PART3:The Truth Inside the Watch

The Truth Inside the Watch

The room went silent.

Emily stood in the doorway, her hands shaking around the gun.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

My sister.

The woman who had held me when our father died.

The woman who had told me the company collapsed.

The woman who had warned me that Ethan could never be trusted.

Now she was standing in Ethan’s hospital room, telling me that opening my father’s watch could get everyone killed.

Ethan tried to sit up.

“Emily, put it down.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

Her voice cracked.

“You already destroyed everything.”

I stared at her.

“What did you do?”

She looked at me.

For a second, she looked like the sister I remembered.

Then the expression disappeared.

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“You always have a choice.”

“No.”

She shook her head.

“You don’t understand.”

“Then explain it.”

Emily lowered the gun slightly.

“Our father wasn’t killed because of the company.”

I felt my stomach drop.

“He was killed because of what he discovered.”

“What did he discover?”

She looked at Ethan.

“He discovered who was taking the money.”

Ethan closed his eyes.

I looked between them.

“Who?”

Emily’s lips trembled.

“Me.”

I couldn’t breathe.

“No.”

“I was twenty-four.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I was desperate.”

“You wouldn’t.”

She started crying.

“I thought I could pay it back.”

I shook my head.

“You stole from Dad?”

“Not at first.”

“Then what happened?”

She wiped her face.

“I borrowed money from someone who worked with the company.”

“Who?”

She didn’t answer.

Ethan did.

“Victor Hale.”

The name meant nothing to me.

But Emily reacted immediately.

“He was supposed to help me.”

Ethan’s expression hardened.

“He used you.”

Emily laughed bitterly.

“Yes.”

“He made you sign documents.”

“Yes.”

“And when your father discovered the missing money—”

“He threatened to expose me.”

Her voice became smaller.

“I begged him not to.”

I stared at my sister.

“And Dad?”

“He told me he would protect me.”

She looked down.

“He said he would fix everything.”

“Then what happened?”

Emily’s eyes filled with tears.

“Two days later, he was dead.”

The words hung in the room.

I felt numb.

“You’re saying Victor killed him?”

“I don’t know.”

Ethan looked at me.

“That’s what the watch proves.”

I looked down at my father’s watch.

It was still in my bag.

Seven years.

I had carried it everywhere.

Never once had I opened it.

Emily raised the gun again.

“Give it to me.”

“No.”

“Paula.”

“No.”

“Please.”

I had never heard my sister say that word like that.

Not angry.

Not threatening.

Terrified.

I took the watch from my bag.

Ethan stared at it.

“Don’t open it here.”

I looked at him.

“Why?”

“Because someone is listening.”

The lights suddenly flickered.

Everyone froze.

A small red light appeared above the hospital door.

A camera.

Recording.

Ethan whispered:

“They found us.”

Emily looked toward the hallway.

Then she lowered the gun.

“I have to go.”

I grabbed her arm.

“You’re not leaving.”

She looked at me.

“You still don’t understand.”

“Then make me understand.”

She leaned closer.

Her voice dropped to a whisper.

“The people who killed Dad aren’t trying to recover the evidence.”

She looked at the watch.

“They’re trying to make sure you never open it.”

Then she pulled away.

Before I could stop her, the hospital door burst open.

Two men rushed into the room.

Everything happened at once.

Ethan shouted.

Clara grabbed me.

Emily fired.

The gunshot shattered the silence.

Glass exploded from the window.

Everyone screamed.

I dropped to the floor.

Then I heard Emily shout:

“RUN!”

I grabbed the watch.

Clara pulled me toward the emergency exit.

Behind us, Ethan shouted my name.

I turned.

He was still on the bed.

“Ethan!”

“Go!”

“I’m not leaving you!”

“You have to!”

Another gunshot.

Clara dragged me through the door.

We ran down the corridor.

Emergency lights flashed red.

People were screaming.

Doctors were running in every direction.

We reached the stairwell.

Clara slammed the door behind us.

We stopped on the landing.

I could barely breathe.

“Ethan.”

“He’ll survive.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know him.”

I looked at the watch in my hand.

“What do I do?”

Clara stared at it.

“Your father gave it to you for a reason.”

I examined the back.

There was a tiny groove.

Almost invisible.

I pressed it.

Nothing happened.

Then I remembered the silver key.

I pulled it from my pocket.

The key fit perfectly into the back of the watch.

I turned it.

Click.

The back opened.

Inside wasn’t a photograph.

It wasn’t a memory card.

It was a tiny metal cylinder.

And engraved on it were four words.

TRUST NO ONE, PAULA.

My heart stopped.

Then Clara whispered:

“There’s something else.”

She pointed to the inside of the watch.

A series of numbers had been engraved beneath the cylinder.

I recognized them immediately.

The same numbers from the blue box.

The same numbers from the locker.

The same numbers that had brought me here.

I looked at Clara.

“The locker wasn’t the evidence.”

“No.”

“It was a test.”

She nodded.

“To see if you’d follow the instructions.”

“Who?”

Clara didn’t answer.

My phone vibrated.

Unknown number.

I opened the message.

There was a photograph.

Ethan.

Alive.

Standing in a dark room.

Behind him was my father.

Not a photograph.

A video screen.

My father’s face appeared on it.

He was sitting at a desk.

Alive.

I stopped breathing.

The message underneath contained only one sentence.

YOUR FATHER DIDN’T DIE SEVEN YEARS AGO.

I stared at the screen.

Then another message arrived.

HE’S BEEN WATCHING YOU THE ENTIRE TIME.

I looked at Clara.

She was staring at my phone.

“You knew?”

“No.”

“Then who sent this?”

She shook her head.

“I don’t know.”

The screen changed.

A live video call.

Incoming.

No name.

Just:

UNKNOWN CALLER

My hand trembled.

I answered.

The screen went black.

Then a man’s voice spoke.

Older.

Calm.

Familiar.

“Paula.”

I couldn’t breathe.

“Dad?”

Silence.

Then he said:

“You should never have opened the watch.”

The call ended.

I stood frozen.

Clara stared at me.

Neither of us spoke.

Then, from somewhere behind the stairwell door, we heard footsteps.

Someone was coming.

Slowly.

Deliberately.

I tightened my grip around the watch.

For seven years, I had believed my father was dead.

For three years, I had believed Ethan was betraying me.

For thirty-one days, I had believed I had finally escaped the lies.

Now I understood.

The lies had never been ending.

They had only been waiting for me to find the truth.

And somewhere beyond that hospital door was the man who had started it all.

My father.

Alive.

Watching.

Waiting.

And if his final words were true…

Then opening that watch hadn’t saved me.

It had just told him exactly where I was.

CONTINUE READING FINAL PART