Chapter 6 - The Watch Anna Never Wanted Me to Sell
Grace ran for the elevator.
Vincent caught up.
“Grace.”
“I know where the pawnshop is.”
“That doesn’t mean Roman is still there.”
“It means the watch might be.”
“Which means Charles wants everyone converging on one location.”
“You think it’s a trap?”
“I know it is.”
Grace hit the elevator button.
“Then spring it carefully.”
Ethan laughed despite the tension.
Vincent looked at him.
“Is she always like this?”
“Worse when hungry.”
“I haven’t eaten since nine.”
Vincent looked horrified.
“You faced armed men on diner coffee?”
“Diner coffee is practically a controlled substance.”
Marco muttered, “She may actually be invincible.”
The pawnshop sat beneath an elevated train line in Queens.
Its metal gate was half-open.
Lights remained on.
No customers.
Vincent approached first.
Grace followed before he could object.
Inside, the owner crouched behind the counter.
“Please,” he said immediately. “I don’t want trouble.”
Grace showed him the photograph.
“This watch.”
His face changed.
“Everybody wants that damn watch.”
“Do you still have it?”
“No.”
Grace’s heart sank.
“Who bought it?”
“A man came in tonight.”
“Roman?”
“I don’t know his name.”
“Older? Gray hair?”
“No. Younger. Maybe forty.”
Vincent looked at Marco.
“Charles’s people.”
Grace leaned against the counter.
“Where did they go?”
The pawnshop owner hesitated.
Vincent placed cash on the counter.
A lot of cash.
Grace stared at him.
“You could have paid my rent for two years with that.”
“Focus.”
The owner grabbed the money.
“He said something about Pier Seventeen.”
Vincent cursed.
Ethan looked confused.
“What’s there?”
Marco answered.
“Old Moretti shipping warehouse.”
Grace looked at Vincent.
“Your family again.”
“Apparently everybody likes our real estate.”
They drove toward the waterfront.
Halfway there, Grace’s phone rang.
Roman.
Vincent nodded.
“Answer.”
Grace put it on speaker.
“Where is the watch?”
Roman laughed.
“You assume I have it.”
“You were at the pawnshop.”
“Yes.”
“Then?”
“Charles’s man arrived first.”
“Why are you telling me?”
“Because I have spent thirty years being blamed for things Charles arranged.”
“You still kidnapped my brother.”
“That was not my finest family-reunion strategy.”
Ethan shouted from the back seat, “You think?”
Roman ignored him.
“Grace, Charles is going to destroy the ledger.”
“Then help us stop him.”
Silence.
Roman finally said, “You sound like Anna.”
“You barely knew her.”
“I raised her.”
Grace had no answer.
Roman continued.
“She was sixteen when our father married my mother. Anna hated me for the first six months.”
“Why?”
“I ate her birthday cake.”
Grace blinked.
“That’s your explanation?”
“It was excellent cake.”
Even Vincent looked briefly stunned.
Roman’s voice softened.
“I loved your mother.”
“You hunted her.”
“I hunted the ledger.”
“You sent men after me.”
“I sent idiots to frighten you.”
“They carried bats.”
“They were told not to touch you.”
“Comforting.”
“I did terrible things, Grace. But I did not kill Arturo. And I did not order Anna’s death.”
“Then help us.”
Roman was silent.
Finally:
“Pier Seventeen. Upper office. Charles will expect Vincent through the front.”
Vincent leaned toward the phone.
“And where will he expect you?”
Roman chuckled.
“He won’t.”
The line disconnected.
At Pier Seventeen, Grace saw two groups arriving from opposite sides.
Moretti men.
Vale men.
For decades, they might have shot first.
Now both groups remained tense but still.
Vincent stepped between them.
Roman emerged from a black sedan.
He looked exactly like the video.
Elegant.
Controlled.
But when he saw Grace, something happened.
His face softened.
Not theatrically.
It was almost painful.
“You have Anna’s eyes.”
Grace hated how much that affected her.
“You have ten seconds to stop making this emotional.”
Roman smiled.
“She said things like that too.”
Vincent moved closer to Grace.
Roman noticed.
“So the engagement is real?”
“No,” Grace and Vincent said simultaneously.
Ethan laughed.
Marco covered it with a cough.
Roman raised an eyebrow.
“Interesting.”
Grace pointed toward the warehouse.
“Can we save family dysfunction until afterward?”
Roman looked at Vincent.
“I really do like her.”
Vincent replied, “Join the club.”
Grace looked at him.
Vincent immediately faced the warehouse.
“Bad phrasing.”
Roman laughed.
They entered from three sides.
Grace was supposed to stay in the vehicle.
She remained there for approximately forty seconds.
Then she saw someone moving toward a side entrance carrying a small velvet box.
The watch.
Grace got out.
“Hey!”
The man ran.
Grace chased him.
He reached the warehouse.
Grace followed.
Bad decision.
Excellent timing.
The man ran straight into Marco, who had come through the opposite door.
Marco took the box.
Grace grabbed it.
Vincent appeared.
His expression when he saw her could have melted steel.
“You were supposed to stay in the car.”
“I found the watch.”
“You found a man twice your size.”
“And then Marco found him.”
Vincent closed his eyes.
“Grace.”
“Later.”
She opened the velvet box.
Daniel Avery’s watch looked exactly as she remembered.
Cheap stainless steel.
Scratched face.
Brown leather strap.
Her father wore it every day.
Grace turned it over.
Nothing.
Ethan joined them.
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
“Mom hid a criminal empire’s ledger inside Dad’s twenty-dollar watch?”
“It was thirty-eight dollars,” Grace said.
“You remember?”
“I sold it.”
Vincent examined the watch.
“The back is thicker than normal.”
Marco produced a small knife.
Grace stopped him.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
She remembered her mother.
Something I hope you never need.
Grace took the brass key from her necklace.
Its flat end.
Not a normal key.
She pressed it against a tiny groove on the side of the watch.
Click.
The back opened.
Inside was a micro-storage capsule.
Ethan whistled.
“Mom was terrifying.”
Roman stepped closer.
“Yes. She was.”
A voice echoed from the upper walkway.
“And careless.”
Charles Vescari stood above them.
He held a pistol.
His expression was no longer grandfatherly.
“Put the watch down.”
Vincent moved subtly in front of Grace.
Charles pointed the weapon toward him.
“Always doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Protecting people who weaken you.”
Vincent smiled faintly.
“My father said something similar.”
“And look where sentiment got him.”
Roman appeared from behind a support column.
“Old.”
Charles glanced down.
“Roman.”
“Charles.”
“You should have stayed useful.”
“You should have retired.”
Charles laughed.
“You all think Anna defeated me from the grave.”
Grace held the watch tightly.
“Looks that way.”
His eyes snapped to her.
“You know nothing about her.”
“I know she was smarter than you.”
Vincent muttered, “Grace.”
“What?”
“Maybe don’t insult the man holding the gun.”
“Good point.”
Charles began descending the metal stairs.
“Put the watch on the floor.”
Grace did not.
Charles aimed toward Ethan.
“Now.”
Grace placed it down.
Charles approached.
Roman’s men appeared behind him.
Moretti men on the opposite side.
Nobody moved.
Charles smiled.
“Do you know why both your families lost?”
Vincent answered, “Because we trusted lawyers?”
Marco coughed again.
Charles ignored him.
“Because anger is profitable. Your fathers were easy to manipulate. Give a proud man an enemy and he stops asking who benefits.”
He picked up the watch.
Grace watched carefully.
Charles opened the hidden compartment.
Empty.
His face changed.
Everyone looked at Grace.
Charles raised the gun.
“Where is it?”
Grace swallowed.
“I don’t know.”
“You opened it.”
“Yes.”
“Where is the capsule?”
“I don’t know.”
Charles pointed the gun at her.
Vincent moved.
Charles shouted.
“Stop!”
Vincent froze.
Grace looked at Ethan.
He looked equally confused.
Then Grace remembered the chase.
The velvet box.
The moment she collided with Marco.
Marco.
Grace slowly looked toward him.
Marco’s expression revealed nothing.
Charles followed her gaze.
“Mr. DeLuca.”
Marco sighed.
“That is unfortunate.”
Vincent’s head snapped toward him.
“Marco?”
Marco reached into his coat.
Every weapon in the room shifted toward him.
He slowly removed the capsule.
Grace stopped breathing.
“You took it.”
Marco looked at Vincent.
“I’m sorry.”
Vincent’s face went cold.
“For what?”
“For waiting this long.”
Marco tossed the capsule toward Roman.
Roman caught it.
Charles spun.
That distraction lasted one second.
It was enough.
Vincent hit Charles’s gun arm.
The weapon skidded across the concrete.
Roman’s men closed in.
Charles stumbled backward.
Grace grabbed Ethan and pulled him behind a crate.
No gunfire erupted.
Nobody wanted to be the first.
Vincent held Charles against a railing.
“It’s over.”
Charles laughed.
“You think that capsule matters?”
Roman held it up.
“Yes.”
Charles looked at him.
“The original ledger is already being erased.”
Grace frowned.
“It’s physical.”
Charles smiled.
“No.”
Roman’s expression changed.
Charles continued.
“Anna copied everything onto a private server. The capsule contains access credentials.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“So?”
“So the server has a dead-man protocol. If I don’t enter a code by midnight, everything disappears.”
Grace checked the warehouse clock.
11:52 p.m.
Eight minutes.
Vincent grabbed Charles.
“Give us the code.”
Charles smiled.
“Kill me.”
Grace stared.
Vincent’s expression hardened.
Charles leaned closer.
“You destroy me, you destroy the evidence with me.”
A phone vibrated.
Grace’s.
Unknown number.
She answered.
A recorded message played.
Her mother’s voice.
Grace stopped breathing.
“Grace, if you are hearing this, Charles found the watch.”
Everyone froze.
Anna continued.
“Do not ask him for the code.”
Charles’s smile vanished.
Grace turned up the volume.
“He never knew the real one.”
The recording crackled.
“The password is the name of the person Sofia Moretti died protecting.”
Vincent looked at Grace.
Grace whispered:
“Anna.”
Ethan grabbed the laptop.
They opened the server login.
Username already filled.
Password required.
Seven letters.
ANNA?
Only four.
Grace’s heart raced.
“Sofia died protecting Mom.”
Vincent looked at the screen.
“The person.”
Roman suddenly understood.
“Not Anna.”
Grace looked at him.
Roman whispered:
“Her full name.”
Grace typed:
ANNAVALE.
Eight.
Denied.
Thirty seconds vanished.
Ethan cursed.
Charles began laughing again.
11:57.
Vincent stared at Grace.
“The person Sofia died protecting.”
Grace thought of her birth certificate.
Grace Sofia Avery.
Her mother had named her after Sofia.
Why?
Because Sofia had not only protected Anna.
Anna had been pregnant in March 1996.
Grace was born seven months later.
Grace’s eyes widened.
“She was protecting me.”
Vincent looked stunned.
Grace typed:
GRACE.
Five letters.
Denied.
11:58.
Ethan slammed his palm against the table.
“Seven letters.”
Grace’s mind raced.
Grace Avery.
Seven letters in Avery?
Five.
Sofia?
Five.
Daniel?
Six.
Vincent looked at her necklace.
A.V.R.
“What did your mother call you?”
Grace frowned.
“What?”
“As a child.”
“Gracie.”
Six.
Ethan suddenly looked up.
“She called you Sparrow.”
Grace froze.
Their mother’s nickname.
Little Sparrow.
Because Grace climbed everything.
SPARROW.
Seven letters.
Grace typed it.
The screen paused.
11:59.
Charles stopped laughing.
A new message appeared.
ACCESS GRANTED.
Then another.
UPLOAD SCHEDULED.
Grace exhaled.
Vincent leaned over the screen.
“To where?”
Ethan’s face changed.
“Everywhere.”
A list began populating.
Federal investigators.
State prosecutors.
Journalists.
Financial regulators.
Multiple secure archives.
Roman stared.
“Anna planned to burn all of us.”
Grace shook her head.
“No.”
Vincent understood first.
“She planned to make sure nobody could bury it.”
Charles lunged.
Marco intercepted him.
The laptop chimed.
UPLOAD COMPLETE.
Charles stopped struggling.
For the first time, he looked old.
Really old.
Then Grace’s phone rang again.
Not unknown.
Mr. Kaplan from the diner.
She answered automatically.
“Mr. Kaplan?”
His voice shook.
“Grace, don’t come back here.”
Her stomach dropped.
“Why?”
“The diner door was open when I arrived.”
Vincent’s eyes sharpened.
Grace whispered, “What happened?”
Mr. Kaplan breathed heavily.
“Someone left something on the counter for you.”
“What?”
“A photograph.”
Grace closed her eyes.
“Of what?”
Mr. Kaplan hesitated.
“Your mother.”
Grace opened her eyes.
Vincent was watching her.
May you like
Mr. Kaplan continued:
“Grace... the photograph was taken yesterday.”
