at the center of an ownership dispute.

The security guard followed as well.

Conrad remained behind.

For several seconds.

Then he took out his phone.

Lena saw him typing quickly before he disappeared from view.

At the end of the archive corridor stood a steel cabinet containing twenty numbered drawers.

Drawer 17 had no ordinary keyhole.

Instead, beneath the handle was a round brass slot.

Lena inserted the disk.

Click.

The drawer opened.

Inside were a leather ledger, a photograph, and a sealed envelope bearing Charles Ashcroft’s initials.

There was also a large empty space in the center.

Margaret’s face tightened.

“Something is missing.”

“What?” Lena asked.

“A deed of transfer.”

Celeste glanced back toward the corridor.

“Where is Conrad?”

They returned to the gallery.

He was gone.

So was the Marlowe watch.

The security guard checked the employee entrance.

“Mr.

Hale left two minutes ago.”

Celeste cursed under her breath.

Margaret did not move.

“Call downstairs.

Lock his access credentials.”

The guard obeyed.

Lena clutched the brass disk.

“He took my mother’s watch.”

Margaret looked at her.

“Then we find out why he needs it so badly.”

They returned to the archive.

The leather ledger proved to be Charles Ashcroft’s private acquisition record.

Most entries listed watches purchased from estates or collectors.

The Marlowe entry was different.

1968 — Thomas Mercer.

Held as collateral, not transferred.

Return upon settlement.

Lena read her grandfather’s name twice.

“Thomas Mercer was my mother’s father.”

Margaret nodded.

“Charles and Thomas were friends before Ashcroft House became famous.

Thomas was a machinist and amateur watchmaker.

He designed part of the movement inside the Marlowe.”

“Then why did your family have it?”

Margaret sat beside the cabinet.

“Thomas borrowed money from Charles to save his workshop.

He left the watch as security.

Before he could repay the debt, the workshop burned down.

Thomas was badly injured.

Charles believed the debt had ruined him, so he stopped asking for repayment.”

“Then he should have returned the watch.”

“Yes.”

Margaret did not defend her husband.

“But years passed.

The gallery became successful.

The watch became famous.

Charles convinced himself that keeping it protected Thomas’s work.

Eventually the story told publicly was that Ashcroft House had acquired it legally.”

Lena looked down at the ledger.

“That’s a lie.”

“It became one.”

The sealed envelope contained a letter Charles had written shortly before his death.

In it he admitted that the original collateral agreement had never transferred ownership.

He also stated that Elise Mercer had approached him after recognizing her father’s machining marks inside the movement.

Charles planned to return the watch quietly.

Before he could complete the transfer, he suffered a stroke.

He never returned to the gallery.

“Why didn’t my mother fight for it?” Lena asked.

Margaret’s silence answered before her words did.

“She tried.”

Conrad had been Ashcroft House’s operations director then.

He warned Elise that publicly challenging ownership would damage both the gallery and her reputation.

He told her that without the original collateral agreement she had no proof.

Worse, he implied she could lose her job for accessing records unrelated to her assignments.

Elise had a young daughter at home.

She backed away.

But she kept Charles’s archive key and recording.

“Why would Conrad care now?” Celeste asked.

Margaret looked at the empty space