Chapter 1 - The Watch That Should Never Have Been Opened
“I'LL PAY YOU ANYTHING! JUST DESTROY THAT WATCH!” THE MAFIA BOSS'S FIANCÉE BEGGED AN ELDERLY WATCHMAKER. BUT WHEN A MAID BROUGHT HIM TO THEIR ENGAGEMENT DINNER, THE MAFIA BOSS WOUND HIS DEAD FATHER'S POCKET WATCH—AND A SECRET COMPARTMENT OPENED, REVEALING A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE WIFE HE'D BEEN SEARCHING FOR FOR THREE YEARS.
Arthur Bennett had repaired watches for the Moretti family for forty years.
But he'd never received an instruction quite like Antonio Moretti's final request.
Restore my pocket watch. Deliver it to Luca on the night he announces his engagement. Let my son wind it himself.
The instruction had been included in Antonio's will.
That morning, Arthur finished the restoration.
An hour later, Vanessa Sterling walked into his shop.
“Give me the watch.”
Arthur shook his head.
“I'm afraid it belongs to Mr. Moretti.”
Vanessa placed a checkbook on the counter.
“Name your price.”
“I made a promise to his father.”
Her smile disappeared.
“THEN DESTROY IT!”
Arthur refused.
By evening, he stood outside the Moretti mansion, holding a small velvet box.
Two security guards blocked the entrance.
“Mrs. Sterling says you're not allowed inside.”
Arthur lowered his head.
“Please. I only need to see Luca.”
Lily Bennett, a young maid returning from the garden, overheard him.
She noticed the faded Moretti family crest on the box.
“Sir, what's inside?”
“Something his father wanted him to have.”
When Arthur explained Antonio's final instruction, Lily looked toward the illuminated ballroom.
Then she gently took his arm.
“Come with me.”
Inside, eighty guests watched Luca Moretti rise beside his fiancée.
A diamond engagement ring rested in a small box on the table.
Luca took Vanessa's hand.
Before he could slide the ring onto her finger, Lily stepped forward.
“Sir, your father left you one last gift.”
The ballroom fell silent.
Arthur entered.
Vanessa turned.
Her face went white.
“No…”
Luca recognized the old man.
“Arthur?”
The watchmaker bowed his head.
“Your father asked me to deliver this tonight.”
He opened the velvet box.
Inside lay Antonio's gold pocket watch.
Luca stared.
His father had carried it every day.
He remembered hearing its gentle ticking whenever Antonio held him as a child.
Vanessa suddenly lunged forward.
“DON'T TOUCH THAT WATCH!”
She grabbed Arthur's wrist.
Lily hurried to support the elderly man.
Luca caught Vanessa's hand.
“Let him go.”
“Luca, please. That thing is broken!”
Arthur shook his head.
“No, ma'am. I repaired it myself.”
Luca took the watch.
Vanessa began crying.
“PLEASE! DON'T WIND IT!”
Luca looked at her.
“Why?”
She couldn't answer.
He slowly turned the winding crown.
Once.
Twice.
A soft metallic click echoed through the silent ballroom.
The watch's back cover sprang open.
Inside was a hidden compartment.
A tiny brass key.
And a folded photograph.
Luca carefully removed them.
The photograph showed a woman standing outside a small coastal house.
Dark hair.
Green eyes.
A familiar smile.
Elena Moretti.
His wife.
The woman who had disappeared three years earlier.
Luca's hands began trembling.
“Elena?”
Vanessa stepped backward.
Luca examined the date stamped on the photograph.
It had been taken only eight months earlier.
His father had still been alive then.
Arthur quietly spoke.
“Mr. Moretti, your father brought that photograph to my shop himself.”
Luca looked up.
“When?”
“Two weeks before he died.”
Luca stared at the photograph.
“Where did he get it?”
Arthur swallowed.
“He wouldn't tell me. He only asked me to protect it.”
Luca looked toward Vanessa.
“You told me Elena was dead.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I told you the police had stopped searching.”
“You said there was no chance she'd survived.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Luca, please listen.”
But Arthur stepped closer.
His voice broke.
“YOUR FATHER KNEW SHE WAS ALIVE, LUCA.”
Luca froze.
Arthur pointed toward the brass key.
“He said the photograph wasn't enough. He needed proof of why she disappeared.”
Luca examined the key.
A small number was engraved into the metal.
317\.
Arthur nodded.
“A bank safe-deposit box. Your father paid the rental fees until his death.”
Luca looked at Vanessa.
“Did you know about this?”
She remained silent.
Then Lily spoke.
“Sir, Mrs. Sterling came to Arthur's shop this morning.”
Luca slowly turned.
“What did she want?”
Arthur answered.
“She offered me money to destroy the watch.”
The room fell silent.
Luca's expression hardened.
“VANESSA, WHY WERE YOU TRYING TO DESTROY MY FATHER'S LAST GIFT?”
Vanessa began shaking.
“Because Antonio didn't understand what he was doing.”
Luca stepped closer.
“What does that mean?”
She looked at Elena's photograph.
Then whispered:
“Your father found her.”
Luca stopped breathing.
“Where?”
Vanessa covered her mouth.
Arthur reached into his coat and removed a second envelope.
“Mr. Moretti, Antonio also asked me to give you this after you opened the watch.”
Luca broke the seal.
Inside was a handwritten note.
My son,
If you are holding this key, I am no longer here to explain why I kept Elena's whereabouts from you.
I wanted to bring her home.
But when I found her, she begged me not to tell anyone.
Luca's heart pounded.
He read the final sentence.
“SHE SAID THE PERSON WHO MADE HER DISAPPEAR WAS STILL LIVING UNDER YOUR ROOF.”
Luca slowly raised his eyes.
Vanessa was backing toward the ballroom doors.
He closed the watch in his fist.
“VANESSA… WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY WIFE?”
She shook her head desperately.
Then whispered:
“Luca, if you open that deposit box, they'll know your father found her.”
Luca froze.
“Who will?”
Vanessa looked at the watch.
May you like
And for the first time that evening, she seemed genuinely terrified.
Read Chapter 2 in the first comment to discover what Antonio hid inside safe-deposit box 317—and why Elena begged her father-in-law to keep her survival secret from Luca. Thank you for reading!
