Chapter 4 - THE POCKET WATCH
I took the heavy gold pocket watch from Lily’s hands. The metal was cold against my palms, but it felt as though it were burning me.
“Lily, bug, go back inside and finish your turtle,” I said, my voice tight but calm. “Your grandma and I need to show this to Mr. Moretti.”
“Okay!” Lily smiled brightly, completely oblivious to the danger she had just handed us. She skipped back into the room and closed the door.
I turned to Marion. She was leaning against the corridor wall, her hands covering her face. She was a strong woman—a woman who had buried her son and raised a child on a housekeeper’s wages—but Camille’s relentless cruelty was breaking her.
“She’s framing me,” Marion whispered through her fingers. “First the marriage, now this. If the police find the founder’s watch in my room, they’ll say I seduced an old man and started robbing him blind.”
“They won’t find it, because we’re taking it to him right now,” I said firmly. I grabbed Marion’s arm, refusing to let her collapse. “We are done playing by Camille’s rules.”
We walked quickly back through the sprawling mansion, bypassing the kitchen and heading straight for the grand staircase. The house was unnervingly quiet now that the catering staff had packed up the ruined dinner party. We found Antonio and Luca in the mahogany-lined study.
Antonio was sitting in a leather armchair, nursing a glass of bourbon. Luca was standing by the massive stone fireplace, staring into the dying embers, looking like a man who had just survived a car crash.
They both looked up as we entered.
“Marion?” Antonio set his glass down instantly, rising from his chair with a look of deep concern. He crossed the room and took her hands. “My love, what is it? You’re trembling.”
I didn't wait for her to find the words. I stepped forward and placed the heavy gold pocket watch directly onto Antonio’s polished desk.
The heavy thud made Luca turn around.
When Luca saw the watch, the color drained from his face. “That’s the founder’s watch. Dad, why is that out of the safe?”
“I didn't take it out,” Antonio said, his voice dropping into a dangerous, low octave. He looked at me. “Where did you find this, Nora?”
“Camille gave it to Lily this afternoon,” I said bluntly. “She snuck into the staff quarters, hid it under Lily’s pillow, and told her it was a treasure hunt. She was planting it to frame Marion for theft.”
Luca looked as if he had been physically struck. He took a step toward the desk, staring at the gold watch as if it were a venomous snake.
“That’s impossible,” Luca breathed. “The master suite safe is biometric. It requires a fingerprint and a twelve-digit alphanumeric code. Camille couldn't possibly get into it.”
I looked at Luca, holding my silence, letting him arrive at the horrifying truth on his own.
Luca’s dark eyes widened. He grabbed the edge of the desk, his knuckles turning white. “Oh my god.”
“Luca?” Antonio stepped toward his son. “What did you do?”
“She asked me for the code three days ago,” Luca confessed, his voice cracking with shame. “She said she needed to store her grandmother’s diamond earrings, and her safety deposit box at the bank was jammed. I gave her the twelve-digit code, Dad. And I authorized her thumbprint on the secondary scanner.”
Antonio closed his eyes, exhaling a long, ragged breath.
The puzzle pieces snapped together with terrifying clarity. The public humiliation at the dinner table. The secret courthouse wedding. Camille had orchestrated the entire evening’s drama to ensure that Antonio, Luca, and all the staff were occupied in the dining room on the ground floor.
“The wedding was a distraction,” I realized out loud. “She needed all of us away from the master suite tonight. She wasn’t just planning to frame Marion. She was stealing something else.”
Antonio didn't waste another second. He walked swiftly out of the study, heading for the grand staircase. Luca, Marion, and I followed closely behind him.
We practically ran down the second-floor hallway to the master suite. Antonio pushed the heavy double doors open. The room appeared untouched. The bed was made, the lamps were dimmed.
Antonio walked into the massive walk-in closet and pulled back a full-length mirror, revealing the heavy steel door of the wall safe. The green light on the biometric scanner was already illuminated.
The safe was unlocked.
Antonio pulled the heavy steel door open. Inside, stacks of hundred-dollar bills and blue bearer bonds sat entirely untouched. Velvet boxes containing diamond cufflinks and gold tie clips remained perfectly aligned.
She hadn't taken a single dime of the Moretti wealth.
“She didn't want money,” Luca whispered, staring over his father’s shoulder. “What was she after?”
Antonio reached past the cash and pressed his hand against the back wall of the safe. There was a faint click, and a hidden steel drawer slid outward.
Antonio looked into the hidden compartment. His shoulders instantly slumped, and he let out a sound that was half-gasp, half-sob.
I leaned forward, peering into the drawer.
It was completely empty, save for a single item resting directly in the center.
It wasn't a legal document. It wasn't a piece of jewelry.
It was a small, faded, rectangular piece of paper.
Antonio reached in with a trembling hand and pulled it out.
May you like
It was a vintage train ticket. The paper was yellowed with age, the edges frayed, the ink faded but still legible. It was a one-way ticket from Chicago to New York.
“She took the confession,” Antonio whispered, staring at the ticket with haunted eyes. “God help us, she took Marco’s confession.”
