Chapter 3 - The Dead Man's Watch
Ethan laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because sometimes the brain rejects a truth by turning it into a joke.
"My father is alive?"
Victor nodded.
"Yes."
Margaret slapped both palms against the table.
"Enough."
Ethan turned on her.
"Is he?"
She stared at him.
That was the answer.
His voice dropped.
"Mom."
Her eyes filled suddenly.
Too suddenly.
"I was trying to protect you."
Ethan backed away.
"From my father?"
"From what he did."
Victor shook his head.
"What he was accused of doing."
Margaret glared at him.
"You weren't there."
"I was the investigator."
My heart kicked.
Victor had told me pieces, never all of it.
He reached into his jacket and removed an old silver wristwatch.
The glass was cracked.
The leather band was dark with age.
Ethan stared at it.
"That was Dad's."
Margaret's face changed again.
Victor placed it on the table.
"Your father gave this to me the night he disappeared."
"Disappeared?" Ethan whispered.
"He didn't die in that car."
Margaret turned toward the relatives.
"Everyone needs to leave."
Nobody moved.
Her control was slipping.
She hated that more than the accusations.
Ethan picked up the watch.
His thumb rubbed the scratched initials on the back.
D.C.
Daniel Cole.
His father.
"What crime?" Ethan asked.
Victor looked at Margaret.
She shook her head.
He answered anyway.
"A nineteen-year-old employee at Cole Medical died after discovering falsified trial data."
Charles whispered, "Oh my God."
Victor continued.
"Your father was charged with obstruction. Before the case reached court, his car went off a bridge."
"Body?" Ethan asked.
"No body."
Margaret cut in. "Because the river took him."
Victor shook his head.
"Because he was never in the car."
Ethan looked sick.
I touched his arm.
He pulled away—not from me, but from everything.
Victor opened another folder.
Inside was a photograph.
A man standing outside a diner.
Gray hair.
Beard.
Older.
But the eyes were Ethan's.
The timestamp was four days ago.
Ethan sat down hard.
"Where is he?"
"Safe."
"Where?"
"I won't tell you until we know who else is involved."
Ethan looked at his mother.
"Who else?"
Margaret suddenly grabbed the old watch from the table.
Before anyone could stop her, she hurled it into the fireplace.
Ethan shouted.
I moved first.
I seized the iron poker, dragged the watch out of the flames, and knocked it onto the stone hearth.
The strap burned.
The metal casing popped open.
Something tiny fell out.
Not part of a watch.
A micro SD card.
Victor stared at it.
Margaret's face went completely white.
Ethan looked from the card to his mother.
"What is on that?"
She whispered, "Nothing."
May you like
Victor bent down and picked it up.
"Then why did you just try to burn it?
