Chapter 17
Two years after Celia stopped me from fastening that watch, we held a small anniversary dinner in the same ballroom.
Not for engagement.
For family.
Beatrix was five.
Celia ran the event.
Vivienne stood beside me.
No giant head table.
No ceremonial watch box.
Just dinner.
At one point Beatrix climbed into my chair and grabbed my wrist.
“Grandpa watch.”
“Yes.”
She tried to read it.
Couldn’t.
“Time?”
“Eight fifteen.”
She frowned.
“Cake time.”
Apparently clocks exist only to confirm dessert.
Celia laughed from nearby.
Vivienne did too.
Then Beatrix noticed Celia’s wrist.
No mark.
No cuff hiding it.
Nothing.
She asked:
“You have watch?”
Celia shook her head.
“Not tonight.”
Beatrix immediately offered her plastic purple one.
Celia put it on.
Too small.
Everyone laughed.
Including her.
That mattered.
Two years earlier, Vivienne had forced Celia to wear a watch because she was afraid to risk her own skin.
Tonight a child offered one freely and Celia could say yes without fear.
No threats.
No rent.
No hidden receiver.
No man listening from another room.
Later, Vivienne touched my wrist.
“Does it still bother you?”
I knew what she meant.
My father’s watch.
“No.”
“Really?”
I thought.
“Sometimes.”
Better answer.
Trust had returned similarly.
Not perfectly.
Not because history disappeared.
Because history stopped deciding every present moment.
I looked around the ballroom.
Marcus speaking quietly with Catherine.
Celia directing staff.
Beatrix stealing frosting before cake was served.
Vivienne beside me because we had chosen each other twice—once badly protected by secrets, once with all of them exposed.
My father and Eleanor Cross had burned an agreement so their children would not inherit a marriage obligation.
Twenty years later, Gideon tried to resurrect that obligation through us.
He failed.
Not because Vivienne and I separated forever.
Because we refused to let old families explain why we stayed together.
Beatrix tugged my sleeve.
“Daddy.”
“Yes?”
“Watch says cake?”
I looked at the face.
“Close enough.”
She cheered.
Vivienne smiled.
Celia shook her head.
May you like
And for once, the watch on my wrist was doing exactly what a watch should do.
Nothing but tell time.
