Chapter 1 - The Woman I Thought I Had Lost
At exactly 10:07 p.m., Roman DeLuca receives four words that silence an entire room of armed men.
“Boss, we found Claire.”
Claire Bennett is Roman’s ex-wife, the only woman he has ever truly loved and the woman he divorced six months earlier because he believed keeping her beside him would put her life in danger.
But Marco’s next words change everything.
Claire has been found unconscious at a bus stop near Ashland and Division.
And she is nineteen weeks pregnant.
Roman rushes her to his Gold Coast home, where Dr. Lila Chen reveals that Claire is severely malnourished and dehydrated. Roman learns that the woman who once lived surrounded by luxury has been working two jobs, counting coins outside pharmacies, choosing between food, electricity, and prenatal vitamins.
Roman cannot understand how Claire became so desperate.
He had arranged for her to receive more than enough money after their divorce.
He had believed she was safe.
He had believed she wanted nothing to do with him.
Then Dr. Chen shows Roman a document from Claire’s medical file.
At the bottom is a signature Roman recognizes immediately.
The signature belongs to someone currently living beneath his roof.
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And in that moment, Roman realizes Claire did not simply disappear from his life.
Someone erased her.
