A BANK MANAGER PANICKED WHEN HE RECEIVED LIVE VIDEO OF HIS WIFE BEING HOLDED BY HOLDERS, FORCED TO OPEN THE VAULT, BUT WHEN HE NOTICED A SMALL DETAIL IN THE BACKGROUND TIME, THE VICTIM REALIZED SOMETHING

It was 4:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon, and employees were slowly clearing out a large bank branch in Bonifacio Global City (BGC). The surroundings were quiet. For Arthur, a 45-year-old branch manager, it was just an ordinary day waiting to end.

He was eager to get home because tomorrow would be his tenth wedding anniversary with his beautiful wife, Elena. They had a luxurious vacation planned for Boracay, and he knew that he would be at home in Quezon City now to pack their belongings and prepare their passports.

But Arthur’s quiet afternoon suddenly turned into a searing nightmare.

Her cellphone, which was resting on top of her thick folder, rang. A message from an unknown number contained a video link. When she pressed it under her desk so that other employees wouldn’t see it, a sight that made her heart stop beating opened up before her.

Elena. Her hands were tied to a chair in the middle of their own living room. There was thick packaging tape over her mouth and she was crying uncontrollably, her eyes wide with intense fear and trembling. Behind her was a burly man in a black bonnet, holding a .45 caliber gun and aiming it right at her husband’s senses.

Following this was a text message: “Don’t make any noise or make any wrong moves. Three of our men are coming into your office right now. Have them go to the main vault and hand over the fifty million pesos in the two duffel bags they’re carrying. If you press the alarm, call the police, or ask for help, I’ll blow your wife’s skull out before you get home.”

Arthur could barely breathe. His whole body went cold and his vision began to blur from the intense fear. He loved Elena so much. He would do anything, sacrifice his entire career, his clean name, and his freedom, just don’t hurt her.

Just as he lifted his gaze from the small screen of his phone, he saw three men dressed in formal suits but with black face masks, walking quickly towards his office. They were the men. They were holding large black bags and looking straight at him.

Arthur stood up, his knees shaking. He sent his secretary out and told the two security guards to break through the back first because there was a “VIP audit” from the head office that was about to take place. No one suspected anything. With his authority as manager, the path to the very bottom of the bank where the largest time-delay vault was located was cleared.

Page: SAY – Story Around You | Original story.

They entered a cramped hallway that had no CCTV cameras because it was currently being repaired. Arthur entered his fingerprint and first password on the digital keypad. “It has a ten-minute time delay before it opens,” Arthur whispered harshly to the men standing behind him, feeling the cold steel of the hidden gun pressed against his side. “We need to wait.”

During those ten minutes that felt like a decade to him, Arthur secretly checked his cellphone again to make sure Elena was still alive. The video feed continued to play. His wife was still crying, her shoulders shaking.

But as he stared at his wife’s pleading face, he noticed something strange in her movements. No tears were falling from her eyes. Arthur’s gaze landed on the background of the video—the large antique grandfather clock that stood near the steps of their house.

The time on the clock was ten thirty in the morning (10:15 AM).

Arthur frowned. Impossible. It was already four thirty in the afternoon (4:30 PM). The clock couldn’t be broken because he himself meticulously wound it every week without fail. Arthur looked at the bottom of the video to find more details. He saw the arm of the man in the bonnet holding the gun. As he shifted position, the sleeve of his black jacket rose slightly and a very familiar tribal tattoo appeared on his wrist.

He knew that tattoo. It belonged to Vince, Elena’s muscular “personal fitness trainer” who often came to their house every Saturday for her private workout sessions.

In the blink of an eye, all the pieces of the puzzle came together in Arthur’s mind. The clock. The tattoo. No tears. The video was not a live broadcast. It was pre-recorded this morning before she even entered the office. Elena was not a victim in this situation. She was the mastermind behind all the crimes. Her own husband had used her intense love and concern to manipulate her into forcibly robbing his own bank so that she could escape with her lover to another country.

The intense fear and nervousness in Arthur’s chest were suddenly replaced by a searing anger. A cold, quiet, and calculated anger.

Ting!

The electronic lock rang. The time delay was over. Arthur slowly pulled open the heavy steel door of the main vault. Hundreds of millions worth of stacked cash were revealed to them.

“Quick! Put it all in the bag!” a holdaper shouted in a low voice. The three men quickly entered the dark vault, eagerly grabbing the money and opening their bags carelessly.

This was Arthur’s chance. Instead of following inside as they expected, he quickly stepped back. He grabbed the thick door handle on the outside with all his strength and slammed it shut.

BLAAAG!

The deafening sound of the huge door closing rang out. Arthur immediately turned the spin dial three times. The system was on lockdown. That vault was soundproof, air-tight with limited oxygen, and only the Central Office system could open it after a twenty-four-hour emergency lockdown protocol. The three robbers were arrested without a trace.

Arthur straightened the crease in his tie. He calmly walked back to his office as if nothing had happened. Sitting down in his chair, he pressed the silent alarm under the desk. Then, he took out his phone and called the police station.

Not only did he report the three men locked up in the vault at BGC. He also gave the exact location, full names, and international flight details of Elena and Vince. It turned out that he had been watching the secret messages of the two for a long time, just waiting for the right opportunity.

That evening, as the sun was setting over the city, Arthur received the news. Elena and Vince were arrested in the airport’s VIP lounge, waiting for their accomplices and the fifty million pesos that would never come into their hands. Elena was shocked and cried when the police handcuffed her. Her “perfect plan” that depended on her husband’s love and stupidity went awry because of a simple clock.

Arthur returned home to a quiet and empty house. He looked at the grandfather clock that continued to tick, grateful that no matter what, time and truth could never be deceived.