Chapter 1 – THE ENGRAVED WATCH IN THE POCKET

The dining room was so quiet I could hear the rain hitting the glass.

Victoria stared at Nico, her face flushed red. She looked at the contract on the table, then at her fiancé.

“My brother is a security professional, Nico,” she said, her voice trembling just enough to sound fragile. “He noticed flaws in your estate’s perimeter. He was only trying to protect you.”

“By authorizing himself to enter the one room where I keep my family’s financial ledgers?” Nico’s voice was dangerously calm.

“I didn’t read the last page,” Victoria insisted, stepping toward him. “You know I don’t understand those technical contracts. Richard handled the details.”

Nico didn’t move. He just looked at her.

“Then Richard is fired. And the wedding is postponed until I understand exactly what he was looking for.”

Victoria gasped. The guests murmured.

“You’re doing this over a misunderstanding?” she cried.

“I’m doing this because my driver of nineteen years was just treated like a thief in my home,” Nico replied. He gestured to the door. “Take Rachel. Go back to your apartment, Victoria. We will talk tomorrow.”

She didn’t argue. She knew when she had pushed too far. She turned and marched out, Rachel following closely behind like a frightened shadow.

The guests slowly began to excuse themselves. The celebration was dead.

I started clearing the plates, keeping my head down. My hands were shaking. I had just humiliated the future wife of a very powerful man.

Mr. Russo touched my shoulder.

“Thank you, Lily,” the older man said softly. “You risked a lot for me tonight.”

“It was the right thing to do,” I said.

Nico stood by the window, watching the cars leave. When the room was finally empty except for me and him, he walked over to the table.

He didn’t look angry anymore. He looked tired.

“Lily,” he said. “You handled yourself well under pressure.”

“I just kept the receipt, sir.”

“You kept your nerve,” he corrected. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a heavy, silver pocket watch. He ran his thumb over the engraved cover. “Loyalty is rare in this house lately.”

I picked up Victoria’s napkin. As I lifted it, something clattered onto the hardwood floor.

It had fallen from Rachel’s coat when she brushed past the table earlier.

I picked it up. It was a heavy brass key, wrapped in a small piece of hotel stationery.

Nico saw it. He stepped closer, taking the key from my hand.

He unfolded the paper.

I saw the writing. It wasn’t Victoria’s handwriting.

It read: Third drawer. Get the ledger before Sunday.

Nico’s jaw tightened. “This is the key to my office.”

A reversal hit me. Victoria wasn’t trying to fire Mr. Russo just to hire her brother. She was trying to create a distraction.

“Mr. Bellini,” I whispered. “If Rachel had that key… who is she working for?”

Nico looked at the watch in his hand, then at the key.

“Not Victoria,” he said grimly. “Victoria doesn’t know where I keep this key. Only one person does.”

He opened the silver watch. Inside wasn’t a clock face. It was a small, faded photograph of a woman.

“Who?” I asked.

Nico snapped the watch shut. “My mother. And she’s been dead for ten years.”

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