Chapter 4 - THE HEAVY COAT
Marcus didn’t panic immediately. He was too smooth for that.
He held up his hands, offering a practiced, easy smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“Adrian, buddy, the kid is confused,” Marcus said, taking a slow step backward toward the doors. “She probably saw me at the office in this coat and mixed up the memory. You know how kids are.”
“I’m not confused,” Lily said softly, her grip tightening on my dress. “You took the bag. And then Auntie V gave you the shiny watch so you wouldn’t tell.”
Adrian slowly stood up. The betrayal was radiating off him in waves.
“Marcus,” Adrian said. “Take off your jacket.”
Marcus scoffed, adjusting the collar of his heavy wool coat. “Adrian, this is ridiculous. Vanessa is having a meltdown, Maya is causing a scene, and you’re going to let a seven-year-old dictate—”
“Take it off,” Thomas interrupted, his voice like iron.
Marcus looked at the security guards standing near the doors. They weren’t moving to help him. They were waiting for Adrian’s order.
“Fine,” Marcus spat.
He shrugged off the heavy coat, letting it fall to the marble floor. Underneath, his tuxedo jacket was perfectly tailored.
But Adrian wasn’t looking at the coat anymore.
He walked across the dance floor, closing the distance between him and his best man. Adrian grabbed Marcus’s left wrist and violently yanked his sleeve up.
Strapped to Marcus’s wrist was a heavy, silver chronograph watch.
I recognized it instantly. It was the watch Adrian’s grandfather had given to his father. The watch that had gone missing from Thomas’s study six months ago.
“You told me you lost this at the golf course, Dad,” Adrian whispered, staring at the timepiece.
“I thought I did,” Thomas said, his face pale.
Adrian looked at Vanessa, who was backed against the champagne tower, weeping.
“You stole my father’s watch to pay off Marcus?” Adrian asked.
Reversal.
Marcus wasn’t Vanessa’s lover. He wasn’t her accomplice.
He was her blackmailer.
“She didn’t have a choice, Adrian,” Marcus sneered, yanking his arm out of Adrian’s grip. The facade was completely gone now. “Your lovely new wife came to me three years ago. She knew I handled the corporate accounts. She needed me to cover up a withdrawal she made from your mother’s charity fund.”
“You’re a liar!” Vanessa shrieked.
“Am I?” Marcus laughed coldly.
He reached down into the pocket of the heavy coat lying on the floor.
He pulled out a crumpled, folded piece of paper.
“I keep insurance, Adrian,” Marcus said, holding the paper up. “Because I knew the day would come when this psycho would try to throw me under the bus.”
Marcus threw the paper at Adrian’s chest.
It fluttered to the floor.
I bent down and picked it up.
It wasn’t a bank statement. It wasn’t a contract.
It was a child’s drawing.
Drawn in heavy crayon.
It showed two stick figures standing next to a hospital bed. One figure was pushing a pillow over the person in the bed.
May you like
At the bottom, written in clumsy, childlike letters, was a name.
Auntie V made her sleep.
