Adrian didn’t yell.

In my experience, men with real power rarely need to raise their voices. The dining room went completely silent, save for the faint clinking of crystal from the far tables.

He didn’t look at Brielle. He kept his eyes on his daughter.

“What time did he leave?” he signed.

Lucy’s hands were shaking so badly I could barely read the movement.

“After lunch. She said you already said goodbye. She said you were too busy with the party to come downstairs.”

Adrian finally stood up.

He turned to Brielle. She took half a step back, her perfect hostess smile faltering.

“Where is my son?” Adrian asked.

“Adrian, please,” Brielle lowered her voice, glancing at the guests. “Not in front of the board members. We can discuss this upstairs—”

“Where is Owen?”

The ice in his tone made the temperature in the room plummet.

Brielle’s jaw tightened. She reached into her silk clutch and pulled out a sleek silver phone.

“I arranged private transport. It was a favor. The headmaster of Northfield is a personal friend. I was trying to spare you the emotional exhaustion of a drawn-out goodbye.”

“You sent a nine-year-old boy to a boarding school in another state without telling his father.”

“I am trying to be a mother to them!” Brielle snapped, the frustration finally breaking through. “Someone has to make the hard decisions. You coddle them because of what happened to Sarah, but they need structure.”

Adrian didn’t argue. He held out his hand.

“Give me the transport company’s number.”

“They’re already out of state, Adrian. He’s fine.”

“Give it to me.”

Brielle hesitated, then unlocked her phone. She handed it to him.

Adrian dialed. The room watched him.

He put the phone on speaker. It rang twice before a dispatcher answered.

“Platinum Car Service.”

“This is Adrian Marzano. I need the location of the vehicle you sent to my house at two o’clock this afternoon.”

A pause. The sound of typing.

“Sir, we don’t have a Marzano account.”

Adrian looked at Brielle. Her face lost a fraction of its color.

“Check under Ashton,” Adrian said. “Brielle Ashton.”

More typing.

“I’m sorry, sir. No cars were dispatched to your address today under either name.”

Adrian ended the call.

The reversal shifted the entire room. Brielle hadn’t just overstepped as a stepmother. She had lied about who took the boy.

“Who took him?” Adrian asked.

“I… I don’t know what they’re talking about,” Brielle stammered, looking genuinely panicked now. “My brother arranged it. Thomas set up the car.”

Adrian didn’t wait. He turned to his head of security, a broad-shouldered man named Marcus who had already stepped into the dining room.

“Lock the gates. Nobody leaves. Pull the driveway security footage from two o'clock.”

Marcus nodded and moved fast.

Adrian looked down at Lucy. “I am going to find him.”

He turned to me. “Rachel. Take her to her room. Lock the door. Do not let anyone inside except me.”

“Yes, sir.”

I gently touched Lucy’s shoulder and guided her out of the dining room. As we walked toward the grand staircase, I looked back. Adrian was cornering Brielle against the fireplace.

Upstairs, Lucy’s room was dark.

I locked the heavy oak door behind us and turned on the bedside lamp.

Lucy sat on the edge of the mattress, pulling her knees to her chest.

“Is Owen kidnapped?” she signed, tears spilling over her cheeks.

“Your dad is finding out right now,” I signed back, trying to keep my face perfectly calm. Panic is contagious to children. “He will bring him back.”

I walked over to her closet to pull down a blanket.

That was when I saw it.

Sitting on the floor of the closet was Owen’s dark blue winter coat.

The one he wore every single day. The one he refused to take off because his mother had bought it for him.

But tucked inside the pocket of the coat wasn't a toy or a pair of gloves.

It was a thick, folded piece of heavy parchment.

I pulled it out and opened it.

It was a legal document. A transfer of guardianship, stamped and notarized.

And at the bottom, bearing Adrian Marzano’s perfect, looping signature, was the authorization to surrender full medical and physical custody of Owen Marzano to a psychiatric facility in upstate New York.

TITLE: THE FORGERY AND THE MISSING WATCH