Chapter 9 – THE POCKET WATCH AND THE MONSTER

I held the object up to the harsh fluorescent hospital light.

It was a solid gold, antique pocket watch.

The casing was heavily scratched, and the glass face was cracked, frozen forever at 11:42.

But it wasn’t the broken glass that made Matteo stop breathing.

It was the engraving on the back.

I turned it over and read the elegant, sweeping script aloud.

To Elias. For securing the legacy.

Matteo stumbled back as if he had been physically struck.

“Elias,” Matteo whispered, the name tasting like ash in his mouth. “My uncle.”

“Elias Bellandi?” I asked, horrified. “The patriarch?”

Matteo’s eyes were wide with a sickening realization. “Elias was the one who introduced Daniel to my father. He was the one who mentored Daniel. He orchestrated everything.”

Elias Bellandi was seventy years old, a beloved philanthropist, and the grandfatherly figure who had comforted Matteo at Olivia’s funeral.

“Elias forced my mother onto that train,” Matteo said, his voice dropping to a lethal frequency. “He used Daniel to steal from Isla’s trust. And when Olivia found out, Elias ordered Daniel to kill her.”

My stomach violently turned.

Uncle Elias was the true puppet master. He had manipulated everyone for twenty-five years to maintain absolute control of the Bellandi empire.

“We have to call the police,” I said, reaching for my phone. “We have the watch. We have the ledger.”

“The police won’t make it in time,” a smooth, grandfatherly voice echoed from the hospital doorway.

Matteo and I whipped around.

Standing in the doorway, wearing an immaculate tweed suit and resting his hands on a silver-tipped cane, was Uncle Elias.

Behind him stood two massive men with bulging jackets.

Elias smiled warmly, but his eyes were entirely dead.

“Hello, Matteo,” Elias said softly. “I see you found Arthur’s little insurance policy.”

Matteo stepped in front of my mother’s bed, shielding us. “You killed my wife. You banished my mother.”

“I secured our legacy,” Elias corrected gently, stepping into the room. “Your mother wanted to donate half the company shares to charity. Olivia was going to expose Daniel and ruin our stock prices. Women with bleeding hearts are so dangerous for business, Matteo.”

“You’re a dead man,” Matteo growled, his fists clenching.

Elias chuckled, leaning on his cane. “I don’t think so. You see, I’ve been looking for that pocket watch for twenty-five years. It’s the only physical thing tying me to the train station.”

Elias held out his hand.

“Give it to me, Hannah.”

I backed up against the wall, clutching the watch to my chest. “No.”

Elias sighed, a look of profound disappointment crossing his wrinkled face.

He reached into his tweed pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He tapped the screen and held it up for Matteo to see.

It was a live video feed.

It showed Isla, sitting in her bedroom at the mansion, reading a book.

And standing directly behind her, holding a silencer-equipped pistol, was one of Elias’s men.

Matteo let out a guttural cry of pure agony.

“Ah, ah, ah,” Elias scolded, waving a finger. “If you move toward me, my man pulls the trigger. Now.”

Elias looked at me, his smile returning, cold and absolute.

“Give me the watch, Hannah. Or the little deaf girl won’t see tomorrow.”

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