Chapter 6
Rosa sat at the damaged kitchen table while detectives questioned her.
Her hands would not stop trembling.
“He was waiting in the hallway,” she said. “I had come to bring Marta soup.”
“What time?” the detective asked.
“Ten minutes before nine.”
“Did you speak to him?”
“No. I stayed near the stairs.”
“Why?”
“I recognized him.”
Adrian stood across the room.
“From where?”
Rosa looked at him.
“Your father came to Tomas’s shop many times.”
“My father was supposed to be dead.”
“He wanted the world to believe that.”
Adrian’s voice tightened.
“I identified his body.”
“Did you see his face?”
Adrian did not answer.
His father had allegedly died when a private plane crashed near the coast of Mexico.
Only partial remains were recovered.
Dental records confirmed the identity.
Grant had handled the funeral arrangements.
Adrian suddenly understood how easily those records might have been changed.
Rosa continued.
“Victor knocked on Marta’s door. She opened it. He asked where Elena kept the box.”
“My mother would never tell him,” Elena said.
“She didn’t. He pushed inside.”
“Did you call the police?”
“I tried. Another man came behind me and took my phone.”
Rosa pulled back her sleeve.
Bruises marked her wrist.
“He locked me in the laundry room. I escaped after they left.”
“Did you see their vehicle?”
“A black SUV.”
“License plate?”
She shook her head.
“Where did they take my mother?”
“I heard Victor mention the old house.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“What old house?”
“Claire’s house in Laurel Canyon.”
Adrian knew the property.
His mother had inherited it from her parents.
After her death, Victor refused to sell it.
Grant controlled it through a family holding company.
Adrian called the police commander.
Within minutes, officers were dispatched.
Elena insisted on going.
This time Adrian did not argue.
The drive from East Los Angeles to Laurel Canyon felt endless.
Rain began striking the windshield.
Elena stared at the road while Adrian made calls.
Vale Systems had entered crisis mode.
Grant’s name had been removed from internal systems, but not before he downloaded thousands of files.
The board demanded an emergency meeting.
News outlets were reporting that Celeste had been arrested at a party.
Photographs of Elena being loaded into an ambulance had already appeared online.
One headline called her “the immigrant nanny accused of robbing a billionaire.”
Even after the security footage cleared her, the accusation traveled faster than the truth.
Adrian shut off his phone.
“We will correct it.”
“My mother has been kidnapped. I don’t care about headlines.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
He looked at her.
“I know that my family brought danger into yours.”
“Your family?”
“My father. My brother. My wife.”
“Celeste is not your family anymore.”
His expression was unreadable.
“No. She isn’t.”
Police stopped them two streets from the Laurel Canyon house.
The property sat behind an iron gate beneath tall eucalyptus trees.
No lights were visible.
A tactical team entered first.
Adrian and Elena waited inside the vehicle.
Five minutes passed.
Then ten.
A radio crackled.
The house was empty.
Elena closed her eyes.
Officers opened the gate and allowed them inside.
The front door had been left unlocked.
Dust covered the furniture.
Portraits of the Vale family hung along the hallway.
In one, Adrian was sixteen.
Grant stood beside him.
Claire sat in the center.
Victor rested a hand on each son’s shoulder.
Elena studied his face.
She had seen him once before.
He attended her father’s funeral.
At the time, he introduced himself as a former customer.
“He was there,” she whispered.
Adrian followed her gaze.
“At your father’s funeral?”
“Yes.”
A detective called from the basement.
They found a chair with ropes tied around it.
A teacup was still warm.
Marta had been there minutes earlier.
On the wall, someone had written another message:
MIDNIGHT. BRING THE WATCH TO THE OBSERVATORY. COME ALONE.
Elena checked the time.
11:17 p.m.
“We have forty-three minutes.”
The detective shook his head.
“You are not going alone.”
“If they see police, they’ll hurt her.”
“We’ll set a perimeter.”
Adrian looked at the message.
“They believe we have the watch.”
“The police took it as evidence,” Elena said.
“I can get it.”
“How?”
“The watch Celeste displayed was not the original.”
Elena stared at him.
“What?”
“My mother’s Rolex has a small scratch near the crown. The one in the library didn’t.”
“You knew it was fake?”
“I realized when I watched the footage.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because I needed to know who else reacted.”
“Grant.”
Adrian nodded.
“When Celeste pulled the watch from your pocket, Grant looked relieved. He believed it was the real one.”
“Where is the real watch?”
“I don’t know.”
Elena looked at the message again.
“My father’s music box.”
They searched the house records and discovered an old photograph of Claire sitting beside the music box.
The ballerina had been removed.
In its place rested a gold watch.
“The music box was built to hide it,” Elena said.
“And whoever searched your mother’s apartment took the box.”
“Then why are they asking us to bring the watch?”
“Because the compartment was empty.”
Elena thought of every moment she had opened the music box.
The ballerina turned while a soft melody played.
She had never removed the velvet lining.
But her mother once repaired it after the mechanism jammed.
“Mama found the watch.”
“She hid it somewhere else,” Adrian said.
Elena called Rosa.
“Did my mother ever give you something valuable to keep?”
“No.”
“Did she mention my father’s music box?”
Rosa went quiet.
“Rosa?”
“Three weeks ago, Marta asked me to mail a package if anything happened to her.”
“To whom?”
“You.”
“Where is it?”
“At my apartment.”
Police retrieved the package.
It arrived at the Laurel Canyon house at 11:38.
Inside was the gold Rolex.
Beneath it lay a tiny brass key and a letter.
Elena opened the letter.
My dearest Elena,
Your father died because he protected the truth. Claire Vale trusted him because Victor was stealing from his own company and financing dangerous men overseas. Tomas hid the records where Victor would never look: inside something he believed belonged to him.
The numbers engraved in the watch open the first door.
The key opens the second.
Trust Claire’s oldest son only if he chooses his child over his empire.
If you are reading this, Victor has returned.
Do not give him the key.
Elena looked at Adrian.
“What does choosing Ruby over your company mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“But my mother does.”
The detective checked the time.
They had fifteen minutes.
A plan formed quickly.
Elena would walk toward the observatory carrying a replica watch.
Police would track her from a distance.
Adrian was ordered to stay behind.
He refused.
“If Victor sees you, the deal is over,” Elena said.
“He is my father.”
“He kidnapped my mother.”
“And he may kill you.”
“This is my choice.”
Adrian looked at the brass key.
Then he looked at the letter again.
Trust Claire’s oldest son only if he chooses his child over his empire.
He removed a small device from his pocket.
It was the master authentication key for Vale Systems.
Without it, no one could take complete control of the company.
He handed it to the detective.
“If I do not return, lock the company down and transfer my voting shares into Ruby’s trust.”
Elena understood.
He had made the choice.
Ruby over his empire.
They reached the Griffith Observatory at 11:57.
Fog covered the parking area.
Elena walked alone toward the dark overlook.
The fake watch was inside her coat.
Her wrist still ached beneath the medical brace.
At midnight, a black SUV appeared.
The rear door opened.
Marta was pushed out.
Her hands were tied.
Elena ran forward.
A tall gray-haired man stepped from the vehicle.
Victor Vale.
He held a gun against Marta’s back.
“Stop,” he ordered.
Elena obeyed.
“Show me the watch.”
She held it up.
Victor smiled.
Then a second man emerged from the SUV.
Grant.
“You should have accepted Celeste’s offer,” he said.
Elena stared at him.
“Where is she?”
Grant’s smile faded.
“She became a liability.”
A third figure moved inside the vehicle.
For one hopeful moment, Elena thought it was Celeste.
Then the interior light came on.
Ruby sat in the back seat.
Her mouth was covered with tape.
Elena stopped breathing.
Grant lifted his phone.
“Your security team was very loyal,” he said. “But Adrian forgot that I hired half of them.”
Victor looked toward the darkness.
“You can come out now, son.”
Adrian stepped from behind a concrete wall.
A red laser settled over his chest.
Victor smiled.
“There you are.”
Adrian stared at Ruby.
“What do you want?”
May you like
Victor held out his hand.
“The watch, the key, and your company.”
