Chapter 7 - THE BOY WHO INHERITED A WAR
Anthony disappeared for one night.
Not to a safe house.
Not to a casino.
To Bennett Jewelers.
Emma found him sitting at Nathan’s workbench at six in the morning.
“You’re in Grandpa’s chair.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
She sat opposite him.
Anthony turned Nathan’s loupe between his fingers.
“Did your grandfather ever talk about my family?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
Emma thought.
“That expensive watches still tell the same time.”
Anthony laughed.
“Sounds like him.”
“And he said dangerous men usually have boring problems.”
“What does that mean?”
“I asked him too.”
“What did he say?”
“Money. Fear. Fathers.”
Anthony stopped smiling.
Emma looked at him.
“Which one are you?”
“All three, apparently.”
She considered that.
“Are you going to kill Michael?”
Anthony stared at her.
“What makes you ask that?”
“You have that face.”
“What face?”
“The one Mom gets before throwing out food she knows is bad.”
Despite himself, Anthony laughed.
Then became serious.
“No.”
Emma nodded.
“Good.”
“Why?”
“Because Grandpa said revenge is like repairing a watch with a hammer.”
Anthony looked at Nathan’s tools.
“You remember everything he said?”
“Mostly.”
“Lucky.”
“No.”
Her eyes filled.
“Remembering isn’t the same as having him.”
Anthony had no answer.
Emma opened a drawer.
Inside was a half-finished silver pendant.
Nathan had been making it for her birthday.
Anthony looked at it.
“You know how to finish it?”
“No.”
“Could someone else?”
“Yes.”
“Would you let them?”
Emma shook her head.
“Then what happens?”
“I’ll learn.”
Anthony looked at the unfinished pendant.
Something about that answer reached him.
You did not repair what the dead left unfinished by finding another person to do it for you.
Sometimes you learned.
Sometimes you changed.
Sometimes you became capable of something the person before you had never lived long enough to teach.
Anthony stood.
“What are you going to do?” Emma asked.
“Something my grandfather would have considered unforgivable.”
She looked worried.
“What?”
May you like
“End what he built.”
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