Leo pulled free.
His camera case swung forward and struck the barrier. The clasp opened.
The vintage camera fell onto the wooden boards.
Leo froze.
Before he could reach it, Julian placed one polished shoe beside the camera.
For a second, nobody moved.
Leo looked up.
“Please step away from it.”
Julian glanced down.
“This old thing?”
“It belonged to my mother.”
“Then you should have taken better care of it.”
Leo bent down.
Julian moved his shoe.
Not backward.
Forward.
The camera scraped across the pier and struck a metal support.
The lens shattered.
The sound was small.
A sharp crack of glass and metal.
But to Leo, it seemed louder than the engines, the workers, and the waves beneath the dock.
He stared at the broken camera.
The object itself was replaceable.
Its history was not.
Julian watched him with mild amusement.
“Perhaps now you will remember that restricted areas are restricted for a reason.”
Leo slowly picked up the camera.
A thin line of blood appeared across his finger where the broken glass cut his skin.
Tomas moved toward him.
“Leo, are you all right?”
Julian noticed the name but showed no reaction.
Leo wrapped the camera in a cloth from the case.
His hands were steady.
His voice was not angry.
That made Julian smile.
He assumed the boy had finally understood his position.
Leo reached into his jacket and removed his phone.
Julian sighed.
“Let me guess. You’re calling the police?”
“No.”
“Your school principal?”
Leo looked directly at him.
“My father.”
Several workers exchanged glances.
Julian laughed.
“Of course you are.”
Leo pressed a contact.
The call connected after one ring.
“Leo?”
His father’s voice was quiet.
“I’m at Grayhaven Harbor.”
There was a pause.
“You were going there this morning. Are you all right?”
“I’m not injured badly.”
The warmth vanished from Sebastian Arden’s voice.
“What happened?”
“Security grabbed me. One of the fishermen was pushed. Julian Voss blocked everyone from reaching the eastern pier.”
Julian’s smile disappeared for half a second.
Leo continued.
“He also destroyed Mom’s camera.”
Silence followed.
Not an empty silence.
A controlled one.
The kind of silence that appeared when Sebastian Arden was choosing every word before allowing himself to speak.
“Where is Mr. Voss now?”
“Standing in front of me.”
“Put the call on speaker.”
Leo touched the screen.
His father’s voice became audible.
“Mr. Voss.”
Julian stared at the phone.
He did not recognize the voice immediately.
“Who is this?”
“Sebastian Arden.”
The change in Julian’s face was almost invisible.
Almost.
His jaw tightened.
His shoulders became rigid.
One of his assistants lowered her tablet.
Julian looked at Leo again.
This time, he did not see a teenager in an old jacket.
He saw the eyes.
The shape of the face.
The calmness.
Details he would have noticed earlier if he had believed the boy was worth observing.
“That is not possible,” Julian said.
Sebastian’s response came through the speaker.
“My son rarely finds things impossible. Inconvenient, perhaps. But not impossible.”
Julian’s face lost color.
“Your son?”
“Yes.”
“I believe there has been a misunderstanding.”
Leo looked at the broken camera in his hand.
“No,” Sebastian said. “I believe there has been an unusually clear understanding.”
Julian glanced toward his staff.
Nobody spoke.
“The site inspection is scheduled for eleven,” Sebastian continued. “My team and I are seven minutes away.”
Julian checked his watch.
It was 10:53.
His eyes moved toward the harbor entrance.
Then back to Leo.
“Mr. Arden, I can explain.”
“You will have that opportunity.”
The call ended.
For several seconds, the only sound came from water striking the posts beneath the pier.
Julian forced a smile.
“Leo, correct?”
Leo said nothing.
“I think we both reacted emotionally.”
“You broke the camera on purpose.”
“It was an accident.”
“You moved your foot forward.”
Julian glanced around.
Too many people had seen it.
He lowered his voice.
“You must understand the pressure surrounding a project of this size.”
“The project made you destroy my mother’s camera?”
“I did not know who you were.”
Tomas let out a bitter laugh.
Julian turned toward him.
The fisherman shook his head.
“That is the problem,” Tomas said.
Julian’s eyes narrowed.
Tomas pointed at Leo.
“You are not sorry because you hurt him. You are afraid because you discovered his last name.”
Julian looked toward the harbor entrance again.
The first vehicle appeared less than a minute later.
It was not a limousine.
It was a dark electric van carrying engineers from Arden Maritime.
A second vehicle followed with members of the company’s legal department.