Chương 7
“Where did you get this?”
“Archive.”
Julian stared at Gabriel.
“That’s not possible.”
“You recognize him.”
“Of course I recognize him.”
Sophia stood near the fireplace.
“When did you last see him?”
Julian looked at her, then Dominic.
“When I was fourteen.”
Dominic said, “Think again.”
“I am thinking.”
“Because he was here seven years ago.”
Julian stared at the date beneath the photograph.
His eyes moved from Gabriel to Daniel Moretti.
Then to Michael Carter.
“I never saw this.”
“Neither did I.”
Julian leaned forward.
“Dad knew.”
“Yes.”
For once, neither brother had a clever answer.
Julian touched the screen.
“Why would he hide that?”
Dominic looked at the photograph of their father.
“That’s what Gabriel may have killed Ethan to keep us from finding out.”
Julian stared at Dominic as if the sentence had crossed a line neither of them knew existed.
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
“Then don’t say it like you do.”
Dominic’s mouth tightened.
Sophia watched the brothers and saw the difference between them more clearly than she ever had in six years.
Julian filled silence because silence made him uncomfortable.
Dominic used it like a weapon.
Tonight neither method seemed to be working.
Julian stood and paced toward the windows.
“If Gabriel wanted Ethan dead, why wait a year after giving him the watch?”
Dominic looked at him.
“That bothered me too.”
Sophia folded her arms.
“So the watch wasn’t a threat.”
“Maybe it was a message.”
“To who?”
Dominic turned the tiny gold case over in his hand.
“That depends on why he wanted Ethan to have it.”
Julian glanced back.
“You said Ethan was told it came from Elena.”
“Yes.”
“That sounds personal.”
Dominic’s expression changed at his wife’s name.
Sophia noticed, but said nothing.
Julian stopped pacing.
“Did Elena know Gabriel?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
Dominic looked at him.
Julian held up one hand.
“I’m asking.”
“I never heard his name from her.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Dominic’s voice cooled.
“What are you suggesting?”
“That our family apparently has a seven-year habit of not telling anyone anything useful.”
Julian nodded at the photograph.
“Dad hid Gabriel.”
He pointed toward Sophia.
“Michael hid his work.”
Then toward Dominic.
“You hid half of Dad’s business from me until I was twenty-five because you thought I was irresponsible.”
“You were irresponsible.”
“I once bought a motorcycle.”
“You drove it through the lobby of the Plaza Meridian.”
“There was a ramp.”
Sophia looked down despite herself.
A laugh almost escaped.
Julian saw it.
“Thank you.”
“This is not helping,” Dominic said.
“It helped her.”
Julian’s smile disappeared.
“Look, if Gabriel had contact with Ethan last year, and Lily saw him three weeks ago, then tonight wasn’t his first opportunity.”
Dominic leaned against the desk.
“That’s the point.”
“So maybe killing Ethan wasn’t the original goal.”
The room went quiet.
Sophia looked at him.
Julian continued.
“Maybe something changed.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“What changed?”
“Birthday.”
“That’s not enough.”
“Eight years old.”
Dominic said nothing.
Julian turned fully toward him.
“Dad used to make a big deal about eight.”
Sophia asked, “Why?”
Neither brother answered immediately.
Julian finally said, “Family tradition.”
Dominic’s expression darkened.
“It was not a tradition.”
“What was it?”
Sophia asked.
Julian looked at Dominic.
“You tell her.”
Dominic rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“When boys in the family turned eight, my father gave them something that belonged to the previous generation.”
Sophia looked at the watch.
“A watch?”
“Sometimes.”
Julian nodded.
“I got Granddad’s cuff links.”
“You lost one.”
“I was nine.”
“You lost it at a carnival.”
“I had priorities.”
Sophia ignored them.
“What did you get?”
Dominic hesitated.
“A signet ring.”
“Your father’s?”
“His father’s.”
She looked back at the gold watch.
“So Gabriel gave Ethan the family object a year early.”
“Maybe.”
Julian’s face had gone thoughtful.
“Unless he expected Dad’s watch to be given tonight.”
Dominic looked sharply at him.
“What?”
Julian crossed to the desk.
“Think about it.”
He tapped the photograph.
“Gabriel has Dad’s watch after Dad dies.”
“Michael had it.”
“Eventually.”
Julian nodded.
“But maybe Gabriel had it first.”
Dominic’s gaze moved to the engraved initials.
Julian continued.
“If Gabriel knew about the birthday tradition, maybe he wanted Ethan to receive that watch before you gave him something else.”
Sophia asked, “Why?”
Dominic answered before Julian could.
“To make me ask where it came from.”
Julian nodded.
“Exactly.”
Sophia frowned.
“But Ethan had it for a year.”
“And Dominic never noticed,” Julian said.
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Sophia looked at him.
He did not defend himself.
The truth was too embarrassing.
He had been in Ethan’s room hundreds of times.
He had sat beside the watch, moved it while stacking books, probably handed it to his son without looking.
Some dangers entered through locked gates.
Others sat quietly on a child’s nightstand because a father had stopped seeing what was in front of him.
Julian seemed to read something in his face.
“Don’t.”
Dominic looked up.
“What?”
“Do the thing where you turn one missed detail into evidence that you’re a terrible father.”
Sophia’s eyes moved between them.
Dominic said, “I wasn’t.”
“You absolutely were.”
“This isn’t therapy.”
“No, because a therapist would charge more.”
Dominic ignored him.
“Ethan was supposed to receive my grandfather’s ring tonight.”
Sophia looked at his hand.
“You still have it?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Dominic’s expression changed.
He straightened.
Julian saw it too.
“Where is it?”
“In the study safe.”
The brothers moved at the same time.
Sophia followed.
The study was on the opposite side of the house, beyond the formal dining room and a narrow gallery lined with photographs nobody ever looked at unless they were dusting them.
Dominic unlocked the door himself.
He crossed to a framed architectural print beside the fireplace and swung it outward.
Behind it was a digital safe.
Sophia stopped near the desk.
Julian stood over Dominic’s shoulder.
“You changed the code?”
“Yes.”
“Since when?”
May you like
“Since you learned the old one.”
“That was years ago.”
