Chapter 6 - What Roman’s Mother Left Behind
Roman slowly turned toward Dominic.
Dominic did not reach for his gun.
That saved his life.
“Explain.”
“I can’t.”
Roman crossed the room.
“Wrong answer.”
Nora stepped between them.
“Roman.”
“Move.”
“No.”
His eyes flashed.
Nora held her ground.
“If Dominic wanted you dead, he’s had fourteen years.”
Dominic exhaled.
“Listen to her.”
Roman’s stare could have cut steel.
“Careful.”
Dominic nodded.
The video continued behind them.
Vincent’s recorded voice said, “Dominic knows where Isabella’s letters are.”
Roman looked at him.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Since before your father died.”
Roman struck him.
Dominic fell against the desk.
Nora flinched.
Roman grabbed his collar.
“Fourteen years.”
“I promised Isabella.”
“You knew my mother?”
Dominic looked at him.
“She saved my life.”
Roman released him.
Dominic wiped blood from his mouth.
“I was seventeen. My father worked the docks. Charles Sterling ordered him killed after he discovered shipments were being used to move women through Baltimore.”
Nora went pale.
“Human trafficking?”
Dominic nodded.
“Vincent found out. Gabriel Moretti found out. Isabella found out. Sarah Hayes treated one of the victims at St. Agnes.”
The pieces aligned.
“The harbor massacre,” Nora whispered.
Dominic nodded.
“Charles killed everyone who could expose him.”
“Except Sarah,” Roman said.
“She escaped with evidence.”
“And my mother?”
“Isabella tried to get you out.”
Roman looked away.
“Who is my father?”
Dominic said nothing.
Roman turned back.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I know Charles isn’t. I know Vincent wasn’t.”
Roman absorbed the second blow.
Vincent Calder had raised him.
Poorly.
Cruelly.
But Roman had believed they shared blood.
Dominic continued.
“Isabella hid letters before she died.”
“Where?”
“Inside the chapel.”
The mansion chapel had been closed for years.
Roman unlocked it.
Dust covered the pews.
Behind a loose stone near the altar, they found a metal container.
Inside were seventeen letters.
All addressed:
MY ROMY.
Roman sat.
He could not open the first.
Nora did.
Only after he nodded.
“My sweetest boy,” she read. “If you ever receive these letters, it means I failed to give you the childhood I wanted.”
Roman closed his eyes.
Nora continued.
“You were born from love, not violence, not business, and not obligation. Never let anyone rewrite that.”
Another letter.
“Your father’s name must remain hidden until Charles is gone. He will use you to control him.”
Roman opened that one himself.
At the bottom:
Your father chose exile so you could live.
He has watched from far away.
Forgive us.
Roman stood.
“I need air.”
Nora followed him into the corridor.
“You don’t have to solve your entire life tonight.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No.”
He turned.
She looked exhausted but unafraid.
“You spent years surviving answers you didn’t have. You can survive one more night.”
Roman stared at her.
“Why are you being kind to me?”
The question surprised her.
“Because you need it.”
“That’s not how my world works.”
“Maybe that’s the problem.”
For a moment, neither moved.
Then Caleb appeared in dinosaur pajamas.
“I had a nightmare.”
Nora immediately knelt.
Roman watched her comfort him.
Caleb looked at Roman.
“Did you have one too?”
Roman almost denied it.
“Yes.”
Caleb nodded solemnly.
“You can sit with us.”
So Roman Calder, feared across Baltimore, sat on the hallway floor at two in the morning while a nine-year-old explained that nightmares became weaker if you told someone they were stupid.
Nora laughed.
Roman did too.
It was brief.
But real.
Then every alarm in the mansion activated.
Dominic ran toward them.
“Security breach.”
Roman stood.
“Where?”
“The chapel.”
They returned.
The letters were gone.
On the altar sat one white rose.
Evelyn’s wedding flower.
Beneath it:
YOU HAVE SOMETHING I WANT.
I HAVE SOMEONE YOU NEED.
Roman checked Caleb.
Safe.
Nora.
Safe.
Dominic.
Here.
Then Roman understood.
“Dr. Mercer.”
Dominic called.
No answer.
The doctor had treated Nora.
He had also taken her blood.
Roman looked at her.
“Why would they need your blood?”
Nora’s face changed.
“My mother once told me never to donate blood.”
“Why?”
“She said our family had a rare condition.”
“What condition?”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic’s phone rang.
He answered.
Then slowly lowered it.
“Dr. Mercer’s car was found.”
“Where?”
“Pier Twelve.”
“Body?”
“No.”
Roman’s phone vibrated.
A video.
Dr. Mercer sat restrained.
Charles Sterling stepped into frame.
Older than his funeral photograph.
Very much alive.
“Hello, Roman.”
Roman’s expression hardened.
Charles smiled.
“You have spent your life wondering who you are.”
He held up a vial.
Nora’s blood.
“Tomorrow, I will finally tell you.”
He moved closer to the camera.
“But first, ask Nora why Sarah Hayes changed her daughter’s birth certificate.”
Nora went still.
Roman looked at her.
Charles smiled.
“Ask her why Nora Hayes was born Nora Moretti.”
The video ended.
Then someone knocked on the mansion’s front door.
Three slow knocks.
Roman’s guards surrounded it.
A woman called from outside.
“Nora?”
Nora stopped breathing.
May you like
She knew the voice.
It belonged to her dead mother.
