Chapter 5 - ANTHONY’S WATCH
Dominic did not reach for a weapon.
That frightened Anthony more than if he had.
“Take off your watch.”
Anthony stared at him.
“Dominic—”
“Take it off.”
Anthony slowly unfastened the black leather strap.
He placed the watch on the desk.
Hannah leaned closer.
“That’s it.”
Madeline stepped back.
Julian stood.
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
Dominic picked up the watch and turned it over.
Two letters were engraved beneath the clasp.
A.R.
Anthony said, “It belonged to my father.”
“You never told me that.”
“You never asked.”
“Wrong answer.”
Anthony’s jaw tightened.
Dominic had known Anthony Russo for twenty-two years.
They had fought together.
Buried friends together.
Anthony had carried Dominic from a warehouse after a bullet tore through his side.
Trust that old did not disappear easily.
But it could bleed.
“Why was your father’s watch in Madeline’s photograph?”
Anthony glanced at Gabriel.
“Because my father worked for Vincent.”
Gabriel laughed softly.
“He did more than work for him.”
Anthony ignored him.
“My father handled security.”
Dominic looked toward the darkened hallway.
“Like you.”
“Yes.”
“And did he help my father hide Elias?”
Anthony’s silence answered first.
Then:
“Yes.”
Julian turned away.
Dominic’s voice went colder.
“You knew.”
“No.”
“You just said—”
“I knew my father had done something terrible. I didn’t know what.”
Anthony rubbed his face.
“When he died, he left me the watch and one sentence.”
“What sentence?”
Anthony looked at Julian.
“Protect the boy Vincent stole.”
Julian froze.
Anthony continued.
“I thought he meant you.”
Dominic almost laughed at the absurdity.
“He did.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Then what did you think?”
“I thought there was another child somewhere.”
Hannah frowned.
“That’s why the security cameras stopped.”
Anthony looked at her.
“No.”
“You had access.”
“Yes.”
“So did Julian.”
Anthony turned toward Dominic.
“I found the system disabled at 9:42. I didn’t do it.”
Julian said, “I did.”
Everyone looked at him.
Dominic’s face hardened.
“You told me Gabriel was involved.”
“I met Gabriel near the west stairs at 9:40.”
“And?”
“He told me somebody inside the house was preparing to move against you.”
Gabriel nodded.
“That part is true.”
Julian continued.
“I disabled the cameras because Gabriel said whoever was watching him would believe he had no access to the mansion.”
Madeline stared.
“You never told me.”
“I didn’t trust you.”
That hurt her.
Julian saw it.
He did not apologize.
Dominic pointed at the torn jacket.
“And Hannah?”
“I heard someone moving near the cabinet when the lights went out. I went toward it. Hannah grabbed my sleeve.”
Hannah looked at him.
“So you were the person who hit me.”
“I ran into you.”
“You could have said something.”
“I was trying not to get shot.”
Fair.
Dominic’s gaze went to Gabriel.
“You engineered the first blackout.”
“No.”
Madeline closed her eyes.
“I did.”
Dominic looked at her.
She did not shrink this time.
“I needed the room dark long enough to put the Bellini case in my bedroom.”
“Why?”
“To stop Gabriel getting the ring.”
Gabriel scoffed.
Madeline snapped toward him.
“You told me the ring would lead you to the evidence. You never told me armed men were coming into this house.”
“My men came after somebody locked down the gates.”
“Dominic locked the gates because Hannah was framed.”
Madeline’s face twisted.
“Yes.”
There it was.
Guilt.
“I wanted Hannah blamed enough that Dominic would remove her from the party.”
Hannah stared at her.
“You tried to ruin my life to protect me?”
Madeline’s eyes filled.
“I know how that sounds.”
“Bad.”
“It was bad.”
She didn’t defend herself.
“I found the threat in your room yesterday.”
Hannah’s expression changed.
“What?”
“The picture of your brother.”
“You searched my room?”
“Yes.”
Anger flashed across Hannah’s face.
Madeline accepted it.
“I realized somebody else knew you had seen the envelope. I thought if Dominic fired you tonight, you would leave before midnight.”
“You could have warned me.”
“I didn’t know who in the house was watching.”
Dominic looked at her.
“You could have warned me.”
Madeline’s eyes met his.
“That was harder.”
His face went still.
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t know whether you were like your father.”
The sentence cut cleanly.
Nobody moved.
Madeline’s voice trembled.
“My father spent half his life terrified of Vincent Moretti. Gabriel told me Vincent’s sons had inherited everything.”
Dominic said, “Including his sins?”
“I didn’t know.”
“After two years with me?”
“Power changes what people admit.”
Dominic looked away.
That hurt more than he wanted anyone to see.
But Hannah spoke.
“He believed me.”
Madeline looked at her.
“When everyone thought I stole from him, he believed me.”
A small, brutal truth.
Madeline’s shoulders fell.
“I know.”
Dominic turned toward the clock.
11:49.
Eleven minutes.
“Where is the vault?”
Gabriel read the numbers inside the pocket watch.
Anthony stepped closer.
His expression changed.
“That isn’t a storage coordinate.”
“What is it?”
“A locker number.”
“Where?”
Anthony looked at his father’s watch.
Then at Dominic.
“Grand Central Terminal.”
Gabriel swore.
“We can’t reach it in eleven minutes.”
“No,” Anthony said.
“But we may not have to.”
He turned the crown of his father’s watch.
A tiny piece of folded paper slid from beneath the mechanism.
Anthony stared.
“I’ve owned this for sixteen years.”
He unfolded it.
Four words.
USE THE BOY’S BRACELET.
Julian looked down at the braided leather around his wrist.
Madeline whispered, “There’s something inside it.”
Julian removed the bracelet.
The leather had been repaired so many times that the stitching was almost invisible.
Hannah found a seam.
“Here.”
Dominic used the cake knife still lying on a side table from earlier.
He carefully cut one old stitch.
A narrow brass key dropped onto the desk.
Julian stared.
Anthony went pale.
“I know that key.”
Dominic looked at him.
“To what?”
“My father kept one identical to it.”
Anthony swallowed.
“It doesn’t open a locker.”
“What does it open?”
Anthony looked toward the front of the mansion.
“The old security deposit box built into this house.”
Gabriel frowned.
“There is no deposit box here.”
Anthony looked at him.
“There was before Dominic renovated.”
“Where?”
Anthony’s face tightened.
“Behind the engagement portrait.”
Madeline turned.
The enormous framed photograph of Dominic and Madeline hung in the ballroom.
Directly above the cabinet where the entire night had begun.
They rushed downstairs.
Guests were huddled in the dark ballroom, guarded by Moretti men and Gabriel’s men alike.
Nobody fired.
Not yet.
Anthony pulled the portrait from the wall.
Behind it was smooth plaster.
Dominic ran his hand over the surface.
Then stopped.
A tiny keyhole.
Julian inserted the brass key.
The wall panel clicked open.
Inside sat one object.
A child’s red coat.
The same coat from the photograph.
Julian reached for it with shaking hands.
Something heavy rested inside the pocket.
He pulled out a small tape recorder.
Old.
Gray.
A cassette already inside.
Anthony found batteries in the security kit.
Dominic pressed PLAY.
Static filled the ballroom.
Then his father’s voice spoke from thirty years ago.
“If Elias remembers what he saw, there is only one person in this family who can stop him.”
A woman answered.
Young.
Frightened.
But unmistakable.
Dominic’s mother.
And what she said next silenced the entire room.
May you like
“Then I’ll make sure Elias never remembers me.”
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