Chapter 9 - THE WOMAN WHO SENT ME TO THE WATCH
Elaine Parker had hired me.
Three weeks earlier.
Out of dozens of applicants.
She chose me.
Placed me on the private-floor cleaning team.
Assigned me to the luncheon suite.
And sent me into the room where Malcolm’s watch waited beneath chair twelve.
It had never been coincidence.
I called Detective Bennett.
By the time officers reached Elaine’s apartment, she was gone.
But she left behind documents.
Photographs of me.
Tyler.
Malcolm.
The hotel.
And Margaret.
One photograph showed my mother entering Elaine’s apartment two months earlier.
Another showed Michael.
My brother.
Alive.
Standing beside her.
I stared.
“Were they working together?”
Detective Bennett shook her head.
“We don’t know.”
Then she found a handwritten schedule.
November 14.
12:20 p.m.
HANNAH FINDS WATCH.
My exact shift.
My exact time.
Everything had been planned.
I felt furious.
My poverty.
My desperation.
My temptation.
Had Elaine expected me to steal it?
Had she wanted Malcolm to destroy me?
Maybe returning the watch had broken her plan.
Malcolm looked at me.
“If you had kept it…”
“I know.”
He shook his head.
“No. You don’t.”
His voice softened.
“If you’d sold it, Elaine could have framed you as a thief tied to Vincent.”
My stomach tightened.
“And you would’ve believed her?”
Malcolm hesitated.
That was answer enough.
I looked away.
Then he said:
“Probably.”
At least he was honest.
“And that,” he continued, “is something I’m ashamed of.”
I studied him.
The powerful man who terrified Chicago was beginning to look less like a monster and more like someone exhausted by the consequences of his own assumptions.
Then Detective Bennett found another file.
Audio.
Elaine’s voice.
“Place the watch where Hannah will find it.”
A man answered.
Michael.
My brother.
I stopped breathing.
Elaine continued.
“If she steals it, Malcolm will eliminate her.”
Michael replied:
“She won’t.”
“How can you know?”
“Because she’s Margaret’s daughter.”
My eyes filled with tears.
Michael knew me.
Without ever meeting me.
Elaine laughed.
“And if she returns it?”
“Then Malcolm will finally ask who she is.”
I stared.
Michael had arranged the watch.
Not to trap me.
To reveal me.
Then the recording ended.
But another file remained.
Michael’s voice again.
“Hannah deserves the truth.”
A pause.
“And Malcolm deserves to know what his empire really cost.”
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Then he said:
“If she returns the watch, bring her to Dad. If Malcolm follows, the Avery dynasty ends.”
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