Chapter 1 - The Watch That Was Never Supposed to Be Found
At 9:12 p.m., I ruined Luca Moretti's engagement dinner by refusing to give him back a gift his fiancée had just placed in his hands.
“Give it back, Emma.”
Vanessa Bellini stood beside him in a beautiful red gown, her diamond earrings catching the warm light of three enormous chandeliers.
Thirty guests watched as I pressed the little black velvet box against my chest.
“Please, Mr. Moretti. You need to hear something before you open this.”
Vanessa laughed.
“Unbelievable. Now the help is stealing our engagement presents.”
A murmur rolled through the room.
I felt every eye turn toward me.
I had spent the past eight months learning exactly how invisible a housekeeper could become inside a mansion like this one. You moved quietly. You spoke when spoken to. You kept your opinions behind your teeth and your problems outside the front door.
Tonight, invisibility had failed me.
Luca Moretti wasn't looking at my face.
He was looking at the box.
And I knew that if he opened it before hearing what I'd seen, Vanessa would have enough time to invent another explanation.
My name is Emma Reed.
I was twenty-seven years old, and I worked as a housekeeper in Luca Moretti's Chicago mansion.
I had never been invited to sit at the dining table where I served dinner six nights a week.
Tonight, I wasn't even supposed to be in the room.
Vanessa had specifically ordered me upstairs before the guests arrived.
She said she didn't want “ordinary staff wandering around during an important family evening.”
Twenty minutes earlier, I had been carrying freshly folded towels toward the laundry room when I heard the service entrance buzzer.
A man stood outside.
He wasn't carrying flowers.
He wasn't a courier from a company I recognized.
He wore a gray coat, dark gloves, and a baseball cap pulled low enough to hide most of his face.
Then Vanessa appeared.
She looked over her shoulder before opening the door.
The man handed her the black box.
I couldn't hear everything, but I heard enough.
“Does anyone else know?” Vanessa whispered.
The man shook his head.
“Not yet.”
Then he said something that made Vanessa's face drain of color.
“That’s the last thing he was wearing.”
I watched from the shadow of the hallway.
When Vanessa turned, I stepped away.
She never saw me.
At least, I thought she hadn't.
Now, standing in the dining room, she was staring at me with a fury so intense that I knew she had realized exactly who had been near that hallway.
“Emma,” Luca said again.
His voice was low.
Calm.
That was somehow more frightening than shouting.
“Tell me what happened.”
I swallowed.
“Twenty minutes ago, a man came through the service entrance. He asked for Mrs. Bellini.”
Vanessa immediately interrupted.
“He was delivering flowers.”
“He wasn't carrying flowers.”
Her smile tightened.
“He was delivering a private item.”
“Then why did you hide the box?”
Vanessa's expression changed.
Only for a second.
But Luca saw it.
He always saw everything.
The man had given her the box.
She had hurried upstairs.
Then she had returned wearing that perfect smile and carrying the gift as though she'd been planning the surprise for months.
“I think you should ask Mrs. Bellini who gave it to her,” I said.
Vanessa stepped closer.
“You're a housekeeper. You don't question guests.”
“Then why are you angry that I heard the truth?”
The room became completely silent.
I almost wished I could take the words back.
Almost.
My father's face flashed into my mind.
His tired smile.
His trembling right hand.
The mortgage notice sitting on the kitchen counter in our little house outside Milwaukee.
I needed this job.
My father had repaired watches for thirty years before a stroke left him unable to continue. My mother had taken a part-time bookkeeping job, but between medical bills and the mortgage, we were always one bad month away from losing everything.
Luca knew I sent money home.
Vanessa knew too.
She had reminded me of it whenever she wanted me to stay silent.
“You should think carefully before you lose this paycheck, Emma.”
Those had been her exact words the last time she threatened me.
So I knew what firing me meant.
But I also knew what would happen if I let Luca open that box.
“Who gave you the watch?” Luca asked Vanessa.
She turned toward him.
“Darling, I was trying to give you something meaningful.”
“That wasn't my question.”
Her eyes softened.
“My father had it.”
“Your father?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
Luca's gaze hardened.
“And you never mentioned it?”
“I wanted it to be a surprise.”
I looked at the box.
There was no way that explanation was true.
Not after what I had seen.
Luca extended his hand toward me.
“Open it.”
I hesitated.
Then I lifted the lid.
Inside, lying against black velvet, was an old silver wristwatch.
The leather strap was cracked.
The crystal had a long scratch crossing the face.
The hands were moving.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Luca reached for it.
The moment he saw the engraved initials on the back, everything changed.
D.M.
Daniel Moretti.
His younger brother.
Eight years earlier, Daniel had disappeared.
Chicago had spent months hearing rumors about him.
A kidnapping.
A betrayal.
A rival family.
A secret lover.
Some people believed Daniel had betrayed Luca and run away.
Others said he had been murdered.
Luca never discussed it.
The Moretti family didn't discuss it.
Until tonight.
He turned the watch over slowly.
“Where did you get this?”
Vanessa touched his arm.
“Luca—”
“Where?”
She swallowed.
“My father purchased it from a collector.”
“Name the collector.”
“I don't remember.”
“That doesn't sound like you.”
Her hand dropped from his arm.
I stepped closer.
“Mr. Moretti, may I see the watch?”
Luca handed it to me.
I examined the crown, the movement, the worn strap.
My father had taught me enough about mechanical watches to know that some things couldn't be faked easily.
“This watch isn't old enough to have been sitting untouched for eight years,” I said.
Vanessa's voice snapped through the room.
“Of course it isn't. I had it serviced.”
“At what shop?”
She looked at me.
“I don't remember.”
Luca's eyes narrowed.
Then he looked at the watch again.
“Emma, what else?”
I pointed toward the strap.
“There.”
Tiny blue stitches were hidden beneath the buckle.
Luca stopped breathing.
“My mother repaired this strap,” he said.
Nobody spoke.
“Daniel tore it during a riding accident when he was eighteen. My mother stitched it herself.”
Vanessa's face had become white.
I looked at her.
“The man who brought this had a scar above his left eyebrow.”
Luca looked sharply at me.
“Gray coat?”
“Yes.”
“Dark gloves?”
“Yes.”
Luca turned toward the security team.
“Find him.”
Two men immediately left the room.
Vanessa grabbed Luca's arm.
“Please. This is getting out of control.”
He pulled away.
“Why are you afraid of a delivery driver?”
She didn't answer.
A glass shattered near the end of the table.
One of the guests had dropped it.
Nobody moved.
Luca walked toward Vanessa.
He didn't raise his voice.
“Why did that man say it was the last thing my brother was wearing?”
Vanessa's lips trembled.
“He didn't.”
“I heard him,” I said.
She glared at me.
“You're lying.”
“Then why did you ask whether anyone else knew he had the box?”
Her face crumpled.
“I was nervous.”
Luca turned toward me.
“How long have you worked here?”
“Eight months.”
“Has Vanessa ever mentioned Daniel to you?”
“No.”
“Has anyone?”
I hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Mrs. Moretti.”
Luca's mother.
An elderly woman who rarely attended family dinners anymore.
The woman everyone in the house treated with quiet respect.
Three weeks earlier, while I was helping her with her room, she had asked me a strange question.
“Do you believe people can disappear without leaving anything behind?”
I had assumed she was talking about Daniel.
Now I wasn't so sure.
Luca noticed my hesitation.
“What did my mother tell you?”
“Only that she wished you would stop looking for ghosts.”
Vanessa whispered, “Oh God.”
Luca turned toward her.
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
“You know.”
“I swear I don't.”
One of the security men returned.
“We lost him.”
Luca's jaw tightened.
“Cameras?”
“He entered through the alley. The camera near the gate was disabled for eleven minutes.”
Everyone looked at Vanessa.
She stepped backward.
“I didn't do that.”
Luca stared at her.
Then the grandfather clock in the hallway chimed ten.
The sound felt enormous.
He looked down at the watch in his hand.
“My brother's watch was moving.”
He raised his eyes.
“Which means somebody wound it.”
His gaze moved from Vanessa to me.
Then back to Vanessa.
“You said your father kept this for eight years.”
“Yes.”
“You said it was in his belongings.”
“Yes.”
“So tell me something.”
He held up the watch.
“If your father had this all those years, why was Daniel's blood under the strap?”
Vanessa's lips parted.
I felt a chill move through me.
Blood?
Luca turned the watch over again.
There was a dark reddish stain trapped beneath the leather.
It had been hidden by the buckle.
Vanessa stared at it.
Then she whispered four words.
“Luca, please believe me.”
He didn't answer.
Instead, he looked toward the security guards.
“Lock every gate.”
Then he looked at me.
“Emma.”
“Yes, sir?”
“From this moment on, you're not fired.”
Vanessa spun around.
“What?”
Luca's eyes never left mine.
“You're staying.”
My heart pounded.
“Why?”
“Because you're the only person in this house who told me the truth tonight.”
Vanessa's face twisted with anger.
“Don't reward her for stealing.”
Luca finally looked at her.
“She didn't steal the watch.”
“She had it in her hands!”
“She was trying to stop me from opening it.”
“And why would she care?”
Luca was silent.
I looked at the watch.
Then I said the thing that frightened me most.
“Because I think whoever sent it wanted you to find it.”
Luca's expression hardened.
“Explain.”
“The man who brought it wasn't afraid of being seen.”
I pointed toward the box.
“He wanted the watch found.”
Luca slowly looked at the black velvet box.
“And if that's true?”
I met his eyes.
“Then this isn't a gift.”
Silence.
“It's a message.”
Vanessa suddenly turned and ran toward the hallway.
Two guards blocked her.
“Move.”
“Mrs. Bellini, Mr. Moretti said no one leaves.”
She looked at Luca.
For the first time that night, she looked terrified.
Luca slipped the watch into his pocket.
Then he looked at me.
“Emma, from now on, you stay close to me.”
I blinked.
“Why?”
He lowered his voice.
“Because if someone brought this into my house tonight, they wanted you to see them do it.”
I felt the blood leave my face.
I hadn't considered that.
Neither had Luca.
Until now.
The engagement dinner was officially over.
The guests were escorted out.
Vanessa was taken to the sitting room under guard.
And I was left standing beneath three chandeliers, staring at the empty doorway.
I had entered the room expecting to lose my job.
May you like
Instead, I had become the only witness to a secret that had been buried for eight years.
And I had no idea that by sunrise, someone would try to kill me for knowing it.
