Chapter 2 - THE WATCH SHE NEVER THREW AWAY
“You sure?”
Frank’s question hung between them.
Natalie looked at Cole.
Then Ryan.
Then the ivory-coated woman who was supposed to become her husband’s next wife.
“No,” Natalie said quietly. “But I’m going.”
Cole’s jaw tightened.
Not because she sounded uncertain.
Because she sounded like a woman preparing to walk into danger.
He turned to Ethan.
“Ryan doesn’t leave.”
Ryan pushed back from the booth.
“Cole, don’t be ridiculous.”
Ethan stepped into the aisle.
He did not touch Ryan.
He did not need to.
“Sit down.”
Ryan stared at him.
For the first time since Natalie had known him, the easy charm was gone completely.
Vanessa rose slowly.
“What exactly is happening?”
Cole looked at Natalie instead.
“That depends on what she tells me.”
Natalie pulled his coat more tightly around herself.
It still smelled faintly like cedar and cold Chicago air.
For one dangerous second, memory tried to make it comforting.
She remembered stealing this coat years ago when Cole came home late because she had been cold.
She remembered standing barefoot in their kitchen wearing nothing underneath it but one of his shirts.
She remembered him laughing.
Cole Barrett had not laughed much.
He had with her.
Natalie forced herself back into the diner.
“I need five minutes.”
“You have whatever you need.”
“No.”
She met his eyes.
“That’s exactly how you used to talk.”
Cole went still.
“Like everything belonged to you. Every room. Every answer. Every person.”
His voice lowered.
“I’m trying.”
“I know.”
That hurt more than anger would have.
Frank jerked his head toward the small office beside the kitchen.
“Use mine.”
Natalie walked toward it.
Cole followed.
Vanessa started after them.
Ryan spoke immediately.
“Vanessa, stay out of this.”
She stopped.
Then slowly turned.
“Interesting.”
Ryan’s face hardened.
“What?”
“You didn’t tell Cole to stay out of it.”
Nobody answered.
Vanessa removed her ivory gloves.
“I’m coming.”
The office barely held three people comfortably.
Four made it claustrophobic.
Frank remained outside the door like a gray-haired guard dog with a stained apron.
Natalie leaned against the desk.
Cole stood opposite her.
Vanessa stayed near the wall.
“What happened?” Cole asked.
Natalie looked at him for several seconds.
“Three nights before everyone was told I died, Ryan came to the house.”
Cole frowned.
“I was in Milwaukee.”
“I know.”
“He said you’d sent him.”
Cole’s expression changed.
“For what?”
Natalie swallowed.
“He said you needed me to meet someone at the South Yard. That there was trouble with one of the freight contracts and you didn’t trust the phones.”
“I never sent him.”
“I know that now.”
Cole’s hands curled once.
Natalie continued.
“Ryan drove.”
Vanessa watched her carefully.
“Where?”
“An old Barrett storage lot near the river.”
Cole knew the place.
She saw it immediately.
“It had been closed six months,” he said.
“Yes.”
“What happened there?”
Natalie’s voice weakened.
“He told me you knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That I had been asking questions.”
Cole stared at her.
“What questions?”
Natalie looked down at her stomach.
“I’d heard Ryan talking in your study two weeks earlier. He thought the house was empty.”
“With who?”
“I didn’t know then.”
“And now?”
She looked toward Vanessa.
Vanessa’s face lost color.
Natalie said, “Theodore Hale.”
Vanessa whispered, “My father?”
“I know his voice now. Interviews. Charity speeches. The engagement announcement.”
Vanessa looked sick.
Cole did not move.
“What were they discussing?”
“Routes. Warehouses. You.”
Cole’s eyes sharpened.
Natalie continued.
“Ryan said you were becoming unreliable. That I had changed your priorities.”
“That sounds like Ryan.”
“He also said that after your father died, you started talking about shutting down the parts of the organization you didn’t want your children inheriting.”
Cole’s gaze dropped toward her stomach again.
He had not known there was a child.
But apparently he had already been thinking like a father.
Natalie’s chest tightened.
“Ryan told Theodore you needed to be reminded who had built the Barrett name.”
Vanessa whispered, “My father would never—”
Natalie looked at her.
“I don’t know what your father would do.”
Vanessa absorbed the distinction.
Natalie had not accused her.
That seemed to matter.
Cole asked, “What happened at the yard?”
“Ryan told me to leave Chicago.”
Cole’s face became frighteningly calm.
“He threatened you?”
“He said if I loved you, I would disappear.”
“And when you refused?”
Natalie did not answer immediately.
Her hand moved toward her belly.
Cole waited.
He did not push.
Finally, she said, “He tried to make sure I disappeared anyway.”
Vanessa covered her mouth.
Cole looked toward the office door.
Beyond it, Ryan sat twenty feet away.
Alive.
Trusted.
Family.
Cole’s voice came out almost toneless.
“How did you survive?”
“I got away before the car went into the river.”
His head snapped back toward her.
“The car was empty?”
“When it went over the edge, yes.”
Cole closed his eyes.
An empty coffin.
Eight months of grief.
An empty car.
An empty grave.
Natalie whispered, “Ryan thought I was still inside.”
“How?”
“Because I left my coat.”
Cole opened his eyes.
“And you never called me.”
There it was.
Not accusation.
Something worse.
Desolation.
Natalie’s chin trembled.
“Ryan told me you approved it.”
Cole seemed physically struck.
“I would never—”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“I do now.”
His voice broke slightly.
“Why now?”
“Because of his face.”
“Ryan’s?”
“When he saw me tonight.”
She looked toward the door.
“He wasn’t surprised that I was alive.”
Cole understood immediately.
“He was afraid.”
“Yes.”
Natalie crossed to Frank’s old metal filing cabinet.
She opened the lowest drawer.
Cole frowned.
“How do you know—”
“Frank gave me a place to keep a few things.”
Inside sat an old cookie tin.
Natalie removed it.
Her hands shook harder now.
For eight months, she had kept everything that proved she had once been Natalie Barrett inside something that had originally held Danish butter cookies.
A wedding photograph.
Her real driver’s license.
A small gold necklace.
And a watch.
She lifted it.
Cole stopped breathing.
It was heavy silver.
Old-fashioned.
A scratched black leather band.
The initials C.B. were engraved on the back.
Vanessa stepped closer.
“What is that?”
Cole answered.
“My father’s.”
Natalie looked at him.
“He gave it to Ryan when Ryan turned twenty-one.”
Cole took the watch carefully.
His thumb passed over the engraving.
“When we were kids, Ryan wanted this more than anything my father owned.”
Vanessa asked, “How did you get it?”
Natalie’s voice became quiet.
“I tore it off Ryan’s wrist while I was getting away.”
Cole’s face changed completely.
Ryan could explain accusations.
He could call Natalie confused.
Traumatized.
Vindictive.
But Ryan had worn this watch for seventeen years.
Everyone in the Barrett family knew it.
Cole opened the office door.
Ryan saw the watch in his hand.
And for the first time that night, he looked defeated.
Cole placed it on the diner table.
“Explain.”
Ryan stared at it.
Nobody spoke.
Then Ryan leaned back.
His expression hardened.
“You’re making a mistake.”
Cole’s voice was soft.
“Explain the watch.”
Ryan looked at Natalie.
Something bitter crossed his face.
“She should have stayed gone.”
Ethan moved first.
Cole raised one hand.
Ethan stopped.
Cole did not take his eyes off Ryan.
“What did you just say?”
Ryan realized too late that he had said too much.
Vanessa whispered, “My God.”
Ryan rubbed both hands over his face.
Then he looked at Cole.
“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
Ryan pointed toward Ethan.
“Then ask him.”
Ethan’s expression did not change.
Ryan smiled without humor.
“Ask your loyal security chief who made sure you were seventy miles from Chicago the night your wife disappeared.”
Cole slowly turned toward Ethan.
Ryan’s final words landed like a blade between old friends.
May you like
“Ask Ethan who helped me send you away.”
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