Chapter 7 - THE FATHER WHO CAME BACK
Roman’s first instinct was to run to Nicholas.
His second was to kill Anthony.
He did neither.
Because Nicholas was watching.
Roman slowly crouched.
“Hi, buddy.”
Nicholas held the wooden train against his chest.
He was smaller than Sophie.
Roman had imagined a thousand first moments with a son after learning Nicholas existed.
None included Anthony standing behind him.
Nicholas looked over his shoulder.
Anthony said, “Go ahead.”
Roman hated that Nicholas needed permission.
The boy came down two steps.
Stopped.
Roman remained still.
“My name is Roman.”
Nicholas frowned.
“Daddy.”
Roman’s throat tightened.
“Yeah.”
Nicholas descended the rest of the staircase.
Roman did not grab him.
He held out one hand.
Nicholas stared at it.
Then placed three small fingers across Roman’s palm.
Roman nearly broke.
Instead he smiled.
“You like trains?”
Nicholas nodded.
“Blue ones.”
“I can see that.”
“Grandpa says you have cars.”
Roman looked up at Anthony.
“I do.”
Nicholas whispered, “Fast?”
“Some.”
The boy considered that acceptable.
Roman removed the red flannel scrap from his pocket.
“Sophie gave you this.”
Nicholas’s face brightened.
“Sophie!”
He took it immediately and pressed it against his cheek.
Roman understood then.
The cloth had never been random.
Sophie and Nicholas had both used scraps from Tessa’s old shirt as comfort objects after she found them at Hawthorne.
An ordinary piece of fabric had become proof somebody outside the locked doors had once been kind to them.
Anthony started down the stairs.
Roman rose.
“Stay there.”
Anthony stopped.
Nicholas flinched.
Roman immediately lowered his voice.
“Not you, buddy.”
He looked at Eleanor.
“Take Nicholas into the kitchen.”
Anthony smiled.
“He barely knows her.”
Eleanor’s face collapsed.
Nicholas looked uncertain.
Roman crouched again.
“Grandma Eleanor is going to get you something to eat.”
Nicholas whispered, “She gets mad.”
Eleanor went white.
Roman’s eyes moved to her.
Nicholas continued.
“When Mommy cries.”
Eleanor knelt several feet away.
“I did.”
Her voice shook.
“I was wrong.”
A two-year-old did not understand accountability.
But Nicholas understood tone.
After a moment, he took Eleanor’s hand.
Roman watched them enter the kitchen.
Then he turned toward Anthony.
The warmth left his face.
“You took my family.”
Anthony leaned on his cane.
“I kept them alive.”
“No.”
Roman stepped closer.
“You kidnapped Lena and Sophie.”
“I prevented Lena from exposing you.”
“You took Nicholas.”
“From Eleanor.”
“You don’t get credit for stealing my son from the woman who stole him from his mother.”
Anthony smiled faintly.
“There’s the D’Angelo temper.”
Roman almost hit him.
Marianne’s voice returned in his head.
Fatherhood is what a man does when nobody is watching.
Roman stepped back.
“You asked me to bring Eleanor.”
“Yes.”
“She’s here.”
“Because she knows where Gabriel hid the ledger.”
Eleanor heard him from the kitchen.
“No.”
Anthony turned.
“Still lying?”
Eleanor walked back into the room.
Nicholas stayed behind the doorway eating crackers.
“I never knew,” Eleanor said.
Anthony’s expression hardened.
“Gabriel told Samuel Mercer.”
Caleb entered through the side door.
Gun lowered.
“My father died without telling me.”
Anthony laughed.
“Samuel always was dramatic.”
Caleb’s face changed.
“My father died because your men beat him for three days.”
Nicholas looked around the doorway.
Roman immediately raised a hand.
“Not here.”
Caleb stopped.
That was the difference now.
Everything stopped when the children were watching.
Anthony noticed.
“You’ve gotten soft.”
Roman looked at him.
“No. I finally learned what strength is for.”
Anthony’s smile disappeared.
Roman pointed toward the recorder.
“Marianne said Gabriel found the ledger.”
“Yes.”
“What’s in it?”
“Names. Payments. Judges. Police. Businesses. Every promise that built what you inherited.”
Roman understood.
Anthony had not stayed hidden merely to survive.
He stayed hidden because the ledger could destroy people who had spent twenty-six years believing it was gone.
“And you want it.”
“I want what belongs to me.”
Roman almost laughed.
“My name?”
Anthony said nothing.
“My family?”
Nothing.
“My son?”
Anthony’s jaw tightened.
There it was.
Ownership.
Exactly as Marianne described.
Roman continued.
“You don’t want the ledger to protect anyone. You want leverage.”
Anthony lifted his chin.
“Leverage is protection.”
“No.”
Roman glanced toward Nicholas.
“Leverage is what you call love when you’ve forgotten the difference.”
Anthony swung the cane.
Fast.
The blade hidden inside it flashed.
Caleb moved.
Roman moved faster.
He caught Anthony’s wrist.
They crashed into the table.
The old man was stronger than he looked.
But he was still old.
Roman twisted the blade away.
Anthony grunted.
Nicholas screamed.
Everything stopped.
Roman released Anthony immediately.
He turned.
Nicholas stood crying in the doorway.
Roman dropped to his knees.
“Hey. Hey, buddy.”
Nicholas backed away.
Roman did not follow.
“No one’s hurting you.”
Anthony laughed behind him.
“You can’t promise that.”
Roman looked over his shoulder.
“I can promise he won’t learn fear from me.”
Eleanor picked Nicholas up.
This time he allowed it.
Tessa’s voice came from the front porch.
“Roman!”
She entered with Lena behind her.
Roman stared.
“You were supposed to stay at Hawthorne.”
Lena looked past him.
Nicholas saw her.
“Mommy!”
He struggled out of Eleanor’s arms and ran.
Lena dropped to her knees.
Nicholas collided with her so hard they nearly fell.
She held him.
Not elegantly.
Not gently.
Desperately.
Sophie ran in behind Tessa.
“Nicky!”
Nicholas reached for her.
Roman stood watching his family hold each other.
For the first time in three years, all four were in the same room.
Anthony looked almost disappointed.
Lena lifted her face.
Roman saw the decision there.
“I remembered something.”
She removed a small silver necklace from beneath her blouse.
A heart-shaped locket.
Roman had given it to her on their first anniversary.
Inside was a photograph of them.
But Lena opened a hidden second panel.
A tiny paper fragment sat beneath the picture.
Roman frowned.
“What is that?”
“Gabriel’s handwriting.”
Anthony’s face changed.
Lena looked at him.
“That’s what you’ve been looking for.”
Roman unfolded the paper.
Three words.
BENEATH HIS NAME.
Roman stared.
Then he understood.
The mausoleum.
Gabriel’s body.
Buried under Anthony’s name.
The ledger was not in the Vale house.
It had been with Gabriel for twenty-six years.
Anthony moved toward the door.
Caleb blocked him.
Roman looked at Lena.
“You knew?”
“Not until Marianne’s recording.”
“How?”
Lena touched the locket.
“Gabriel gave this to Marianne before the crash. Marianne gave it to Eleanor. Eleanor gave it to me on our wedding day.”
Roman turned toward Eleanor.
“You knew the paper was inside?”
Eleanor shook her head.
“No.”
For once, Roman believed her immediately.
Then Anthony laughed.
Softly.
Everyone looked at him.
“You’re all too late.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
May you like
Anthony glanced at the clock.
“I opened Gabriel’s grave before you ever reached Pennsylvania.”
