The silence in the showroom wasn’t just quiet anymore—it was suffocating. The manager, once a figure of cold authority, looked as though she had seen a ghost. Her grip on the folded paper tightened until her knuckles turned as white as the marble beneath her feet.
“She’s alive?” the old man whispered, his voice a fragile thread. He clutched the photo—a relic from a time when the showroom was a place of dreams, not just cold commerce. “My Anna is alive?”
The boy, sensing the shift in the air, didn’t move. He held his breath as the manager slowly retreated, her eyes darting toward the security office. “This is a mistake,” she hissed, though her trembling voice betrayed her. “That woman was a thief. She was cast out for a reason.”
“A thief?” The old man’s eyes flared with a sudden, sharp clarity. He looked at the boy, then at the single wristwatch the child had pulled from his bag. It wasn’t just any watch. It was a Vanguard 1920—the prototype that had launched this entire luxury empire.
A gasp rippled through the crowd. The “rich” onlookers lowered their phones, the mockery on their faces replaced by a sudden, chilling realization. That watch was worth more than the entire display of shattered crystal. It was the heart of the family legacy, long thought to be lost in the fire that supposedly took Anna’s life.
“The medicine,” the boy sobbed, his small voice cutting through the tension. “She said if I showed the paper… the man in the picture would help. She’s so cold, and she won’t wake up…”
The old man’s face went ghostly pale. He grabbed the manager’s arm with a strength no one expected. “Where is the ledger from fourteen years ago? The one from the night of the fire?”
“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she stammered, but her gaze flickered toward the basement door.
At that moment, the lights in the showroom flickered and died. For three seconds, the room was plunged into absolute darkness. When the backup generators kicked in, a new figure stood at the entrance.
A tall man in a tailored black suit, his face scarred but his eyes burning with a familiar, icy blue light. He didn’t look at the manager. He didn’t look at the crowd. He looked straight at the boy and the watch.
“The boy stays with me,” the stranger said, his voice like grinding stones. “And as for the rest of you… the debt is finally due.”
He held up a second folded paper—identical to the one the boy had carried. But this one wasn’t a plea for help. It was a death certificate with a name that made the manager collapse to her knees.
The secrets of the showroom weren’t just about a broken family. They were written in blood, hidden behind the gold leaf, and tonight, the first layer of the lie had finally cracked.
To Be Continued…
Who is the man in black, and how does he know the secret of the watch?
What really happened the night of the fire fourteen years ago?
The manager isn’t just a boss—she’s a guardian of a dark truth that involves the old man himself.