Chapter 7 - The Truth About the Romano Name
Chloe woke in the back seat of a moving car.
Vivian was beside her.
"What happened?"
"Someone triggered the hospital fire alarm."
Chloe remembered smoke.
Nurses.
Confusion.
Then Daniel telling them to follow him.
"Where's Daniel?"
"Driving."
Chloe looked forward.
The man behind the wheel had Daniel's face.
But something was wrong.
His hands.
Daniel wore a wedding band.
This man didn't.
Chloe's heart pounded.
She caught Vivian's eye.
Vivian noticed.
Chloe quietly placed her hand over her stomach.
Then she said loudly, "Daniel, Arthur told me about Milwaukee."
The driver didn't react.
There was no Milwaukee.
Vivian understood.
She reached for the door.
Locked.
The driver looked in the mirror.
"Don't."
Chloe said, "You're not Daniel."
"No."
He removed a realistic facial prosthetic at the jawline.
Vivian gasped.
"Who are you?"
"Someone getting paid."
"By Dominic?"
No answer.
Chloe's phone was gone.
Vivian still had her smartwatch.
She quietly activated emergency sharing.
The driver didn't notice.
Twenty minutes later, he stopped at an industrial warehouse.
Chloe refused to move.
"I'm pregnant."
"I noticed."
"My doctor said stress could put me into premature labor."
The man's expression shifted.
He hadn't expected complications.
Good.
Chloe leaned into it.
"My stomach is tightening."
Vivian immediately understood.
"She's having contractions."
"I'm not delivering a baby in your car," Chloe added.
The man panicked.
"Get out."
Chloe moved slowly.
Every second mattered.
Inside the warehouse, Richard Croft was tied to a chair.
"Dad!"
Vivian ran toward him.
Richard looked bruised but conscious.
"Vivian."
Chloe saw someone else.
Dominic's lieutenant.
The second man from the diner.
Except now Chloe understood.
He had never been Michael Torres.
He introduced himself as Adrian Vale.
"You caused considerable trouble," he told Chloe.
"I get that a lot."
Richard almost laughed.
Adrian frowned.
"Where is Arthur?"
Chloe shrugged.
"Hopefully somewhere smarter than here."
Vivian's watch vibrated.
Signal sent.
Adrian heard it.
He grabbed her wrist.
Too late.
Across the city, Arthur received her location.
He looked at Dominic.
"You lose."
Dominic's smile disappeared.
Federal agents arrested him before Arthur left the archive.
Arthur reached the warehouse with police eleven minutes later.
No dramatic gunfight followed.
No heroic bloodshed.
Just sirens, commands, surrender, and the collapse of a plan built by men who believed fear made them untouchable.
Arthur found Chloe sitting against a wall.
He ran to her.
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
"The baby?"
"Angry."
Arthur laughed from pure relief.
Then Chloe winced.
His smile vanished.
"What?"
"That one wasn't fake."
"What wasn't fake?"
"The contraction."
Arthur stared.
Vivian shouted for paramedics.
At the hospital, doctors stabilized Chloe.
The baby wasn't coming yet.
Arthur sat beside her.
"You're never leaving a hospital without telling me again."
Chloe raised an eyebrow.
"Excuse me?"
He corrected himself.
"Could you please consider not doing that?"
"Better."
He took her hand.
Dominic was in custody.
Adrian had surrendered.
Richard agreed to cooperate fully.
Victor had come forward.
The empire of secrets was finally cracking.
But one question remained.
Chloe looked at Arthur.
"What happens to us?"
Arthur was quiet.
"I don't know."
She appreciated that answer.
No grand promise.
No decision made for her.
Arthur continued.
"But I know what I want."
"What?"
"You."
Chloe's eyes filled.
"And her."
His hand rested gently beside hers on her stomach.
"But wanting something doesn't mean I'm entitled to it."
Chloe stared at him.
He had learned.
"I need time."
"You have it."
"I need honesty."
"You'll have it."
"And if you ever disappear to protect me again—"
"You'll kill me?"
"No."
She smiled.
"I'll marry someone else."
Arthur looked genuinely horrified.
"That's cruel."
Chloe laughed.
For the first time in months, it didn't hurt.
Then Arthur's phone rang.
Victor.
Arthur answered.
"What's wrong?"
Victor's voice was urgent.
"You need to come to your father's house."
"Why?"
"I found something behind his office wall."
"What?"
"A birth certificate."
Arthur frowned.
"Whose?"
Victor was silent.
Then he said:
"Yours."
Arthur's face changed.
"Arthur?" Chloe whispered.
May you like
Victor continued.
"And Dominic Romano isn't listed as your father."
