Chapter 6 - THE SILVER WATCH
Dileia waited until Martin Voss left the conference room.
Then she turned to Julian.
"Your chief financial officer knew my husband."
Julian's expression hardened.
"What makes you say that?"
"His reaction when he saw me."
"That isn't proof."
"I know."
She opened Tommy's photograph.
Then showed him the watch.
"Ruth remembers a man with a silver watch. Tommy told her not to let him inside."
Julian studied the image.
"Martin owns several watches."
"Then we find out whether he visited Tommy."
Rachel intervened.
"Through records and witnesses. Not intimidation."
Julian looked at her.
"Understood."
Dileia was relieved.
She had already seen how quickly Julian's world turned suspicion into violence.
She wanted justice.
Not another funeral.
That afternoon, Rachel requested security footage from Tommy's apartment building.
The original recordings were gone.
But the building manager remembered something.
A man in an expensive suit had visited Tommy shortly before the accident.
He arrived in a black sedan.
Stayed twenty minutes.
Left angry.
The manager couldn't identify him.
But he remembered the watch.
Silver.
Black face.
Dileia sat motionless as Rachel relayed the information.
The possibility that Tommy had been threatened inside their home made her feel sick.
That night, Julian came to her apartment.
He had asked permission first.
Dileia appreciated that.
Ruth was asleep.
The kitchen smelled of vegetable soup.
Julian looked around the small room.
The peeling paint.
The uneven floor.
The stack of medical bills.
He said nothing.
Dileia handed him a cup of coffee.
"Don't look at me like that."
"Like what?"
"Like you're calculating how much money it would take to fix my life."
Julian looked at her.
"I wasn't."
"Good."
A pause.
"I was wondering how you've managed all this alone."
Dileia's expression softened.
"Not entirely alone. Mrs. Alvarez helps. Ruth has good days. And Tommy left me more love than money."
Julian looked toward the bedroom.
"She loved him."
"She still does."
Dileia sat opposite him.
"Some days she forgets he's gone. Other days she remembers and cries."
Julian nodded.
"My mother died when I was sixteen."
"I'm sorry."
"My father told me grief was weakness."
Dileia studied him.
"And you believed him?"
"For a long time."
"What changed?"
Julian looked at her.
"I haven't decided yet."
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Dileia asked:
"Why did you protect me that night?"
Julian's expression tightened.
"You solved a problem."
"That's not enough."
"No."
"Then why?"
He looked at her for a long time.
"Because Holloway reached for his gun, and I realized how easily I had allowed fear to become our first response."
Dileia waited.
Julian continued.
"I saw you standing there. Exhausted. Wearing a janitor's uniform. You had done nothing wrong."
His voice lowered.
"And I was ashamed of the room I had built."
Dileia felt something shift.
Not forgiveness.
Not trust.
But the beginning of understanding.
Then her phone vibrated.
Rachel.
WE FOUND A WITNESS. TOMMY MET MARTIN VOSS TWO DAYS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT.
Dileia read the message.
Julian watched her face change.
"What happened?"
She showed him.
His jaw tightened.
Then another message arrived.
THE WITNESS SAYS TOMMY WAS CARRYING A BLUE FOLDER.
Dileia froze.
A blue folder.
She remembered one.
Tommy had kept it in the closet.
After his death, she had packed it away with his work clothes.
She stood abruptly.
Julian followed her toward the bedroom.
Dileia opened the closet.
Pulled down a cardboard box.
Inside lay Tommy's old jacket.
His work boots.
A cracked phone charger.
And beneath them—
a blue folder.
She opened it.
Empty.
Except for one page.
A handwritten list of names.
Twelve workers.
Twelve accidents.
May you like
And beside the final name—
TOMMY HAIL.
