Maria started to follow.
I stopped her gently.
“Would you stay until I’ve heard the rest?”
She glanced at Oliver.
He nodded to her.
Only then did she remain.
I asked the guests to leave the dining room.
Not the house immediately.
There were coats and cars to arrange.
Charles needed a quiet place to collect himself.
But the dinner was over.
Patrick tried to move with the others.
“Stay,” I said.
He looked offended.
“This has become ridiculous.”
“Then help me understand it.”
Bianca stood beside the sideboard.
Her expression was controlled now.
I knew that face.
It was the one she wore when she wanted a disagreement to appear beneath her.
I had once admired it.
Now I wondered how often calm had simply meant she expected someone else to absorb the consequences.
Charles stayed.
So did Maria.
I asked what happened after Patrick received the watch.
He said the clasp had been stiff.
Charles corrected him.
“It has a release.”
“I know.”
“Did you?”
Patrick’s face reddened.
He had tried opening the case while holding a glass in his other hand.
The chain slipped.
He caught it briefly against his cuff.
Then the watch fell onto the marble.
He picked it up.
The case had broken.
He panicked.
That was the first honest sequence we heard.
I looked at Bianca.
“And you knew.”
She stared at the table.
“Yes.”
“Why blame Oliver?”
She looked up.
“I didn’t plan—”
“You said you saw him.”
“I saw him near the jacket.”
