Chapter 4 - The Woman They Came to Take
Josephine stopped breathing.
"What do you mean gone?"
Roman was already moving.
Dominic called after him.
"Leaving so soon?"
Roman turned.
The expression on his face silenced the entire ballroom.
"If you've touched my sons—"
Dominic raised both hands.
"I've been standing here."
Roman looked at Josephine.
They understood at the same moment.
The meeting had been a distraction.
They raced back to the mansion.
The playroom was empty.
The wooden train remained on the carpet.
One small red engine lay on its side.
Josephine picked it up.
Her hands shook.
Roman stood in the doorway.
Daniel approached.
"Security footage."
They watched it.
Marcus entered the playroom at 12:04.
He spoke to the boys.
Luca resisted.
Marcus showed him something on his phone.
Then both children followed him.
No force.
No struggle.
Josephine watched again.
"What did he show them?"
Daniel enhanced the frame.
A photograph.
Josephine.
Bound to a chair.
Roman's face went cold.
"He told them she was in danger."
Josephine whispered, "They went with him to save me."
Roman closed his eyes.
For one second.
Then he became the man his enemies feared.
"Find Marcus."
They traced his vehicle.
Abandoned.
A second camera captured another car.
Dr. Adrian Cole was driving.
Roman looked at Daniel.
"Cole and Marcus are working together."
Josephine shook her head.
"Marcus pointed the gun at me, but he lowered it. He warned us about Carbone."
"That doesn't make him innocent."
"No. But something doesn't fit."
Roman looked at her.
She picked up Matteo's yellow sweater from the sofa.
"Marcus could have taken them anytime. Why tonight?"
Daniel answered.
"Because Roman removed him from command."
Josephine looked at Roman.
"Or because somebody wanted us to believe Marcus took them."
Roman stared at the screen again.
Marcus's posture.
His expression.
He wasn't relaxed.
He kept looking behind him.
"He's being watched," Roman said.
Daniel nodded slowly.
A message arrived.
Unknown number.
Roman opened it.
A photograph showed Luca and Matteo sitting together.
Alive.
Behind them was a concrete wall.
Text followed.
THE LEDGER FOR THE BOYS.
MIDNIGHT TOMORROW.
JOSEPHINE COMES ALONE.
Roman almost crushed the phone.
Josephine read it.
"I'm going."
"No."
"We already had this argument."
"This one ends differently."
"They have your children."
"And I'm not trading you for them."
"They're children!"
Roman's voice rose for the first time.
"And you're not disposable!"
Silence.
Josephine stared at him.
Roman looked away.
The words had escaped before he could control them.
Josephine stepped closer.
"Roman."
He said nothing.
She touched his hand.
His fingers slowly closed around hers.
"I'll get them back," she whispered.
"We will."
They spent the next hours tracing the photograph.
Daniel identified industrial insulation in the background.
Josephine noticed something else.
A painted blue stripe.
She had seen it before.
"Wait."
Roman looked at her.
"When my mother was alive, she worked evenings at a storage facility."
"What facility?"
"Bell Freight."
Daniel searched.
The company had closed twenty years earlier.
Its warehouse still existed.
Owned through a shell corporation.
Roman asked, "Whose?"
Daniel looked up.
"Carbone."
They went before dawn.
Roman refused to let Josephine enter first.
She refused to stay behind.
They compromised by arguing all the way to the door.
Inside, the warehouse appeared abandoned.
Then Josephine heard it.
A child coughing.
"Matteo."
She ran.
Roman caught up.
They found the boys in an office.
Marcus sat beside the door.
Blood stained his shirt from a wound at his shoulder, but he was conscious.
Roman stopped.
Marcus raised empty hands.
"I didn't take them."
Luca ran to Josephine.
Matteo followed.
She dropped to her knees and held both boys.
Roman's entire body seemed to release a breath.
Then he turned to Marcus.
"Explain."
"Cole came to the house. He had two men with him. They made me bring the boys out."
"Why didn't you fight?"
Marcus looked at Luca.
"Because Cole had a weapon against his back."
Roman's face hardened.
"Where is Cole?"
"Gone."
"Why leave you here?"
Marcus laughed bitterly.
"Because I'm supposed to be dead."
Roman crouched beside him.
Marcus reached into his pocket.
He produced a phone.
"I recorded them."
Roman played the audio.
Cole's voice.
Another man's voice.
Not Dominic.
Josephine recognized it from nowhere.
Roman did.
His expression changed.
"Who?" Josephine asked.
Roman replayed it.
The man said:
Once Roman kills Dominic, both sides collapse.
Then we take the ledger and the girl.
Josephine looked at Roman.
"Who is that?"
Roman stood.
"My attorney."
Samuel Price.
A man who had represented Roman for fourteen years.
A man with access to his finances.
His house.
His father's records.
His sons' medical information.
Everything.
Marcus whispered, "Price has been feeding Carbone information and feeding you lies."
Roman called Daniel.
No answer.
He called again.
Nothing.
Marcus looked worried.
"Daniel was with Price tonight."
Roman's phone rang.
Daniel.
Roman answered.
A strange voice spoke.
"Mr. Price would like his ledger."
Roman's eyes hardened.
"And Daniel?"
A pause.
"Still useful."
The call ended.
Josephine held the boys tighter.
Marcus struggled to stand.
Roman helped him.
"You pointed a weapon at Josephine."
Marcus looked ashamed.
"I thought she was carrying a tracker. Cole told me Carbone had planted it on her. I panicked."
"You could have asked."
"I know."
Josephine looked at him.
"Why tell me to step away from the boys?"
Marcus lowered his eyes.
"Because I thought the tracker was bringing armed men toward them."
Roman said nothing.
Marcus added, "I was wrong."
Josephine believed him.
Roman wasn't ready to.
They returned home through a secondary route.
Roman doubled security.
The boys refused to let Josephine leave their room.
She sat between their beds until both slept.
Roman appeared at the door.
For once he looked tired.
Not powerful.
Not dangerous.
Just tired.
"They love you," he said.
Josephine pulled the blanket over Matteo.
"I love them."
Roman looked at her.
The words landed differently than she intended.
She stood.
"Roman—"
"I know."
But he didn't move.
Neither did she.
"You said I wasn't disposable."
"You're not."
"Because of the ledger?"
"No."
"My mother?"
"No."
"Your father's agreement?"
"No."
Josephine's heart beat faster.
"Then why?"
Roman looked toward his sleeping sons.
Then back at her.
"Because somewhere between Matteo hiding your shoes and Luca pretending he didn't need you, you became part of this house."
Josephine smiled faintly.
"This house?"
Roman stepped closer.
"My family."
The word hung between them.
Josephine's eyes filled.
Roman lifted his hand, hesitated, then touched her cheek.
She leaned into it.
For one quiet second, the entire violent world outside disappeared.
Then someone knocked.
Marcus.
He held an envelope.
"We found this in Price's office."
Roman opened it.
Inside was a DNA report.
Josephine saw her name.
Then Patrick Tierney's.
Roman read the result.
His face went white.
Josephine took the paper.
Probability of paternity: 0%.
She exhaled.
Patrick wasn't her father.
But another page remained.
Roman turned it over.
A second name was printed there.
Josephine read it.
Then she looked at Roman.
May you like
Because the man listed as her biological father was still alive.
And he was standing outside the bedroom door.
