MY BILLIONAIRE HUSBAND HUNG UP ON MY MOTHER WHILE SHE WAS SAYING “I LOVE...
He looked directly at me.
“He died because of what he gave me.”
Nobody touched the watch.
It sat between the wineglasses like evidence.
I couldn't take my eyes off it.
“You had this,” I said.
Dominic nodded.
“For three years.”
“Because your father asked me to keep it.”
I stared at him.
“You expect me to believe that?”
The answer surprised me.
Dominic pushed the watch toward me.
“I expect you to hear the rest before deciding.”
I didn't touch it.
Victor pulled out a chair.
I almost laughed.
“You don't get to tell me what to do.”
Victor nodded.
That was the first time anyone at the table had spoken to me like an equal.
Natalia remained standing.
She looked at Dominic.
“Tell her.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“You tell her.”
Natalia shook her head.
“This is your debt.”
Dominic looked at me.
“Your father was translating a negotiation in Warsaw.”
I listened.
“During that meeting, he discovered that several shipping companies were using legitimate contracts to move something else.”
“Weapons?”
Dominic hesitated.
“Information.”
I frowned.
“Information?”
“Ports. Customs schedules. Government tenders. Military supply routes. Private security contracts.”
Victor continued.
“Someone was selling access.”
I looked at him.
“To whom?”
Victor's expression hardened.
“We don't know.”
Dominic corrected him.
“We know one thing.”
“The person was close enough to manipulate both sides.”
I looked at the watch.
“And my father found them.”
“What did he give you?”
Dominic didn't answer.
Natalia did.
She reached into her bag again.
This time she removed a folded sheet.
“The names of twelve people.”
I looked at it.
“Why didn't you give this to the police?”
Dominic gave a humorless smile.
“Because half the names were government officials.”
Victor added, “And the other half were protected by people who would have buried the evidence.”
I understood then why my father had been afraid.
But it didn't explain his death.
“Who killed him?”
Dominic looked down.
“We don't know.”
“You expect me to accept that?”
He touched the watch.
“But I know who wanted him silenced.”
“Someone inside my organization.”
I stared at him.
“You're a mafia boss.”
“So someone in your organization killed my father.”
“Possibly.”
“Then why should I trust anything you say?”
Dominic looked at me for a long moment.
“You shouldn't.”
That honesty disarmed me.
He continued.
“Trust the evidence.”
He opened the back of the watch.
Inside was a tiny folded piece of paper.
My hands went cold.
Dominic slid it toward me.
I opened it.
There were four words.
THE FIFTH NAME IS WRONG.
I looked at Natalia.
“What does that mean?”
She shook her head.
“Your father wrote it.”
I read it again.
Then something clicked.
My father had taught me a strange habit when I was a teenager.
Whenever he translated complicated documents, he never trusted a list simply because it looked official.
He always checked the fifth entry.
He called it his “five-name rule.”