Chapter 1 - THE MAN WHO KNEW HER GRANDFATHER
Thomas Hale stood in the doorway as though someone had suddenly removed the floor beneath him.
For eleven years, Claire had watched men become nervous around Owen Mercer.
She had seen politicians lower their voices when Owen entered a room. She had watched wealthy businessmen stop smiling whenever his name appeared on a phone screen.
But she had never seen Owen look frightened.
Until now.
“Lock the estate down,” Owen said.
Thomas blinked.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
Owen didn't raise his voice.
He didn't need to.
Every security guard outside the vault immediately moved.
Steel doors began closing throughout the mansion.
Claire stared at Owen.
“What is happening?”
He ignored the question.
His eyes remained fixed on the brass mechanism.
Robert Bennett.
Her grandfather.
The man who had taught her how to repair watches when she was eight years old.
The man who had died believing nobody important remembered him.
Apparently, somebody did.
Thomas slowly stepped into the room.
His face had recovered its professional calm, but Claire could see the tension around his mouth.
“You said her name was Bennett?” he asked Owen.
Claire frowned.
“My last name is Bennett.”
Thomas looked directly at her.
“I know.”
The words sent a chill through her.
“You know?”
Thomas didn't answer.
Owen turned toward him.
“Start talking.”
Thomas swallowed.
“There were three people who knew about that mark.”
Owen's jaw tightened.
“Four.”
Thomas looked at him.
“Owen—”
“Four,” Owen repeated.
Claire's heartbeat accelerated.
“What mark?”
Thomas glanced at the brass mechanism.
“The crescent.”
Claire stepped forward.
“My grandfather made it.”
Thomas looked at her with an expression that was almost pity.
“No.”
He paused.
“Your grandfather didn't make that mark.”
Claire stared at him.
“I watched him carve it.”
“On what?”
“Everything he repaired.”
Thomas shook his head.
“Not everything.”
Owen finally looked at Claire.
“Your grandfather worked for my father.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Claire laughed once, nervously.
“My grandfather repaired watches.”
“He did that.”
“And locks.”
“Yes.”
“Then what's the problem?”
Owen walked toward the open vault.
“My father didn't hire him to repair locks.”
He pointed toward the hidden mechanism.
“He hired him to build them.”
Claire's mouth went dry.
Thomas closed the vault room door behind him.
“Twenty-two years ago,” he said, “your grandfather disappeared from the Mercer organization.”
Claire stared at him.
“My grandfather never disappeared.”
“He disappeared from us.”
“What does that mean?”
Thomas hesitated.
Owen answered.
“It means he stole something.”
Claire's eyes widened.
“My grandfather?”
“Money,” Thomas said. “Records. Names. Accounts.”
Owen's voice remained cold.
“Something worth killing for.”
Claire backed away.
“That doesn't make sense.”
Thomas gave a bitter smile.
“It didn't make sense to me either.”
Claire looked between them.
“What exactly did he steal?”
Neither man answered.
Then Owen's phone vibrated.
He checked the screen.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Claire heard only one side of the conversation.
“Where?”
Pause.
“Don't touch anything.”
Another pause.
“I'm coming.”
He hung up.
Thomas immediately asked, “What happened?”
Owen looked at Claire.
“Someone entered the estate.”
Claire's stomach tightened.
“Who?”
“We don't know.”
“Security?”
“Disabled.”
Thomas went pale.
Owen moved toward the door.
Then he stopped.
“Claire.”
She looked at him.
“Stay here.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever came into this house isn't looking for money.”
His eyes moved to the brass crescent.
“They're looking for what your grandfather left behind.”
Claire looked inside the vault.
There were dozens of steel drawers.
Boxes.
Documents.
A black wooden case.
And something else.
A small silver pocket watch.
She recognized it immediately.
Her grandfather's watch.
Claire walked toward it.
Owen grabbed her wrist.
“Don't.”
She froze.
“That belonged to my grandfather.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Owen stared at the watch.
“Because I watched him die.”
Claire's entire body went cold.
“What did you just say?”
Owen's expression hardened.
“I said I watched him die.”
Thomas suddenly whispered something.
“Owen…”
Owen released Claire.
“What?”
Thomas pointed toward the watch.
“Look at the time.”
Claire picked it up.
The hands were frozen at 11:17.
Her grandfather's watch had stopped at exactly 11:17 the night he supposedly died.
Claire remembered her mother telling her that story.
A heart attack.
Eleven seventeen at night.
Twenty-two years ago.
But when Claire turned the watch over, she noticed something she had never seen before.
A tiny crescent.
And beneath it—
R.B.
Her fingers trembled.
She pressed the back of the watch.
It opened.
Inside was not a photograph.
It was a folded piece of paper.
Claire pulled it out.
Only six words were written on it.
She read them aloud.
“TRUST NO ONE, ESPECIALLY OWEN.”
The room went silent.
Thomas slowly looked at Owen.
Owen didn't move.
Claire raised her eyes.
For the first time since she had entered the Mercer estate nine months earlier, she wondered whether she had been working for the wrong man.
Then the mansion lights went out.
A gunshot echoed somewhere upstairs.
May you like
And Owen whispered one sentence.
“They found us.”
