Chapter 3 - THE SILVER WATCH
~1,100 words
Anthony entered the dining room wearing the silver watch from the photograph.
Nobody had to point it out.
It was the first thing Luca saw.
Anthony was thirty-seven, four years younger than his brother, with the same dark eyes and the same habit of going completely quiet when angry.
Two security men stopped near the doorway.
Anthony looked at them.
Then at Owen.
Then at Vanessa.
Finally, he looked at Luca.
“If you were planning to accuse me,” he said, “you could have done it without making me sit in your library for forty minutes.”
Luca didn’t answer.
He turned the laptop toward him.
Anthony watched the photograph appear on the screen.
His expression shifted.
Not guilt.
Recognition.
“Where did you get that?”
Claire, I reminded myself.
My name was Claire.
Not part of their family.
Not part of their arguments.
But every person in that room turned toward me anyway.
“I found the memory card behind Miss Hale’s clock.”
Anthony stared at Vanessa.
“What clock?”
“The one from my sitting room,” she said.
“I know what room it came from.”
Anthony stepped closer to the laptop.
“I’m asking why that photograph is here.”
Luca pointed at Anthony’s wrist.
“Because apparently you took it.”
Anthony looked down.
Then he laughed once.
It was not a happy sound.
“You think that’s my hand?”
“It’s your watch.”
“It was Dad’s watch.”
“So?”
“So there were three.”
Luca’s face changed.
Anthony slowly removed the silver watch.
“Our father bought three of them when Moretti Freight opened its second warehouse.”
Luca frowned.
“Two.”
“Three.”
“Dad gave one to you and one to me.”
“He gave the third to Owen.”
Every eye moved.
Owen didn’t react.
Luca did.
He looked at Owen’s wrist.
A plain black watch sat there.
“What happened to yours?”
Owen’s answer was immediate.
“Stopped working years ago.”
Anthony’s mouth tightened.
“That’s strange.”
“What is?”
“I saw you wearing it Tuesday.”
Vanessa turned sharply.
Owen’s eyes stayed on Anthony.
“You’re mistaken.”
“No.”
Anthony leaned forward, both hands on the table.
“I noticed because you never wear it anymore.”
Luca’s voice dropped.
“Where did you see him?”
Anthony looked at his brother.
“At Riverside.”
The room seemed to shrink.
Luca stepped closer.
“The warehouse where you supposedly made the recording.”
“Yes.”
“Why were you there?”
Anthony’s expression hardened.
“Because I was meeting Victor Salazar.”
Several men shifted around the room.
Even I knew the name.
Salazar was the man whose voice supposedly appeared on the fake recording.
Luca stared at his brother.
“So that part was true.”
“Yes.”
Vanessa whispered, “I told you.”
Anthony looked at her.
“You told him half of it.”
“And what exactly is the other half?”
Anthony turned back to Luca.
“I met Salazar because somebody has been rerouting your freight inspections for four months.”
Owen gave a small shake of his head.
“Luca, this is becoming—”
“Quiet.”
Luca didn’t look at him.
Anthony continued.
“Three trucks were stopped after leaving our warehouses. Nothing illegal was found, but someone had given outside people the exact schedules.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because the schedules came from your security office.”
Luca went still.
“You thought it was Owen.”
“I thought it might be somebody under him.”
Owen finally stepped forward.
“And instead of coming to me, you met Salazar?”
Anthony laughed bitterly.
“You mean the man whose department I was questioning?”
“I’ve protected this family since you were twenty-three.”
“And maybe that’s why nobody questions you.”
That landed hard.
Luca looked between them.
“Why Salazar?”
Anthony took a breath.
“Because two of the trucks belonged to companies he quietly controls. I wanted to know why his people knew our inspection routes.”
“And?”
“He said somebody had been feeding information for months.”
Luca’s voice became quieter.
“Who?”
“He wouldn’t give me a name.”
Owen folded his arms.
“Convenient.”
Anthony ignored him.
“He said he would show me proof Tuesday night.”
“At Riverside?”
“Yes.”
“Did he?”
Anthony looked at the fake recording file on the laptop.
“No. Somebody got there first.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“What does that mean?”
“When I arrived, the office upstairs was empty. But there was a recorder on the desk and a clock beside it.”
Vanessa’s face drained.
Anthony pointed at the photograph.
“That.”
I felt the hairs rise on my arms.
“You took the picture,” I said.
Anthony looked at me for the first time.
“Yes.”
“With your phone?”
“Yes.”
“Then why is the photograph on this memory card?”
He frowned.
“It shouldn’t be.”
“Who saw the picture?”
Anthony thought.
“One person.”
Luca didn’t ask.
He already knew.
“Owen,” he said.
Anthony nodded.
“I sent it to him because I wanted the recorder checked.”
Owen’s voice sharpened.
“You never sent me that photograph.”
Anthony pulled his phone from his pocket.
“I did.”
He searched.
Then stopped.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Luca moved beside him.
Anthony stared at the screen.
“The message thread is gone.”
Owen gave a tired exhale.
“This is ridiculous.”
Anthony looked up.
“I sent it at 9:14 Tuesday night.”
“Then perhaps you deleted it.”
“Why would I delete proof?”
“To create exactly this situation.”
Luca’s face turned toward Owen.
“Careful.”
Nobody moved.
I looked again at the picture on the memory card.
The reflection bothered me.
Anthony had said he took the photograph.
But the angle was wrong.
A person holding a phone should have appeared higher in the clock glass.
This reflection came from lower down.
Almost as though the photograph on the card had been photographed from another screen.
“Wait.”
Everyone looked at me.
I enlarged the picture.
There it was.
Tiny.
A second reflection.
A phone screen border.
“This isn’t Anthony’s original photograph.”
Luca leaned closer.
“Explain.”
“Someone displayed Anthony’s picture on another device and photographed it again.”
“So?”
“So they wanted the metadata gone.”
Anthony stared at Owen.
Owen’s face finally changed.
Only slightly.
But enough.
Vanessa saw it too.
She pressed both hands against the table.
“I didn’t know about this.”
Anthony looked at her.
“Didn’t know about what?”
Vanessa said nothing.
Anthony took one step toward her.
“You told Luca I was jealous.”
“You have been.”
“You told him I wanted his place.”
“You’ve said he doesn’t listen to you anymore.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No?”
Luca stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Anthony’s breathing slowed.
Then he looked at Vanessa differently.
As if remembering something.
“Tell him.”
She went pale.
“Anthony.”
“Tell him why you were at Riverside Tuesday night.”
Luca turned toward his fiancée.
Vanessa closed her eyes.
When she opened them, there was no arrogance left.
Only fear.
“I followed Anthony.”
“Why?” Luca asked.
She looked at Owen.
May you like
Then back at Luca.
“Because three days earlier, Owen told me your brother was planning to destroy our wedding.”
