Chapter 5 - The False Trail
They returned upstairs separately.
Clara carried the brass key inside her closed fist.
Lorenzo returned to the ballroom.
Nothing looked different.
Guests laughed.
Waiters moved between tables.
A pianist played softly beneath the chandeliers.
But Clara could feel the danger now.
She watched the people around her.
Then she saw the man who had retreated toward the exit.
He stood beside Richard Bell.
Clara recognized him from the foundation's accounting department.
Nathan Cole.
Junior financial controller.
She had interviewed him twice.
Nathan noticed her.
His face went pale.
Then Richard leaned toward him.
Nathan whispered something.
Richard immediately looked toward Clara.
Clara turned away.
Her phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
She opened the message.
YOU FOUND THE WRONG ROOM.
A second message appeared.
ASK LORENZO ABOUT HIS FATHER.
Clara stared at the screen.
She knew Lorenzo's father had died twelve years earlier.
She also knew the official story.
Heart failure.
But the timing matched the beginning of the missing-money transfers.
She found Lorenzo near the balcony.
“Someone just told me to ask about your father.”
His expression changed.
“What exactly?”
Clara showed him the message.
He read it twice.
“My father died twelve years ago.”
“I know.”
“He was investigating the foundation's construction contracts.”
Clara's eyes sharpened.
“What happened?”
“He disappeared for three days.”
“Before he died?”
“Yes.”
“And when he returned?”
Lorenzo's voice lowered.
“He told my mother he had discovered something that could destroy people much more powerful than him.”
Clara felt cold.
“Who?”
“He never said.”
“Did he leave records?”
“One.”
“What?”
“A gold watch.”
Clara looked down at Lorenzo's wrist.
The same watch.
He touched it unconsciously.
“My father gave it to me the morning he died.”
Clara's eyes moved to the face.
9:17.
Then she saw something she had missed.
There was a tiny engraving inside the rim.
A single letter.
C.
Clara looked at Lorenzo.
“What does that mean?”
May you like
He didn't answer.
Because across the room, Nathan Cole had suddenly vanished.
