Chapter 4 - The Child Roman Couldn't Save
Roman asked me to walk with him.
We went to the hospital chapel.
He didn't pray.
He simply sat in the last row.
“My sister was seventeen when she got pregnant,” he said.
I remained silent.
“Her name was Lucia.”
The DeLuca family had been poor then.
Roman was eighteen.
Their father worked the docks.
Their mother cleaned hotel rooms.
Lucia's boyfriend disappeared when she told him about the pregnancy.
“She wanted the baby anyway.”
Roman rubbed the cracked bracelet between his fingers.
“Matteo was born eight weeks early.”
The hospital bills destroyed the family.
Then Lucia developed an infection.
She died twelve days after giving birth.
Roman had promised her one thing.
Protect Matteo.
But Roman's father had other plans.
A distant family was arranged to adopt the baby.
Roman fought him.
Lost.
“I was eighteen,” Roman said. “No money. No power.”
“Where does Anna fit?”
“Anna Bell was Lucia's best friend.”
Anna had visited Matteo every day.
Before the adoption, she had taken the photograph.
Roman had kept searching afterward.
For years.
But records had been sealed.
Names changed.
Then his life became something darker.
“I built enough power to find anyone.”
“But you never found Matteo.”
Roman shook his head.
“Anna did.”
I understood.
“Noah's mother.”
“She must have found him.”
Roman looked toward the chapel doors.
“That photograph proves she knew where my nephew went.”
“Then why didn't she contact you?”
His expression hardened.
“Maybe she tried.”
That sentence changed everything.
Roman called one of his men.
“Find every letter, phone record and storage unit belonging to Anna Reed.”
The voice on the other end asked something.
Roman's answer was terrifyingly calm.
May you like
“Tonight.”
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