Chapter 7 - Norah did not remember leaving the bank.
She remembered Roman’s hand against her back.
Tommy shouting into a phone.
Men surrounding the SUV.
The city moving outside tinted windows.
She remembered asking the same question three times.
“What did your father do to my mother?”
Roman answered none of them.
By the time the Maybach reached the underground garage, Norah’s fear had burned into rage.
The elevator doors closed.
She immediately pressed the emergency stop.
Roman looked at her.
“Start it.”
“No.”
“Nora.”
“No.”
Tommy remained perfectly still near the opposite wall.
Norah pointed toward Roman.
“He answers me now.”
Roman glanced at Tommy.
“Take the next elevator.”
“The elevator is stopped.”
Roman pressed the control, opened the doors at the garage level, and Tommy stepped out.
Norah restarted the elevator.
They rose alone.
“What did your father do?”
Roman stood with his hands at his sides.
“My father is dead.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I know.”
“Then answer it.”
The elevator opened into the penthouse.
Norah walked out.
Roman followed.
She turned the moment the doors closed.
“My mother died in a car accident.”
“Yes.”
“Was it an accident?”
Roman’s silence destroyed twenty years of certainty.
Norah’s knees weakened.
“No.”
He said the word softly.
She stared at him.
“No what?”
“The accident was not random.”
Norah felt something break inside her chest.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
Roman looked directly at her.
“Before I met you.”
She struck him.
The sound cracked through the penthouse.
Roman’s head turned.
He did not lift a hand.
Norah’s palm burned.
“You knew when you introduced yourself to me.”
“Yes.”
“You knew when you bought me dinner.”
“Yes.”
“When you brought me here.”
“Yes.”
“When you told me you loved me.”
His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
Another slap.
Roman accepted it.
Tears filled Norah’s eyes.
“You let me tell you about her.”
“I know.”
“I told you how guilty I felt because we argued that morning.”
“I know.”
“She left the house angry because of me.”
“It wasn’t because of you.”
“You knew that.”
“Yes.”
Norah backed away.
For years, she had carried the memory like a stone inside her.
Fifteen years old.
Her mother asking why she had lied about spending the night at a friend’s house.
Norah screaming.
Her mother leaving for work in the rain.
Police at the door five hours later.
Her father collapsing in the hallway.
The belief that one childish argument had somehow pushed the universe in the wrong direction.
Roman had known.
“What happened?”
Roman poured nothing.
Touched nothing.
He simply stood there.
“My father controlled freight routes before I inherited anything. Your mother worked for an accounting firm that handled several transportation companies.”
Norah frowned through the tears.
“She was a bookkeeper.”
“She found irregular payments.”
“What payments?”
“Bribes. Shell companies. Political money.”
Norah looked toward her purse.
Salvatore’s drives.
Roman continued.
“She didn’t know the full structure. She only knew numbers were being moved illegally. She raised questions.”
“My mother would have gone to the police.”
“She did.”
Norah closed her eyes.
Roman’s voice became quieter.
“One detective was on my father’s payroll.”
The room went silent.
“He told Carlo Cavalari.”
“Your father.”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
Roman looked away for the first time.
“He ordered someone to scare her.”
Norah’s stomach twisted.
“Scare her?”
“The instruction was to force her car off the road and make it look like she lost control.”
“And she died.”
“Yes.”
Norah covered her mouth.
For years she had pictured wet asphalt.
Broken metal.
A police officer saying instantaneous.
Her mother’s wedding ring returned inside a small plastic bag.
“Did your father mean to kill her?”
“I don’t know.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“No.”
Norah looked at Roman.
“When did you find out?”
“Two years later.”
“You were what, nineteen?”
“Twenty.”
“And?”
“And I confronted him.”
“What happened?”
Roman’s eyes went cold with old memory.
“He told me innocent people die whenever powerful people protect themselves. He said I would understand when the family became mine.”
Norah felt sick.
“And you stayed.”
“I was already inside.”
“You always say that.”
“Because it is true.”
“You could have left.”
“So could you.”
The words landed badly.
Roman immediately regretted them.
Norah stared.
“I was fifteen.”
“I know.”
“My mother was dead.”
“I know.”
“You don’t compare that to me leaving you.”
“I wasn’t.”
“It sounded like it.”
Roman walked toward her.
She stepped back.
He stopped.
“I killed the man who drove the car.”
Norah froze.
“What?”
“Three years after your mother died.”
Her skin went cold.
“Why?”
“Because I found out what he had done.”
“Did you know me?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Roman’s expression became distant.
“Because he bragged about it.”
Norah did not know whether that made anything better.
Probably not.
“What about your father?”
“He died six years later.”
“Natural causes?”
Roman’s silence answered.
Norah stared.
“You killed your father.”
“I did not say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Roman walked to the windows.
“Carlo Cavalari had many enemies.”
“Were you one of them?”
“Yes.”
She looked down at her hands.
Everything around her suddenly seemed built from ghosts.
The penthouse.
Roman’s empire.
Her mother.
The Morettis.
Salvatore’s letter.
“Why did Salvatore know?”
“He and my father were partners once.”
“So the drives could contain proof.”
“Yes.”
Norah reached into her purse.
She placed both drives on the table.
Roman stayed away from them.
“You still don’t want to take them?”
“I want them more now.”
“But?”
“But they were given to you.”
She laughed bitterly.
“How noble.”
“I’m not noble.”
“No. You’re not.”
He accepted that.
Norah sat.
Her anger had become too large to maintain physically.
“Why did you approach me?”
Roman did not answer immediately.
This question mattered differently.
She looked up.
“Did you meet me because of my mother?”
“No.”
“How can I believe you?”
“You can’t.”
The honesty hurt.
Roman continued.
“I first saw you at the fundraiser at the Hawthorne Hotel. I didn’t know your name. Tommy found out because I asked.”
“And then?”
“Then I saw the surname Ellis.”
Norah felt hollow.
“You recognized it.”
“Yes.”
“And you still pursued me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Roman faced her.
“Because by then I already wanted you.”
“That isn’t romantic.”
“I am not trying to make it romantic.”
“You should have told me.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The first week.”
“Yes.”
“The first month.”
“Yes.”
“Before I moved in.”
“Yes.”
His answers became quieter each time.
Norah wiped her face.
Roman had never apologized easily.
To him, regret was weakness unless it changed behavior.
Now he said, “I was afraid you would leave.”
She laughed.
“So you lied to keep me.”
“Yes.”
“And then I left because of a different lie.”
“Yes.”
“That is almost funny.”
“It isn’t.”
“No.”
Norah looked toward the drives.
“What if the proof is there?”
“Then you decide what happens to it.”
“Even if it destroys your family?”
Roman looked around at the penthouse.
“My family is already dead.”
“It could destroy you.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re giving me that choice?”
“Yes.”
Norah searched his face.
“Why?”
Roman approached slowly.
He stopped several feet away.
“Because three years ago, you left because I treated love like possession.”
Her eyes burned again.
“And now?”
“Now I know possession is what I do when I’m afraid.”
Norah said nothing.
Roman continued.
“I bought your building because I was afraid. I watched you because I was afraid. I let you struggle because I convinced myself you would eventually understand that you needed me.”
His mouth tightened.
“That was not protection.”
Norah stared.
It was the first time he had admitted it.
Roman looked toward the floor.
“It was punishment disguised as protection.”
Her breath caught.
“I wanted you to come back and admit I was right.”
He laughed once, bitterly.
“I was willing to let you freeze to prove it.”
Norah’s tears returned.
“You were cruel.”
“Yes.”
“You hurt me.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t get forgiveness because you finally understand that.”
“I know.”
She believed him.
That was almost worse.
The old Roman would have explained.
Justified.
Reframed.
This Roman stood in the center of the penthouse and allowed her anger to exist without attempting to defeat it.
Norah picked up one flash drive.
“We’re opening them.”
Roman nodded.
“Not here.”
His expression changed.
“Why?”
“Because Luca knew we went to the bank.”
Roman immediately understood.
“If he knew that…”
“He may know more.”
Roman reached for his phone.
Norah stopped him.
“What?”
“Jess.”
Roman frowned.
“What about her?”
“Luca contacted me through the bank because he knew I’d found the box. Before that, someone went to Lombardi’s asking about me.”
Roman’s face darkened.
Norah grabbed her phone.
She called Jess.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Her pulse climbed.
Roman was already calling Tommy.
“Find Jess.”
Norah sent a message.
Nothing.
Five minutes later, Tommy called back.
Roman answered.
Norah watched his expression.
It was enough.
“What?”
Roman did not speak.
“Roman.”
“Her phone was found outside the nursing school.”
The room disappeared around Norah.
“No.”
“We don’t know she was taken.”
“You know.”
Roman’s silence said yes.
Norah turned toward the elevator.
He caught her arm.
“Where are you going?”
“To find her.”
“You don’t even know where she is.”
“Then find out.”
“I will.”
“No. We will.”
“Nora—”
“Do not put me in a room and tell me you’re handling it.”
His grip loosened.
“Jess is involved because of me.”
“She is involved because Luca chose to involve her.”
“He wants the drives.”
“Yes.”
“Then we give them to him.”
“No.”
Norah stared.
“Her life is worth more than your secrets.”
“This is not about secrets.”
“Then what?”
“If we give Luca what he wants, he has no reason to return Jess.”
The logic stopped her.
Roman continued.
“We make him believe he needs you alive and cooperative.”
Norah hated the words.
But she understood them.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Roman looked at the screen.
Norah answered.
“Hello?”
Jess was crying.
“Sadie?”
Norah closed her eyes.
“Jess.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know where—”
A man’s voice replaced hers.
“Nora.”
Luca.
Norah opened her eyes.
Roman stood directly in front of her.
“What do you want?”
“The drives.”
“I have them.”
“I know.”
“If you hurt her—”
“I have no interest in the student. She is a message.”
Norah’s hand tightened around the phone.
“Then release her.”
“Bring what my uncle gave you.”
“Where?”
Roman shook his head sharply.
Luca laughed.
“Roman is there, isn’t he?”
Norah said nothing.
“Tell him this is not his negotiation.”
Norah looked at Roman.
For once, she agreed.
“Luca.”
“Yes?”
“You chose me because you think Roman controls me.”
Silence.
Norah continued.
“That was your first mistake.”
Roman’s eyebrows lifted slightly.
“You want Salvatore’s drives? You deal with me.”
Luca’s voice changed.
“Careful.”
“No. You be careful. Jess is alive because you need me to cooperate. The second I believe she isn’t, I have no reason to keep those drives private.”
Roman stared at her.
Norah swallowed her fear.
“I will send copies to every newspaper, prosecutor, and federal agency I can find.”
Luca became silent.
She had guessed correctly.
The records threatened more than Roman.
Finally Luca said, “You have become interesting.”
“I learned from difficult men.”
Roman almost smiled.
“Tomorrow. Noon,” Luca said. “You’ll receive instructions.”
The call ended.
Norah lowered the phone.
Her hands began shaking.
Roman gently took it from her.
“That was reckless.”
“I know.”
“Effective.”
“I know.”
He studied her.
“Were you bluffing about releasing the files?”
Norah looked at the flash drives.
“No.”
Roman’s expression did not change.
Even though those files could destroy him.
Norah realized he believed her.
May you like
And for the first time, Roman did not seem angry about losing control.
He seemed almost proud.
