first time that morning, he looked relieved.
The powerful man who had come to protect Clara was suddenly the one being questioned.
Gregory saw an opportunity.
"Perhaps," he said carefully, "we should all acknowledge that this situation is more complicated than an employee complaint."
Clara turned.
"You don't get to use my husband."
Gregory's expression hardened.
"I'm simply pointing out—"
"You hit me."
Nobody spoke.
Clara stepped closer.
"You can hide behind whatever paperwork you want. But nothing you say about Michael changes what you did."
Gregory looked away.
His brief moment of confidence vanished.
Then Clara's hand moved to her stomach.
She winced.
Dr. Chen immediately approached.
"Clara, back to bed. Now."
"I'm fine."
"You're having another contraction."
The word stopped Dominic cold.
Twenty minutes later, Clara was back under observation.
Her baby's heartbeat remained reassuring, but the contractions were becoming more frequent.
Dr. Chen ordered additional monitoring and explained that stress and trauma could complicate the situation.
Clara lay silently while Dominic stood near the window.
She finally spoke.
"Did Michael ever tell you he was worried?"
Dominic turned.
"He said something about a company cutting corners."
"When?"
"Three days before the fire."
Clara closed her eyes.
"And you didn't tell me?"
"I thought he was talking about an ordinary safety inspection."
"Michael wasn't careless."
"I know."
"He wouldn't have written your name on that photograph without a reason."
Dominic swallowed.
"I know that, too."
She studied him for a long moment.
"Are you involved in something illegal?"
He said nothing.
Clara's eyes filled.
"Dom."
He looked at the floor.
"Yes."
The honesty seemed to hurt both of them.
Clara took a shallow breath.
"How much?"
"Enough that I should have told you years ago."
She turned toward the monitor.
All her life, Dominic had been her certainty.
When their parents died, he had made breakfast.
When she got sick, he had slept on the floor beside her bed.
When she graduated nursing school, he had stood in the front row holding flowers and crying like a proud father.
Now she was discovering that the same man had lived an entirely different life behind closed doors.
"Did Michael know?"
Dominic shook his head.
"Not from me."
"Did you have anything to do with that warehouse?"
"I owned an interest in the logistics company connected to it. I didn't know about the transfers Michael was investigating."
Clara stared at him.
"That's not the same as saying no."
Dominic felt the truth settle between them.
"No," he said quietly. "It isn't."
At 6:02 a.m., Leo found the silver watch in Dominic's office.
He brought it to the hospital in a small black box.
The watch was inexpensive.
Its leather strap was worn.
There was a scratch across the crystal, and the hands were frozen at 9:14.
Dominic remembered Michael laughing about it.
"A good watch doesn't need to cost a fortune."
Clara had once offered to replace it.
Michael refused.
His father had given it to him when he graduated from the fire academy.
Now Dominic placed it beside Clara's bed.
"He asked me to keep this safe."
Clara stared.
"When?"
"Three days before he died."
She picked it up.
For a long time, she said nothing.
Then her fingers moved over the back.
The metal cover had a small notch near the hinge.
"Michael opened this."
Dominic leaned closer.
"What?"
"At home. I saw him using a screwdriver."
She turned the watch over.
A faint scratch ran along the edge.
"Do you have anything thin?"
Leo handed her a small metal tool from a pocket repair kit he carried.
Dominic almost smiled despite everything.
Michael had once teased Leo for being prepared to fix anything except his own romantic life.
Clara carefully opened the back.
Inside was the ordinary movement of a mechanical watch.
And beneath it, taped against the metal casing, was a folded piece of waterproof paper.
Clara's hands began shaking.
Dominic took the tool.
"Let me."
"No."
She removed the paper herself.
Unfolded it.
And read the message.
NORTHSTAR / HALDEN / LAKECREST.
Below those names were three sets of numbers.
And one sentence:
THE FIRE WAS THE SECOND ATTEMPT.
Clara looked up.
"Second attempt?"
Leo leaned forward.
"To do what?"
Dominic studied the numbers.
They looked like inventory identifiers.
But one of them was familiar.
He had seen it on a shipping manifest months earlier.
A manifest Charles Voss had assured him was routine.
Clara noticed the change in his expression.
"You recognize something."
Dominic nodded.
"The first number. It belongs to a Northstar storage account."
"What's in it?"
"I don't know."
"Then find out."
Her voice was steady.
Dominic looked at her.
She no longer sounded like the frightened sister he wanted to protect.
She sounded like Michael's widow.
A woman who had spent eight months trying to survive a loss she had never understood.
"I will," Dominic said.
Clara held up the watch.
"No more secrets."
He nodded.
"No more secrets."
But Dominic knew that promise would cost him.
Possibly everything.
Downstairs, Gregory Wallace sat across from Evelyn Hart in a conference room.
A hospital attorney had joined them.
Gregory's written suspension report lay on the table.
Evelyn read it silently.
Then she placed a photograph beside it.
It showed Clara being struck.
The security camera had captured the exact moment.
"Do you still stand by this statement?" Evelyn asked.
Gregory stared at the image.
His mouth opened.
Then closed.
"She provoked me."
Evelyn looked genuinely tired.
"Gregory, you assaulted an employee."
He leaned forward.
"You don't understand what happens if I lose this job."
"That doesn't change what you did."
"My wife has medical bills."
"Then you should have considered that before putting your hands on someone."
Gregory's expression cracked.
For a moment, he seemed less like an arrogant manager and more like a frightened middle-aged man who had spent years chasing status and could feel it disappearing.
Then he said something Evelyn didn't expect.
"I wasn't supposed to be supervising that floor."
Evelyn frowned.
"What?"
"Charles assigned me there."
"Charles Voss doesn't assign hospital shifts."
Gregory looked toward the closed door.
"He told me to keep Rossi away from the archived transport records."
Evelyn stared at him.
"Clara?"
Gregory nodded.
"Someone had accessed the files under her employee credentials."
"Clara was working in intensive care."
"I know."
"Then who used her login?"
Gregory's voice dropped.
"That's what I was supposed to find out."
Evelyn leaned forward.
"Why didn't you report this?"
Gregory's eyes filled with something close to shame.
"Because Charles told me that if the records reached the wrong person, my wife's treatment would stop being paid for."
Evelyn went still.
"Treatment?"
"My wife has cancer."
He looked down at his hands.
"I thought I was protecting her."
For a moment, Evelyn said nothing.
Then Gregory whispered:
"There's something else."
He reached into his jacket and produced a small plastic access card.
It had a blue stripe.
And Clara Rossi's name printed across the front.
"I found this in my locker yesterday."
Evelyn took it.
The expiration date was eight months old.
On the reverse side, someone had written:
MICHAEL KE EGAN DID NOT START THAT FIRE.
May you like
Gregory looked up.
"And whoever left it also wrote that the first person they tried to kill was Clara."
