TO THE LAST SECOND -unfinished planned to rebuild in future

Paris, 1898. Émile Varens arrives in the city with little more than a failed job application, a broken pocket watch that belonged to his missing father, and the hope of building a life that finally makes sense. Then he meets Nicolas—a blind watchmaker who knows his name before Émile gives it. Soon, ordinary things begin behaving as though they remember more than they should. Clocks disagree with the hours they display. Doors seem to recognize people. Rooms preserve traces of events that never happened. And a black pocket watch begins ticking even when it is closed. The deeper Émile searches for answers, the more one unsettling possibility takes shape: the past may not be gone simply because no one can reach it. But restoring what was lost is not the same as correcting it. Every recovered piece leaves something else uncertain. Every answer creates another connection. And some things, Émile begins to realize, may have been left unfinished for a reason. To discover what happened to his father—and why certain impossible events seem to recognize him—Émile will have to learn where memory ends, where identity begins, and how much of himself he is willing to risk for one more second. Because some moments do not disappear. They wait.