Chapter 3 - THE GOLD WATCH
The phone nearly slipped from my trembling fingers.
Leo.
My son was supposed to be safe, sleeping at my mother’s small apartment across the city.
I frantically dialed my mother’s number.
It went straight to voicemail.
Panic, cold and absolute, seized my chest. I didn't think. I didn't call security. I dropped my duffel bag and ran.
The Moretti estate was massive, the grounds stretching over ten acres. I sprinted through the dark, manicured gardens toward the sprawling glass greenhouse near the edge of the property line. The night air was freezing, biting through my thin uniform.
The greenhouse was dark, illuminated only by the pale moonlight filtering through the glass panes.
"Leo!" I screamed, bursting through the heavy glass doors. "Leo!"
"Quiet," a harsh whisper echoed from the shadows of the orchid section.
A figure stepped out into the moonlight.
It wasn't Vanessa.
It was Anthony, one of Luca's trusted capos. The man who managed the estate's finances.
"Anthony?" I gasped, my chest heaving. "Where is my son?"
Anthony looked nervous, his eyes darting toward the glass walls as if expecting an ambush. He wasn't holding a gun, but he was holding something else.
A heavy, gold pocket watch. Luca's watch.
"He's safe," Anthony said quickly. "He's still at your mother's. I just needed you out here, and I knew that text was the only way to get you out of the house without alerting Luca's guards."
Relief washed over me, immediately followed by fierce anger. "You lied? You used my son?"
"I had to," Anthony said, running a hand through his hair. "Nora, you have to listen to me. You saw Vanessa in the office today with the insurance investigator. Did she have the velvet box?"
"Why do you care?" I demanded, backing away.
"Because," Anthony said, his voice dropping to a frantic whisper. "Vanessa didn't swap the necklace, Nora. I did."
I froze. "What?"
Anthony held up the gold watch. "Vanessa found out I’ve been skimming from the syndicate's accounts for two years to pay off a gambling debt. She found the proof on this watch—it has a micro-USB drive hidden in the casing."
He swallowed hard, looking terrified.
"She blackmailed me," Anthony continued. "She told me if I didn't take the real emerald necklace to a fence she knew and replace it with a fake, she would give this watch to Luca. Luca would kill me."
My mind spun. Vanessa wasn't just planning insurance fraud. She had blackmailed a capo into stealing from his own boss.
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked, trembling.
"Because I need the fake necklace back," Anthony pleaded. "If Luca's jeweler looks at it tonight, they'll know it's a fake. Luca will tear this house apart. He'll find out I was the one who opened the safe. I need to put the real one back before the jeweler arrives."
"I don't have the velvet box," I said. "Luca has it."
Anthony’s face drained of color. "No. No, he can't have it."
"He put it in his jacket pocket," I said, backing toward the door.
"Then I'm dead," Anthony whispered, dropping his hand.
Before I could say another word, the glass door of the greenhouse swung open.
Standing in the doorway, silhouetted against the moonlight, was Vanessa.
She was no longer wearing her silk robe. She was dressed in dark clothes, and in her hand was a suppressed pistol.
"You always were a coward, Anthony," Vanessa sneered, stepping into the humid air of the greenhouse.
"Vanessa," Anthony panicked, taking a step back. "I was just trying to fix it!"
"You're a liability," Vanessa said coldly. She raised the gun, aiming directly at Anthony's chest.
"No!" I screamed.
Pffft.
The suppressed gunshot was terrifyingly quiet.
Anthony gasped, clutching his chest. He collapsed onto the damp dirt path, dropping the gold watch.
Vanessa calmly turned the gun toward me.
"And you," she smiled, a cold, reptilian expression. "I told you to be careful about taking a bad fall."
She raised the gun.
I didn't wait. I grabbed a heavy terracotta pot from the table beside me and hurled it directly at her head.
Vanessa ducked, the pot shattering against the glass wall behind her.
I sprinted down the aisle of ferns, diving behind a massive row of tropical palms.
Pffft.
A bullet shattered a clay pot inches from my head.
"You can't hide in a glass house, Nora!" Vanessa laughed, her footsteps crunching on the gravel path as she stalked me.
I crawled on my hands and knees, my bandaged hand screaming in agony, until I reached the back exit. I pushed the door open and bolted into the dark gardens, running blindly toward the mansion.
I didn't stop until I burst through the back kitchen doors, colliding hard with someone in the hallway.
Strong arms caught me before I hit the floor.
"Nora!"
It was Luca. He was still wearing his suit trousers and white shirt, his expression shifting instantly from surprise to lethal fury as he saw the sheer terror on my face.
"Vanessa," I sobbed hysterically, gripping his shirt. "She has a gun! She shot Anthony in the greenhouse! She tried to kill me!"
Luca didn't ask questions. He pushed me behind him and drew a heavy black handgun from his holster in one fluid motion.
"Daniel!" Luca roared, his voice echoing through the massive house like thunder.
Guards flooded the hallway in seconds.
"Lock down the estate," Luca commanded. "Nobody leaves. Find Vanessa."
He turned back to me, gently framing my face with his large hands. "Are you hurt? Did she touch you?"
"No," I cried. "But Anthony... he dropped your gold watch."
Luca froze. "My watch?"
"He said it had a USB drive hidden inside," I stammered. "He said Vanessa was blackmailing him with it. He swapped the necklace, Luca."
Luca’s eyes darkened with a terrifying realization.
"Daniel," Luca ordered. "Get Anthony from the greenhouse. And find that watch."
May you like
Ten minutes later, Daniel returned to the study where I sat shaking on the sofa.
"Boss," Daniel said grimly. "Anthony is dead. And the watch is gone."
