Chapter 2

While the doctor treated my wounds, Blair stayed by Nolan's side the entire time.

Through the glass door of the lounge, I saw her sitting beside him, carefully applying an ice pack to his wrist. The hand he'd used to shove me was only slightly swollen.

Meanwhile, my right hand had suffered a severe burn. Every inch of fabric the doctor cut away from my wound sent pain so intense through me that my vision went black.

Blair never once looked back. Only after my wound had been bandaged did she come in and place a black card on the table.

"Nolan just got back to the country. He doesn't understand your temperament. He didn't mean for what happened today to happen. This card has no spending limit. Buy whatever you like."

I looked at the card without moving.

She was always like this. She thought she could make everything go away with jewelry and money.

I picked up my bag and turned to leave.

Blair frowned. "The party isn't over yet."

"My hand hurts."

She glanced at my right hand, and for a brief moment, her expression softened. Then Nolan let out a faint gasp behind her. She immediately turned and went to support him.

I left the hotel alone.

As soon as I got into the car, I took out the pocket watch. The scalding broth had seeped into its seams, slightly warping the silver casing.

Three days earlier, an old accountant named Jason Talbot, who was about to leave the Carter Group, had contacted me.

He told me that the original dispatch records from the accident, the money transfer records, and a crucial recording had all been copied onto a storage chip.

To keep the Carter family from finding it, he'd hidden the chip inside this pocket watch.

Jason hadn't dared to hand it directly to a lawyer or the police. He knew that if the Carters could silence witnesses seven years ago, they could just as easily make sure he never spoke again.

Last night, he'd fallen from the twenty-eighth floor. The police ruled it an accident, but I knew he'd been silenced.

I planned to head to the law firm first, but I'd barely driven any distance when my phone rang.

Blair's cold voice came through the line. "Come home."

My entire body stiffened. The Carters had installed a tracker in my car.

I had no choice but to change my plans.

Half an hour later, the car pulled up at Cloudwater Bay.

As soon as I got out, two bodyguards blocked my path.

"Sir, Ms. Carter has given us orders. You are not to leave the villa under any circumstances before six tomorrow morning."

They confiscated my phone and cut off the villa's internet access completely. Blair had even ordered them to take my car keys.

"Why?"

One of the bodyguards lowered his voice to say, "Ms. Carter says you were the last person to see Jason before he died. Some critical company documents have recently gone missing, and she suspects you have them."

I lowered my eyes and clenched the pocket watch.

So she thought I'd obtained confidential company information. She had no idea that what it contained was evidence of the Carter family's crimes seven years ago.

The clock on the wall showed 11 p.m. Only seven hours remained before my father's execution.

There were no surveillance cameras in the bedroom, but bodyguards stood outside the door.

I waited for an opportunity.

At 11:40 p.m., the family doctor came in to change my dressing.

I deliberately knocked over my painkillers. While the doctor bent down to pick them up, I took the small pair of scissors from the table with my left hand.

As soon as I heard the footsteps fade away, I locked the bedroom door and used the scissors to pry open the pocket watch bit by bit.

The moment the casing sprang open, a chip no bigger than my fingernail dropped into my palm. Thankfully, it was undamaged.

I didn't try to open the files right away.

The data on the chip was encrypted. An ordinary phone couldn't read it. I had to send it to the attorney, Conor Duncan's technical team, who would decrypt it using the password index.

I still had the password index, and I had the actual chip.

As long as I could make it through the night, my father still had a chance.

I hid the chip inside a fold of the bandage on my right hand, then snapped the empty watch casing shut again.

Suddenly, I heard a car engine shut off downstairs. Blair was back.

I quickly straightened the bedsheets, sat on the edge of the bed, and pretended nothing had happened.