Chapter 4 - THE WATCH MARKED FOR DONATION
Luca pulled the cardboard box toward him.
“Dad's watch?”
Teresa was already trying to stand.
He put one hand gently over hers.
“Mom, let me.”
The yellow tape tore beneath his fingers.
Inside were several carefully folded handkerchiefs, an old pair of reading glasses, and a small dark-blue velvet pouch.
Teresa made a quiet sound when she saw it.
Luca opened the pouch.
A silver pocket watch slid into his palm.
Its face was scratched.
The second hand had stopped.
And the back was worn smooth except for two small initials.
A.M.
Luca stared at it.
I saw his thumb move toward the tiny dent near the winding stem.
He recognized it.
Of course he did.
Antonio Moretti had carried that watch for nearly forty years.
He used it to time engine tests at his repair shop.
According to Teresa, it was always running a few minutes slow because he kept forgetting to wind it.
Once, when Luca was twelve, he dropped it while helping his father change a transmission.
The little dent had been there ever since.
Antonio never had it repaired.
“He said it reminded him of the first time you worked beside him,” Teresa whispered.
Luca gave a faint smile.
“I remember.”
He turned the watch over.
The familiar scratch caught the chandelier light.
“Dad told me I wasn't allowed near his tools for a week.”
Teresa nodded.
“Then he bought you your own toolbox the next morning.”
Luca laughed softly.
It lasted only a second.
Then he looked at the word DONATION on the box.
His smile disappeared.
“Why was this going to be given away?”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“It wasn't. Somebody labeled the box incorrectly.”
Mrs. Carter shook her head.
“I used the label I was given.”
Vanessa stared at her.
“You're mistaken.”
“I don't believe I am, ma'am.”
Luca looked toward Teresa.
“Mom, did you ask anybody to donate Dad's things?”
She shook her head.
“I thought they were being moved into storage.”
“Who told you that?”
Teresa glanced at Vanessa.
“She said you wanted the old belongings cleared away before the wedding.”
Luca looked down at the watch.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he asked, “Why this one?”
Vanessa exhaled.
“Luca, it's an old watch. You have an entire collection of beautiful watches upstairs.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
“Because nobody wears pocket watches anymore.”
He stared at her.
“My father did.”
She looked frustrated.
“Yes. Your father did. But that doesn't mean everything he owned needs to stay in this house forever.”
Teresa flinched.
Luca noticed.
He closed his hand around the watch.
“Stop.”
Vanessa fell silent.
“Don't speak about him like that in front of my mother.”
Teresa reached for his sleeve.
“Sweetheart, I don't want another argument.”
He turned toward her.
“Mom, what were you planning to do with the watch?”
She hesitated.
Then a shy, painful smile crossed her face.
“I was saving it for your wedding.”
Luca looked at her.
“What?”
She touched the velvet pouch.
“Your father always said he wanted you to have it when you got married.”
Luca stared at the silver watch.
Teresa continued.
“He said a man should carry something that reminds him where he came from.”
Her voice softened.
“And he wanted you to know how proud he was.”
I saw Luca's expression change.
He had spent years building a life much larger than the one his father had known.
The mansion.
The businesses.
The expensive suits.
The men who stood whenever he entered a room.
But the watch in his hand came from a little repair shop where his father sometimes worked fourteen-hour days.
And suddenly it seemed more valuable than everything else on the table.
“Why didn't you tell me?” Luca asked.
Teresa smiled sadly.
“I wanted it to be a surprise.”
Then she looked toward Vanessa.
“But I was told you wouldn't want to wear something old and scratched in your wedding photographs.”
Luca slowly raised his head.
“Who told you that?”
Vanessa looked away.
“Teresa, I said we should choose something appropriate for the occasion.”
Luca stared at her.
“You knew Mom was saving this for me?”
Vanessa didn't answer.
“Vanessa.”
“Yes.”
“And you put it in a box marked for donation?”
“I was going to replace it with something special.”
He looked down at the watch.
“Replace it?”
“I ordered you a beautiful new one. I wanted to give it to you on our wedding morning.”
Teresa's face softened unexpectedly.
“Oh, dear. I didn't know that.”
Vanessa seized the opportunity.
“You see? I wasn't trying to hurt anybody.”
But Luca didn't look comforted.
He placed the pocket watch beside the photograph.
“Why couldn't I have both?”
Vanessa frowned.
“Both?”
“A watch from my father and a watch from my wife.”
She looked at him.
He continued.
“Why did one have to disappear for the other to matter?”
Vanessa's eyes filled.
“Because I'm tired of everything being measured against what your father would have wanted.”
That admission silenced the table.
Even Teresa looked surprised.
Vanessa pressed her fingers against her temples.
“You don't understand what it's like, Luca. Every holiday, every birthday, every family dinner—somebody remembers Antonio.”
Teresa whispered, “We loved him.”
“I know you did!”
Vanessa stopped herself.
Her voice lowered.
“I know.”
Luca watched her carefully.
For a moment, I thought she might finally apologize.
Instead, she looked at him with something close to desperation.
“You told me you wanted a wedding that belonged to us.”
“I do.”
“You said you were tired of living in the past.”
Luca frowned.
“I said I wanted to build a future.”
“And you said you didn't want your father in every photograph.”
His expression changed.
I saw the moment he remembered something.
Something he'd said months earlier.
Vanessa noticed.
“You remember, don't you?”
Luca slowly set down the watch.
“I remember a conversation,” he said.
“Then tell your mother what you said.”
Teresa looked at her son.
Her voice was small.
“Luca?”
Vanessa stepped closer.
May you like
“Tell her why I thought you wanted these things put away.”
And for the first time that evening, Luca looked as though the truth might hurt his mother even more than Vanessa's lies had.
