Chapter 4 – The Gold Pocket Watch

I stared at my father’s gold pocket watch dangling from Thomas Arden’s hand. The chain swung back and forth, mocking my panic.

“Where is my father?” I screamed, stepping forward, but Dominic caught my arm, pulling me behind him.

“Michael and my men are at her apartment, Thomas,” Dominic said, his voice a deadly calm. “You’re bluffing.”

Thomas Arden smiled, adjusting his tailored suit. “Your men arrived at an empty apartment, Dominic. My people relocated Mr. Reed twenty minutes ago. A tragic side effect of a stroke—patients sometimes wander off. Or fall.” He looked directly at me. “Give me the rosary, Anna. It doesn’t belong to you.”

My heart hammered against my ribs. The microfilm inside the cross held the truth about Margaret Falcone’s torment, the proof of Thomas’s crimes, and the real reason my mother vanished.

“Don’t do it, Anna,” Eleanor pleaded from her chair. “He won’t let your father live anyway.”

“I have no quarrel with your father, girl,” Thomas snapped. “I just want what Margaret stole from me.”

Dominic stepped closer to Thomas, ignoring the armed men. “You kept my mother in a cage for eleven years, Thomas. You let me believe she abandoned me. You let me mourn her while you were drugging her in a private clinic.”

“I was protecting my interests!” Thomas fired back, his composed facade cracking. “Your father was weak, Dominic. He wanted to take the Falcone family legitimate. He was going to expose us all. I did what had to be done.”

Reversal.

Dominic froze. “You killed my father.”

“I saved the empire you now rule,” Thomas countered. “And I offered you my daughter’s hand to solidify our families. Now, give me the microfilm.”

Dominic’s hand slipped inside his tuxedo jacket. The room held its breath. I thought he was reaching for a weapon. Instead, he pulled out his phone.

“You think I don’t know how to protect my own, Thomas?” Dominic said softly. He pressed a button on the screen and turned the volume up.

A voice echoed from the phone’s speaker. A rough, familiar voice.

“Boss. We intercepted Arden’s transport van three blocks from the apartment. The old man is safe in the back of my SUV. We dealt with the physical therapist.”

It was Michael.

Thomas Arden’s face went ash white.

Dominic pocketed his phone and looked at the armed men standing behind Thomas. “You have three seconds to drop your weapons, or you won’t leave this estate alive.”

Before anyone could move, Celeste rushed into the room, holding a heavy velvet box.

“Dad, wait!” she shouted. She opened the box, revealing a stunning diamond necklace. “Dominic, look! I can explain everything. The ledger is a fake!”

But as she stepped forward, her foot caught on the edge of the Persian rug. She stumbled, and the necklace spilled onto the floor—revealing a hidden compartment beneath the velvet lining holding a syringe filled with clear liquid.

Share