Chapter 4 - THE WATCH
I watched the video six times.
Each time, Ethan’s whisper became clearer.
“Martinez?”
By morning, I knew two things.
Ethan Caldwell had recognized my name.
And I was done letting other people decide which truths I was allowed to hear.
Victor answered on the second ring.
“Anna.”
“You knew Caldwell owned the restaurant?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Anger shot through me.
“You could have mentioned that.”
“You did not ask.”
“That is an irritating answer.”
“I have been told.”
I almost hung up.
Then he added, “Richard was meeting me there about a business deal. I did not know they would fire you.”
“They did.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Marcus called me at six this morning.”
I sat straighter.
“Why?”
“Because he feels guilty.”
“That makes two of us.”
Victor let that pass.
“What do you need?”
Not what do you want me to do.
Not let me handle it.
What do you need?
“The truth about my mother.”
Another pause.
“I think Richard owes you that.”
“So does Ethan.”
“Yes.”
An hour later, Victor picked me up outside my apartment.
I had folded his jacket over my arm.
“You forgot this.”
He glanced at it.
“Keep it until this is finished.”
“Why?”
“Because every story needs one thing that remembers where it started.”
I looked at him.
“Do you rehearse lines like that?”
“No.”
“You should. It was dramatic.”
For the first time, Victor DeLuca smiled.
Barely.
But enough.
Richard agreed to meet us at his townhouse on East Seventy-Second Street.
Ethan was already there.
He looked terrible.
No perfect hair.
No expensive jacket.
No crowd to impress.
Just a gray sweater and the expression of a man who had not slept.
I put Noah’s video on the coffee table.
“You recognized my name.”
Ethan stared at the screen.
“Yes.”
Richard looked at him sharply.
“You told me you didn’t.”
“I lied.”
“Why?”
Ethan looked at me.
“Because I recognized the bracelet first.”
My hand moved toward it.
“She wore it every day.”
“My mother?”
He nodded.
“I saw your name badge. Then the bracelet.”
“And you pushed me anyway.”
His face tightened.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked almost ashamed of the answer.
“Because for about five seconds I was sixteen again.”
I laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“You’re twenty-eight.”
“I know.”
“Then don’t give me a sixteen-year-old excuse.”
Victor glanced toward me.
Ethan lowered his eyes.
“You’re right.”
Richard walked to a cabinet near the fireplace.
He opened the top drawer and removed a small wooden box.
He placed it on the table.
Inside was a gold wristwatch.
Old.
Elegant.
The leather band was cracked with age.
Ethan stared at it.
I could tell he hated seeing it.
Richard spoke.
“It belonged to Ethan’s mother.”
No one moved.
“When Ethan was sixteen, the watch disappeared.”
Ethan’s voice was flat.
“I took it.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because Dad was going to donate some of her things to a foundation auction.”
Richard corrected him quietly.
“I was donating one necklace.”
“At sixteen, I didn’t care about details.”
Ethan pointed toward the watch.
“I wanted something that had touched her skin. Something Dad couldn’t turn into a ceremony.”
For the first time, I understood him.
Not excused him.
Understood him.
“So you took it.”
“Yes.”
Richard continued.
“A kitchen employee named Marco Ruiz was accused.”
I felt something sink inside me.
Ethan stared at the floor.
“I accused him.”
Victor’s expression changed.
There it was.
The pattern.
Richard said, “Marco had cleaned the library that afternoon because a pipe had leaked near the wall.”
“You let him take the blame?” I asked.
Ethan’s eyes filled with shame.
“For three days.”
“Three days?”
“He was suspended.”
I turned toward Richard.
“And you believed your son?”
Richard did not defend himself.
“I wanted to.”
That might have been the ugliest sentence I had ever heard.
Not because he was proud of it.
Because he finally understood it.
“My mother found the watch,” I said.
Ethan nodded.
“In my room.”
“She made you confess.”
“Yes.”
“And Marco got his job back.”
Richard answered.
“Eventually.”
I stared at him.
“Eventually.”
He looked away.
That one word told me everything about rich people and consequences.
Ethan stood.
“Nellie told me to apologize to Marco in front of the kitchen staff.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
He swallowed.
“I hated her for making me do it.”
“She was trying to save you from becoming exactly what you became Friday night.”
Ethan flinched.
Richard looked toward the window.
Victor remained silent.
He knew this was not his part of the story.
I moved closer to Ethan.
“My mother spent years helping raise you. You knew I was her daughter and still treated me like garbage on the floor.”
“I know.”
“Why did seeing her bracelet make you angry?”
His eyes met mine.
“Because she left.”
I shook my head.
“She had a life.”
“No. You don’t understand.”
He suddenly sounded younger.
“She promised me she wouldn’t leave when my mother died.”
Richard said, “Ethan.”
“No. She should know.”
He looked directly at me.
“I asked Nellie to stay.”
My chest tightened.
“She said she couldn’t.”
“Why?”
Ethan looked at his father.
Richard’s face went still.
Ethan laughed bitterly.
“Go ahead, Dad.”
Richard said nothing.
Ethan turned back to me.
“Because after the watch incident, I told my father I wanted her gone.”
The room went silent.
I looked at him.
“You fired my mother?”
“I was sixteen.”
“You keep saying that like sixteen-year-olds don’t know when they’re hurting someone.”
He closed his eyes.
“I know.”
I picked up my bag.
Richard stepped forward.
“Anna, there’s more.”
I turned.
He looked at Ethan.
Then at me.
Ethan’s voice came quietly behind me.
“My father didn’t fire her because he wanted to.”
I waited.
Ethan swallowed.
“He fired her because I told him if she stayed, I would leave.”
May you like
And then he added the part that stopped me at the door.
“But that still isn’t the worst thing I did to her.”
