Chapter 3 – THE TICKING WATCH

I couldn’t breathe.

I stared at the napkin in Luca’s hand, the rust-colored letters burning into my mind.

Marco pushed me.

Luca’s uncle. The man who had been sitting at the dinner table. The man who handled the hospital paperwork.

“Mr. Moretti,” I whispered, my voice shaking. “If your uncle pushed her… if he killed her… why is he still sitting at your dinner table?”

Luca’s jaw clenched. The muscles in his neck were tight, rigid with contained fury.

“Because in this family, Hannah, you do not move until you have all the pieces. If I accuse Marco now, he denies it. The family splits. War starts.”

He placed the napkin carefully back into the envelope.

“He controlled the hospital, Hannah. He sealed the autopsy. Which means he knows exactly what happened that night.”

Luca looked at me, his dark eyes intense.

“And your mother was the nurse on duty.”

My stomach twisted.

My mother. Evelyn Collins. The gentle woman who spent her evenings knitting and watching old movies, who now struggled to remember my name on bad days.

“She never talked about Chicago,” I said, tears threatening to spill. “She just packed our bags one night when I was twenty-two, and we left for Detroit. She told me it was a better job opportunity.”

Luca took a step closer. The scent of sandalwood and danger rolled off him.

“She ran, Hannah. She ran because she saw something. Or because she took something.”

“Took what?”

Luca pointed to the silver locket still resting in his hand.

“Catherine didn’t just write your name on that paper, Hannah. She hid it in the locket. But who gave the locket to Sophie?”

I blinked. “Sophie said she found it.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know. She just brought it to me.”

Suddenly, a small knock echoed through the heavy oak doors of the study.

Luca and I froze.

The door creaked open, just a few inches.

A tiny hand gripped the edge of the wood.

“Daddy?”

Luca’s expression instantly softened. The terrifying mafia boss disappeared, replaced by a desperate, loving father.

He dropped to one knee as the door opened wider.

Sophie stood there in her pink pajamas. She was nine years old, with her mother’s blonde curls and her father’s intense dark eyes.

She was holding something in her left hand.

“Sophie, sweetheart,” Luca said gently. “You’re supposed to be in bed.”

“I heard yelling,” she whispered. “Did Vanessa leave?”

“Yes,” Luca said firmly. “She’s gone. She’s never coming back.”

Sophie let out a small breath, her narrow shoulders dropping in relief.

She walked into the room and came straight to me, wrapping her little arms around my waist.

I hugged her back, burying my face in her hair.

“Hannah didn’t leave,” Sophie mumbled against my apron.

“No,” I whispered. “I’m right here, sweetie.”

Luca watched us, his eyes filled with an emotion I couldn’t quite read.

“Sophie,” Luca said softly. “Hannah and I were just talking about Mommy’s locket. Do you remember where you found it?”

Sophie pulled away from me and looked at her father.

“I didn’t find it, Daddy.”

Luca frowned. “You told Hannah you found it.”

Sophie looked at her feet. “I lied. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, sweetheart. But who gave it to you?”

Sophie hesitated. She looked at me, then at her father.

“Uncle Marco.”

The silence in the study was absolute.

Luca slowly stood up.

“Uncle Marco gave you Mommy’s locket?”

Sophie nodded. “A long time ago. After Mommy went to heaven. He said Mommy wanted me to have it, but I wasn’t allowed to open it until I was older.”

“Then why did you give it to Hannah?” I asked gently.

Sophie looked up at me, her eyes filling with tears.

“Because of the watch.”

Luca stepped forward. “What watch, Sophie?”

She held up her left hand.

Clutched in her tiny fingers was a gold pocket watch.

It was heavily dented on one side, the glass cracked into a spiderweb pattern.

But in the quiet room, I could hear a distinct, steady sound.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

The watch was running.

Luca stared at it, the color completely draining from his face.

“Where did you get that?” he whispered.

“I found it in Vanessa’s closet, next to Mommy’s blue box,” Sophie said. “But it was broken, Daddy. It hasn’t ticked since Mommy died.”

She held it out to him.

“It just started ticking tonight. During dinner.”

Luca took the watch with trembling hands.

I recognized it immediately from the family portraits. It was the gold pocket watch Marco Moretti always wore on his vest.

“Mr. Moretti,” I whispered. “Why does Vanessa have your uncle’s watch?”

Luca didn’t answer.

He flipped the watch over.

There was an engraving on the back.

He read it, his eyes widening in shock.

He looked at me, his chest heaving.

“Hannah. Take Sophie upstairs. Lock her door. Stay with my mother.”

“What is it?” I asked, panic rising in my throat. “What does it say?”

Luca shoved the watch into his pocket.

“Vanessa didn’t hire that appraiser to empty Catherine’s room.”

“Then what—”

“She hired her to find the original will.”

Luca walked to his desk and pulled a loaded gun from the top drawer.

“Because Uncle Marco isn’t the one who pushed Catherine.”

He looked at me, his eyes dead and cold.

“Vanessa did.”

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