Chapter 4 - The Watch of a Dead Man
“Elena.”
My sister stopped.
She was ten feet from her SUV.
I had never needed to threaten Elena.
Not once in our lives.
I didn’t need to now.
Something in my voice was enough.
“Come inside.”
Her eyes moved toward Clara.
Clara moved farther behind me.
That reaction did something unpleasant to my chest.
“Elena.”
“I heard you.”
“Then move.”
Luca and Nico stayed close to Clara as we entered the house.
Daniel ordered the gates closed.
I told every guard on the property that nobody left without my permission.
Elena heard me.
“You’re locking me in?”
“I’m locking everyone in.”
“I’m your sister.”
“You’re also the person who apparently knew where two missing children were.”
She flinched.
“Not here.”
“Where would you prefer?”
“Somewhere the kids can’t hear.”
Fair.
I asked Maria, my housekeeper, to take Luca, Nico, and Clara into the kitchen.
Clara refused to release the back of my shirt.
I looked down.
“You’re safe here.”
She studied me.
“Michael said you’d say that too.”
My throat tightened.
“What else did Michael say?”
Elena interrupted.
“Vincent.”
I ignored her.
Clara looked at the silver watch still inside my hand.
“He said when I gave you that, you would know he never forgot.”
“Forgot what?”
She hesitated.
Then glanced toward Elena.
My sister shook her head almost imperceptibly.
I saw it.
“Don’t look at her,” I said.
Elena’s expression sharpened.
“Vincent, stop interrogating a child.”
“I’m not interrogating her.”
“You’re frightening her.”
Clara spoke quietly.
“He isn’t.”
Elena closed her eyes.
That scared me.
Because my sister looked defeated.
Not confused.
Defeated.
I crouched in front of Clara.
“What didn’t Michael forget?”
She leaned toward me.
“When the lights go out, we find each other.”
My entire body went still.
I had not heard those words in thirty years.
Our father died when Michael was eleven and I was fourteen.
The night after the funeral, Chicago lost power during a summer storm.
Michael had crawled into my room because he was afraid.
I pretended I wasn’t.
We sat on the floor with flashlights while rain struck the windows.
Michael asked me what would happen if something happened to Mom too.
I told him nothing would separate us.
He didn’t believe me.
So we made a promise.
When the lights go out, we find each other.
It became a stupid childhood phrase.
We used it during storms.
When one of us got lost at a street festival.
When Michael went to college.
Once, years later, he called me after an argument and said only those words.
Nobody knew.
Not Elena.
Not our mother.
Nobody.
I looked at Clara.
“Who told you that?”
“My dad.”
“Where is he?”
Her eyes became cautious again.
“I promised not to tell.”
My voice broke before I could stop it.
“Clara, please.”
Elena stepped forward.
“That’s enough.”
I rose.
“No. We passed enough fifteen years ago.”
“Vincent—”
“You’re going to tell me everything.”
“Not in front of them.”
“Fine.”
I looked at Maria.
“Kitchen.”
Luca refused.
“No.”
“Luca.”
“No. Mom lied to us too.”
Elena looked at him.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“You said Uncle Vincent couldn’t know.”
“I had a reason.”
“You said we’d only be there one night.”
That caught my attention.
“One night where?”
Luca immediately realized he had revealed something.
Elena’s shoulders dropped.
There it was.
Confirmation.
“You sent them somewhere,” I said.
“I didn’t send them.”
Luca spoke.
“She showed us the tunnel.”
Elena looked at him sharply.
“Luca.”
“You did.”
I stared at my sister.
For eight days, I had watched her cry.
I had watched her accuse me.
I had watched her pretend she didn’t know about the passage.
“You showed my nephews how to leave my estate through a hidden tunnel.”
Elena whispered, “Yes.”
“You froze my cameras?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because they needed to leave unseen.”
“By whom?”
She looked toward Daniel.
“Not here.”
“You trust Daniel?”
“I don’t know who to trust anymore.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
I held up a hand.
“Elena. Office. Now.”
The children remained with Maria.
Clara kept looking back at me as they walked away.
I closed the office door.
Elena sat.
I remained standing.
“Start with Michael.”
She stared at her hands.
“He’s alive.”
Three words.
That was all.
Yet they landed harder than any physical blow I had ever received.
I walked to the window because suddenly I needed something solid nearby.
“You’re sure.”
“Yes.”
“How long have you known?”
She didn’t answer.
“Elena.”
“Seven years.”
I turned.
“You have known for seven years that our brother is alive?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I couldn’t.”
“To me?”
“To anyone.”
“I buried him.”
“I know.”
“I stood beside you at his grave.”
“I know.”
“I watched Mom die believing her youngest son was gone.”
Her face crumpled.
“I know.”
“No. Don’t say that like it makes this smaller.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Then explain it.”
She wiped her eyes.
“Michael contacted me seven years ago.”
“Why you?”
“Because you were being watched.”
“By whom?”
“I didn’t know then.”
“And now?”
She looked at me.
“Someone who has been close to this family longer than any of us realized.”
“Name.”
“I don’t have one.”
I almost laughed.
“You’ve kept a dead man hidden seven years without knowing who he’s hiding from?”
“Michael knows.”
“Then where is Michael?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
“What does that mean?”
Elena stood.
“Eight days ago he sent me an emergency message.”
My anger cooled enough for fear to enter.
“What message?”
“Two words.”
“What words?”
“Lights out.”
I stared at her.
She continued.
“It’s a protocol we created. If he ever used those words, it meant he believed someone had found him.”
“Why send my nephews?”
“I didn’t.”
“You showed them the tunnel.”
“I was supposed to use it myself.”
That changed everything.
Elena explained.
Friday night, she had planned to return secretly, enter through the old caretaker route, and meet someone who would take her to Michael.
Luca overheard part of a conversation days earlier.
He knew something was wrong.
At some point Saturday night, he convinced Nico to follow the route she had once shown them during an emergency drill.
“They weren’t supposed to leave,” Elena said. “When I discovered what happened, I knew where they had gone initially.”
“Then why not tell me?”
“Because Michael’s message specifically warned me not to bring you.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Convenient.”
“Do you think I enjoyed this?”
“I think you watched me search an entire city while you knew my nephews weren’t abducted.”
“I knew where they started. I didn’t know where they moved after that.”
“But you knew Michael had them.”
“Yes.”
“And you decided his secret mattered more than what this family was going through.”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Her voice dropped.
“I decided keeping them alive mattered more than you forgiving me.”
Silence.
I looked at the silver watch.
“Why does Michael think I’m dangerous?”
“He doesn’t.”
“Then why couldn’t I know?”
“Because of your security network.”
I frowned.
“What about it?”
Elena swallowed.
“Michael believes the person who tried to erase him fifteen years ago has access to it.”
My eyes moved instinctively toward the office cameras.
Toward the walls.
Toward the house.
Eleven missing minutes.
Administrator access.
A tunnel renovated without my knowledge.
Suddenly, I understood.
Luca and Nico had not disappeared from the safest house in Chicago.
They had disappeared from a house that someone else had secretly been able to enter for years.
Then Elena said the one thing I had not considered.
May you like
“Vincent, if Michael is right, the person hunting him already knows Clara is here.”
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