Chapter 4 - The Man Who Knew My Mother's Secret
The office went dark.
For three seconds, nobody moved.
The silence was worse than any sound.
I could hear my own breathing.
I could hear the nervous movement of people around me.
And somewhere in the darkness, I heard someone whisper my name.
"Nora..."
It wasn't Roman.
It wasn't Rebecca.
It wasn't one of the guards.
My entire body froze.
Roman moved immediately.
"Stay behind me."
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
The kind of calm that told me he had faced dangerous situations before.
A small light appeared.
One of Roman's men turned on a flashlight.
The room slowly returned.
But something was different.
The memory chip was gone.
My eyes moved to the desk.
The small piece of metal containing my mother's final message had disappeared.
"No."
Rebecca rushed forward.
"It was right here."
Roman looked around the room.
His expression changed.
Not panic.
Anger.
Someone had entered his private office.
Someone had stolen something from him.
That alone was enough to terrify everyone.
But Roman wasn't looking at the missing chip.
He was looking at me.
Because he knew exactly what the thief wanted.
Me.
"What happened?" I asked.
Nobody answered.
I hated that.
Everyone always knew more than me.
My whole life had been built around secrets I wasn't allowed to see.
"My mother knew this would happen."
The words left my mouth quietly.
Roman looked at me.
"What?"
I looked at the empty space on the desk.
"She knew someone would try to take it."
Rebecca's face changed.
"Nora..."
"No."
I shook my head.
"My mother spent years hiding something inside a necklace I wore every day. She recorded a message saying Julian didn't enter my life by accident. She knew someone was watching me."
I looked at Roman.
"So why does everyone keep acting surprised?"
Nobody spoke.
Because they knew I was right.
Roman walked toward the security screens.
"Lock down the building."
His guard immediately answered.
"Yes, sir."
"Nobody leaves."
The command was simple.
But everyone obeyed.
That was when I understood.
Roman Calder wasn't just a powerful businessman.
He was someone people feared.
And somehow...
my mother had trusted him.
A few minutes later, the security footage appeared on the screen.
Roman stood beside me.
Rebecca watched from behind.
The footage showed the hallway outside the office.
The power went out.
The screen went black.
Then, three seconds later, a figure appeared.
A person wearing a dark coat.
Walking calmly.
Not running.
Not hiding.
Like they knew exactly where they were going.
Roman leaned closer.
"Zoom in."
The image became clearer.
The person's face was still hidden.
But something caught my attention.
A ring.
A silver ring on their right hand.
With a small symbol engraved into it.
I felt something familiar.
A memory.
A feeling.
I had seen that symbol before.
"Wait."
Everyone looked at me.
I stepped closer to the screen.
"That ring."
Roman turned.
"You recognize it?"
I swallowed.
"I don't know."
But I did.
Somewhere deep in my memory.
From when I was a child.
From a night my mother told me to forget.
A night I had spent years trying not to remember.
I was eight years old.
My mother had woken me up in the middle of the night.
She was crying.
She packed a small bag.
She told me we were leaving.
I remembered asking why.
She told me:
"Sometimes people who smile at you are the ones you need to run from."
At the time, I thought she was scared.
Now I wondered...
Who was she scared of?
Roman noticed my expression.
"Nora."
I looked at him.
"What?"
"Tell me what you're remembering."
I hesitated.
Because saying it out loud made it real.
"My mother took me away from home once."
Rebecca looked shocked.
"When?"
"When I was eight."
Roman became completely still.
"Where did she take you?"
"I don't know."
I closed my eyes.
"I remember a house."
"What house?"
"I don't know."
Then something came back.
A detail.
A small detail I had forgotten for years.
"There was a door."
Roman waited.
"What kind of door?"
I looked at him.
"Black."
The room went silent.
Rebecca's face changed.
Roman noticed.
"What?"
She looked terrified.
"Celeste had a black door."
Roman turned toward her.
"What are you talking about?"
Rebecca opened her folder quickly.
She pulled out an old document.
"This."
She placed it on the desk.
It was a property record.
My eyes moved down the page.
Then stopped.
The address.
I knew it.
Not because I had visited.
Because my mother had written it in one of her old notebooks.
A place she told me never to search for.
A place she told me never to mention.
"This is the house."
Roman looked at the paper.
"How did you get this?"
Rebecca looked at him.
"Celeste gave it to me."
"Before she died?"
Rebecca nodded.
"She said if anything happened to her, this was the first place we needed to check."
I looked between them.
"Then why didn't you go?"
Rebecca's eyes filled with guilt.
"Because someone got there first."
My stomach tightened.
"What does that mean?"
Rebecca lowered her voice.
"The house was empty."
I waited.
"But your mother's files were gone."
Roman stared at the document.
"Not all of them."
Rebecca looked at him.
"What?"
"Celeste wouldn't leave everything in one place."
Roman looked at me.
"She always had a backup plan."
I thought about my mother.
The woman who hid a message inside a pendant.
The woman who predicted someone would come looking for it.
The woman who trusted a dangerous man to protect me.
She had prepared for this.
But why?
What had she discovered?
And why was Julian part of it?
The office door suddenly opened.
Everyone turned.
One of Roman's guards walked in.
"Boss."
Roman looked up.
"What?"
The guard hesitated.
"We found Julian Bellamy."
My heart dropped.
"Where?"
The guard looked at me.
"He was not downstairs."
Roman's expression darkened.
"Then where was he?"
The guard slowly placed a phone on the desk.
"He left this message."
Roman picked up the phone.
A video file was waiting.
No name.
No timestamp.
Just one word.
"Nora."
I felt cold.
Roman pressed play.
Julian appeared on the screen.
Older.
Tired.
Afraid.
Not the confident man I remembered.
He looked directly into the camera.
"Nora, if you're seeing this, then Roman already knows."
My breath caught.
Julian continued.
"I know you hate me."
I almost laughed.
Hate wasn't the right word.
I had spent years trying not to feel anything about him.
"But you need to understand something."
His eyes moved away from the camera.
Like he was afraid someone was listening.
"I didn't leave you because I stopped loving you."
The room became silent.
"I left because they threatened your life."
My heart stopped.
Roman stepped closer to the screen.
"Who?"
Julian looked terrified.
Then he said the words that changed everything.
"The person who ordered me to marry Nora..."
The video glitched.
Julian looked behind him.
Like someone had entered the room.
Then the screen froze.
Roman immediately grabbed the phone.
"Trace this."
His men moved.
I stared at the frozen image.
Julian's face.
The fear in his eyes.
The unfinished sentence.
The truth waiting behind it.
Then Rebecca noticed something.
A reflection in the corner of the video.
A person standing behind Julian.
She whispered:
"No..."
Roman looked at her.
"What?"
Rebecca stepped closer to the screen.
Her face turned pale.
"That person..."
She pointed at the reflection.
"I know who that is."
The lights flickered again.
And Roman's phone suddenly received a message.
One line.
From the same unknown number.
Roman read it.
Then his expression changed completely.
May you like
Because the message contained only six words:
"She is standing behind Nora."
