Chapter 4 - THE SILVER WATCH
A sickening chill wrapped around my throat.
My father’s silver pocket watch. I had placed it in his hands myself before the casket was closed. It was a heavy, antique piece from the 1920s, with a cracked glass face. I specifically remembered the crack.
On the security feed, rain battered Nathan Mercer’s expensive wool coat, but he didn’t flinch. He stood perfectly still, holding the watch up to the lens, knowing I was watching.
“How did he get that?” I breathed, my voice barely audible.
Maria stepped around the desk, her eyes locking onto the monitor. She let out a choked gasp, stepping backward until she hit the bookshelves.
“He dug it up,” Maria whispered, her hands shaking uncontrollably. “He actually dug it up.”
“Why?” I demanded, turning to her. “Why would Nathan desecrate my father’s grave for a broken watch?”
“Because it’s not just a watch, Daniel,” Maria pleaded, grabbing my arm. “It’s a ledger. Your father was old-school. He didn’t trust cloud servers. Before he died, he told me that if anything happened to him, the proof of Nathan’s embezzlement, the proof of what they did to my husband, was inside the watch. He said he was going to take it to the grave.”
“He did,” I said, my mind racing. “I buried him with it.”
“And Nathan knew,” she cried softly. “He figured it out. He has the proof now. And he’s here to make sure I never tell you what I know.”
The intercom on my desk buzzed. A sharp, grating sound.
I pressed the button. “You have ten seconds to get off my property, Nathan, before I have my security team break both of your legs.”
Nathan’s voice crackled through the speaker, smooth and utterly devoid of fear. “Hello, Daniel. Still playing the Ice King, I see. I imagine your new housekeeper has been telling you some wild stories tonight.”
“Leave.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Nathan sighed. “You see, Charles left a mess behind. A very expensive mess. And I’m here to clean it up. Let me in, Daniel. Or I make a phone call, and the local police will be here in five minutes to arrest Maria Torres for the murder of Charles Hale.”
My blood ran cold. “You’re bluffing.”
“Am I?” Nathan chuckled darkly. “I have the autopsy report, Daniel. The real one. Charles didn’t have a heart attack. He was poisoned with a heavy metal compound. Traces were found in his evening tea. And who was serving his tea during his final weeks? A temp nurse named Maria.”
I looked at Maria. She was shaking her head violently, tears spilling over her cheeks.
“I didn’t,” she sobbed. “I swear to you, Mr. Hale. I didn’t hurt him. He hired me to care for him because he trusted me more than his own staff. He was trying to make amends!”
I looked back at the screen. Nathan was still smiling in the rain.
“Five minutes, Daniel,” Nathan warned.
If I let the police take Maria, Nathan would ensure she never saw the inside of a courtroom. She would end up just like her husband. Dead in a cell. And Lily would go into the system.
The boy inside me—the boy who had been told to freeze his emotions, to never trust anyone, to protect the Hale name at all costs—screamed at me to open the gates. Give him Maria. Save the company. Save myself.
But then I looked at the dark hallway, remembering Lily pulling that heavy quilt over me.
Your eyes are raining, Mr. Hale.
I hit the intercom button. “You don’t have the real watch, Nathan.”
Silence on the other end.
“What?” Nathan finally said, his voice losing an ounce of its smooth polish.
“I knew my father was paranoid,” I lied, my voice steady, projecting absolute corporate dominance. “I swapped the watch before the casket closed. I have the real one in my safe. Whatever you dug up is a replica.”
A long pause. Then, Nathan’s face on the monitor contorted into sheer rage.
“You’re lying,” Nathan spat.
“Call the police,” I challenged him. “But before they arrive, I’ll upload the contents of the real watch to the SEC, the FBI, and the Wall Street Journal. Your move.”
Nathan stared at the camera for a long, agonizing moment. Then, he shoved the watch into his pocket, turned on his heel, and walked away into the darkness.
I exhaled a breath I felt like I’d been holding for a decade.
Maria collapsed into one of the leather armchairs, burying her face in her hands.
“He’s gone,” I said softly, walking over to her. “But he’ll be back. And when he comes back, he’ll have an army of lawyers.”
“You shouldn’t have lied for me,” Maria whispered. “You don’t have the watch. We have nothing to stop him.”
“No,” I said, walking toward the massive oil painting of my grandfather on the far wall. “I didn’t swap the watch. But I know my father. If he hid the truth in that watch, he wouldn’t let it be the only copy. He always had a fail-safe.”
I reached behind the heavy frame of the painting and pressed a hidden latch. The wall clicked, and a small, biometric wall safe swung open.
Inside sat a stack of passports, emergency cash, and one other item.
It was a rusted, heavy iron key.
“My father gave me this when I was eighteen,” I said, pulling it out. “He told me it was the key to his private hunting cabin in Vermont. I never went. I hated hunting. I hated the cold.”
Maria looked up, wiping her eyes. “What’s in the cabin?”
“I don’t know,” I said, staring at the jagged iron teeth of the key. “But if my father was building hidden vaults, and Nathan is willing to dig up graves to hide the blueprints…”
I turned to Maria, my heart pounding with a strange, unfamiliar rhythm. It was a feeling I hadn’t experienced in decades. It was purpose.
“Pack your bags, Maria. Get Lily. We’re leaving for Vermont right now.”
Maria stood up, nodding quickly. But as she reached the door of the study, she stopped.
She looked down at the floorboards just outside the door.
“Daniel,” she whispered, her voice tight with terror.
I stepped out of the study.
Lying perfectly centered on the hallway rug was a small, child’s drawing. It was Lily’s dinosaur drawing from earlier that night.
But someone had taken a red marker and violently scribbled over the dinosaur’s neck. And pinned to the center of the paper with a large hunting knife was a note.
“She shouldn’t wander, Daniel.”
My blood turned to ice.
May you like
Nathan hadn’t come to the gates alone. He had sent someone inside.
“Lily,” Maria screamed, sprinting down the hallway toward the guest wing.
