Fake Names with Me Love Bombs for Her? Screw This Secret CEO Wife Is Done novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Second Watch

After Gregory left, I poured all his peonies into the kitchen trash.

The croissants I put in the freezer. I wasn't a monster.

"He's right about one thing," Jerome said from the doorway. "Odile won't wait."

"Then we find it first."

We went out to the garage at nine and turned on every light.

The red toolbox sat on the bench with its drawers back in, the way Jerome had left them.

I put both hands on it.

"You searched it," I said. "What did you check?"

"Every drawer. The lid. Under the tray."

"Did you check the back?"

"The back is a metal sheet."

"It's sheet metal that doesn't match the sides." I ran my thumb along the seam. "My father welded this box himself in 1991. He used to hide birthday presents in it. Every year I looked everywhere except the socket drawer, and every year the present was in the socket drawer."

Jerome said nothing.

I pulled out the socket drawer all the way, reached into the gap, and pressed a spot behind the third rail.

A panel dropped open with a small click.

Inside, wrapped in a shop rag, was a wristwatch.

It was a cheap steel one with a cracked glass.

I picked it up. It weighed the same as the one my father had worn.

"That's the one they stole," I said.

"No." Jerome bent close. "Look at the crack."

On the first watch, the crack had run from the twelve to the four.

On this one, it ran from the ten to the two.

I turned it over.

The caseback was scratched, and somebody had engraved a line there with a very sharp point.

M.C. when you're ready.

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