Chapter 3 - Fifty-Eight Minutes Late
Thursday evening changed everything.
7:10 came.
Roman didn't.
Lily stared at the clock.
7:15.
7:20.
7:30.
She pretended not to care.
"Maybe traffic."
"Probably."
"Or mafia business."
"Lily."
"What? Everyone knows."
I tried not to smile.
By eight o'clock, she stopped pretending.
"He's not coming."
"I'm sure there's an explanation."
"You don't know that."
"No."
She turned toward the window.
"People always say they'll come back."
My chest tightened.
"Lily—"
"My mom said she was going to get coffee."
I froze.
"That was the last thing she said before she disappeared."
I sat beside her bed.
"Lily..."
"Don't."
She pulled the blanket higher.
"Don't tell me she's struggling. Don't tell me adults have problems. I know."
Her voice shook.
"I just want one person to do what they say."
At 8:08, the elevator doors opened.
Roman ran into the hallway.
Actually ran.
His black coat was soaked.
Blood marked one knuckle.
Security moved toward him.
"I'm fine," he snapped.
Then he saw me.
"Lily?"
"Room fourteen."
He moved past me.
I caught his arm.
"You're fifty-eight minutes late."
His face changed.
"She counted?"
"Every minute."
Roman entered.
Lily stared at him.
"You're late."
"I know."
"Fifty-eight minutes."
"I know."
"You said you'd come."
"I did."
"You almost didn't."
Roman stopped beside her bed.
Then he did something none of us expected.
He lowered himself to one knee.
"I'm sorry."
Lily stared.
Roman Voss didn't look dangerous anymore.
He looked afraid.
"Why were you late?"
He glanced toward me.
I understood.
I stepped into the hallway but left the door partly open.
Inside, Lily crossed her arms.
"Well?"
Roman removed the leather cord from beneath his shirt.
A small silver key hung from it.
Lily stared.
"That's it?"
Roman sat.
"That's what I've been hiding."
"A key?"
"Yes."
"To what?"
"A box."
"What's in it?"
Roman pulled an old photograph from his coat.
Two teenagers stood beside a lake.
One was clearly Roman.
The other was a dark-haired girl with curly hair and a huge smile.
Lily stared.
Her face went pale.
"That's my mom."
Roman nodded.
"Her name was Shelby Mercer."
Lily looked up.
"You knew her?"
Roman took a breath.
"She's my sister."
Silence.
Lily blinked.
"What?"
"Your mother is my younger sister."
"You're lying."
"I'm not."
"My mom never said she had a brother."
"I know."
"Why?"
"Because she hated me."
Lily stared at him.
Roman placed the photograph on her blanket.
"We grew up together. Our father wasn't a good man."
"What kind of bad?"
Roman looked down.
"The kind children spend their whole lives trying not to become."
Lily didn't speak.
"I was older. I thought protecting Shelby meant controlling everything around her. Who she saw. Where she went. What she did."
"You were mean to her?"
"Yes."
"Did you hurt her?"
Roman's jaw tightened.
"Not with my hands."
"That doesn't answer the question."
Roman nodded slowly.
"I scared her."
Lily stared at the photo.
"So she left."
"At seventeen."
"And you didn't find her?"
"I tried."
"For how long?"
"Nineteen years."
Lily's eyes filled.
"Then how did you find me?"
Roman looked toward the silver key.
"Your mother contacted me two months ago."
Lily's head snapped up.
"She's alive?"
"Yes."
"Where is she?"
Roman hesitated.
"She asked me for money first."
Lily's face hardened.
"Of course."
"Then she told me about you."
Lily looked away.
"She always needed money."
Roman's voice softened.
"She also told me she was afraid."
"Of what?"
"That you were dying before she could fix herself."
Lily went still.
Roman continued.
"She's in treatment."
"What treatment?"
"Rehabilitation."
Lily stared at him.
"For drugs?"
Roman nodded.
Tears rolled down her face.
"She left me for rehab?"
"No."
"She left."
"Yes."
"She didn't tell me."
"No."
"Then she abandoned me."
Roman didn't lie.
"She failed you."
Lily looked at him, surprised.
He continued.
"But failing someone doesn't mean you stop loving them."
"That's easy for you to say."
"No, it isn't."
Roman held up the silver key.
"This opens a box in my house. Inside are every letter Shelby sent me after she ran away."
"She wrote to you?"
"For years."
"Why didn't you answer?"
That question hit harder.
Roman stared at the floor.
"I was angry."
Lily wiped her cheeks.
"So you ignored her."
"Yes."
"Then you're both terrible."
Roman nodded.
"Yes."
Lily almost smiled through her tears.
At least he had told the truth.
Then she whispered:
"Does that mean you're really my uncle?"
Roman looked at her.
"Unfortunately."
Lily laughed once.
A broken little laugh.
Then she opened her arms.
Roman froze.
"Come here."
He didn't move.
Lily sighed.
"You look more scared than I do."
Roman slowly leaned forward.
She wrapped her arms around his neck.
His hands hovered.
Then settled carefully against her back.
May you like
Roman closed his eyes.
And the man everyone feared began to cry.
