“I couldn’t verify his profile.”
“Did you call upstairs?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I thought—”
He stopped.
The word hung there.
Thought.
The Black man looked down slightly.
The regional president glanced at him.
Then back at the clerk.
“What did you think?”
The clerk’s face flushed.
“I thought there was confusion about his appointment.”
“Did he provide confirmation?”
The security specialist answered.
“Yes.”
The clerk looked toward him, betrayed.
The regional president continued.
“Did you verify it?”
“No.”
“Why?”
No answer.
The junior associate looked toward the floor.
The Black man spoke.
“I’d prefer we not do this publicly.”
The regional president immediately nodded.
“Of course.”
He looked toward the private staircase.
“Please.”
The Black man did not move.
The president paused.
“Sir?”
The Black man looked toward the clerk.
“She told me we both know I’m not buying an eight-million-dollar watch today.”
The regional president became completely still.
The blonde clerk’s eyes closed for half a second.
The older couple across the room stared.
The regional president looked at the Black man.
Then at his old steel watch.
Something like disbelief crossed his face.
“You said that?”
The clerk whispered:
“I was trying to protect the private collection.”
The regional president’s voice became quieter.
“From what?”
The clerk stopped.
That question had nowhere safe to go.
The Black man answered for her.
“Apparently me.”
The regional president turned pale.
Then he looked toward the old watch on the Black man’s wrist.
His expression changed again.
He knew it.
Not the general design.
The exact watch.
“May I ask…”
The Black man looked down.
“This?”
“Yes.”
“My father’s.”
The president stared.
“I thought that piece was in the family archive.”
“It usually is.”
The junior associate’s eyes widened.
She had been right.
The regional president almost whispered:
“That is the workshop prototype.”
The Black man nodded.
“Number three.”
The blonde clerk looked toward the watch.
For the first time, she understood that the worn steel piece she had dismissed as sentimental was not merely sentimental.
It was one of the rarest surviving watches associated with the house’s early history.
The regional president looked toward the junior associate.
“You recognized it?”
She hesitated.
“I thought I did.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”