Chapter 6 - THE WATCH THAT STOPPED AT MIDNIGHT
The photograph changed everything.
Damiano took it from Sophia.
His face became unreadable.
“When was this taken?”
Sophia shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“Emma was in the staff room at nine.”
Sophia looked at the clock.
“It's almost eleven.”
Damiano looked at his security chief.
“Someone was inside this house for two hours.”
The man nodded.
“We'll find him.”
“No.”
Damiano's voice was cold.
“Find out how he entered first.”
Sophia sat beside Margaret.
Her mother was conscious now, but pale.
The bullet had passed through her shoulder.
Emma sat beside her, holding the worn rag doll.
“Are you going to die?”
Margaret smiled.
“No, sweetheart.”
Emma looked at Damiano.
“Promise?”
Damiano crouched.
“I promise we'll do everything we can.”
Emma nodded.
“Okay.”
Sophia noticed the way Damiano spoke to her.
There was no impatience.
No fear.
Only steadiness.
Something had changed between them.
He wasn't simply protecting Emma because she was useful to the mystery.
He cared about her.
Margaret watched him.
“You're becoming like your father.”
Damiano looked at her.
“Is that good?”
“He loved children.”
“I barely remember him.”
“You remember more than you think.”
Margaret reached into her coat.
She removed an old pocket watch.
Damiano recognized it.
His father's.
Not the wristwatch Emma had seen.
This was different.
A silver pocket watch.
The hands were frozen at midnight.
“Marco gave me this,” Margaret said.
“Why?”
“Because he knew someone would eventually ask what happened that night.”
Damiano opened the back.
Inside was a tiny photograph.
A young Elena.
Marco.
Margaret.
And Rafael.
Sophia looked at it.
“Rafael.”
“Yes,” Margaret said.
“He wasn't dead.”
“No.”
“Where is he?”
Margaret's eyes shifted toward Vincent.
Vincent answered.
“Carbone knows.”
Damiano turned.
“Thomas?”
Vincent nodded.
“Rafael disappeared after Marco's death.”
“Why would Thomas know?”
“Because Rafael hired him.”
The room became silent.
Damiano understood.
Thomas had not been a partner.
He had been an employee.
“Rafael ordered my father's murder.”
Margaret shook her head.
“Not exactly.”
Damiano's frustration exploded.
“Then stop giving me half the truth!”
Margaret flinched.
Sophia touched his arm.
“Damiano.”
He stepped away.
“I've spent twenty years believing my father died because of a family war.”
Margaret looked at him.
“He died because he discovered the person funding the war was someone he loved.”
“Who?”
Margaret looked at Sophia.
Sophia frowned.
“Me?”
“No.”
Margaret pointed toward Emma.
“Her father.”
Sophia froze.
Emma's father had died before she was born.
There had never been anything mysterious about it.
At least, that was what Sophia believed.
“My daughter's father?”
Margaret nodded.
“He wasn't who you thought he was.”
Sophia stared.
“What does that mean?”
Margaret reached for her hand.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“When?”
“When you were old enough to survive the truth.”
Sophia's eyes filled.
“You've been deciding what truths I can survive my entire life.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
“And what did it cost?”
Margaret looked down.
“Everything.”
Before Sophia could answer, the doors opened.
Isabella entered.
She held something in her hand.
A man's wallet.
“Damiano.”
He looked at her.
“I found this in the service passage.”
He opened it.
Inside was an identification card.
The photograph showed a younger man.
Sophia recognized him immediately.
Her husband.
Emma's father.
She stared.
“No.”
Damiano looked at her.
“What is it?”
Sophia took the wallet.
“This is his.”
The name on the card was not the name she knew.
It was Daniel Hayes.
Her maiden name.
Sophia whispered, “He told me his name was Daniel Carter.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Because Carter was the name he used when he was hiding.”
Sophia looked at her.
“Hiding from whom?”
Margaret answered.
“Rafael.”
Damiano stared at the wallet.
“Why would Rafael hunt Emma's father?”
“Because Daniel was Marco's last surviving witness.”
Sophia felt sick.
Her husband hadn't been an ordinary man who died young.
He had been running.
And someone had eventually found him.
“Did Rafael kill him?”
Margaret shook her head.
“No.”
“Then who?”
Margaret looked at Damiano.
“That's why the watch stopped at midnight.”
Damiano opened it again.
A tiny compartment appeared behind the photograph.
Inside was a folded ticket.
A train ticket.
New York to Albany.
Date: the night Daniel disappeared.
Sophia stared at it.
“He wasn't killed in New York.”
Margaret shook her head.
“He was trying to reach someone.”
“Who?”
Margaret looked toward the hallway.
“Your daughter.”
Emma.
Everyone went still.
“What do you mean?” Sophia asked.
Margaret whispered, “Daniel knew someone was going to take Emma.”
Damiano immediately stood.
“Who?”
Margaret looked at the photograph of Emma.
Then she said the one thing no one expected.
“The person who ordered the abduction is sitting in this house.”
A crash came from upstairs.
Everyone turned.
May you like
Emma's rag doll was lying on the floor.
But Emma was gone.
