The man pulled back, staring at the boy.

“What did you say?”

The boy wiped his cheek with his sleeve, leaving a streak of dirt across his skin.

“My dad is alive,” he whispered. “But they told everyone he died.”

The man’s breathing became uneven.

“Where is he?”

The boy looked around the ballroom, terrified of the polished guests and security guards watching them.

“He said only you could help. He said you owed him a promise.”

The man closed his eyes.

Twelve years earlier, Scott had dragged him out of a burning convoy and lost everything because of it. Before they separated, the man had promised him one thing.

“If you ever call, I come.”

He opened his eyes.

“I remember.”

The boy reached into his torn pocket and pulled out a folded photograph. It showed Scott, thinner and older, holding a newspaper from last week.

On the back, one sentence was written in shaking handwriting:

They took my son to force me to sign.

The man’s face drained of color.

“Who took you?”

The boy looked past his shoulder.

At the far end of the ballroom, a woman in a black evening gown had gone completely pale.

She was the man’s business partner.

The same woman who had arranged the charity gala.

The same woman who had told him Scott died before he could testify.

The boy’s lips trembled.

“She said if Dad didn’t give her the files, I’d disappear too.”

The man slowly stood, keeping the boy behind him.

His voice turned cold.

“Lock the exits.”

The woman tried to smile. “What is this?”

He lifted the photograph.

“This is the son of the man you buried alive.”

The ballroom erupted in whispers.

The boy clutched the silver watch to his chest.

“Can you find my dad?” he asked.

The man knelt again and placed both hands on the boy’s shoulders.

Tears filled his eyes.

“I failed him once by believing he was gone,” he said. “I won’t fail him again.”

Then his phone rang.

Unknown number.

He answered.

A weak, familiar voice came through the speaker.

“You kept the watch.”

The man’s face crumpled.

“Scott?”

The boy began to sob.

The voice on the phone shook.

“Is my son safe?”

The man looked at the child trembling in front of him and pulled him close.

“Yes,” he whispered. “And this time, so are you.”