Chapter 5 - ELEVEN YEARS OF SILENCE
Z
Roman returned to his childhood home for the first time in four years.
The house stood on a quiet street in Westchester, surrounded by trees his mother had planted.
He had kept it maintained.
He had never been able to sell it.
Julian's bedroom remained almost unchanged.
A faded baseball pennant hung above the bed.
A guitar stood in the corner.
On the desk sat a photograph of two boys standing beside a fishing boat.
Roman was sixteen.
Julian was eleven.
Both were laughing.
Roman picked up the photograph.
“I should have looked harder,” he whispered.
Narelli stood in the doorway.
She had insisted on accompanying him after Meredith advised that they remain somewhere secure while investigators followed the new leads.
“You believed what the authorities told you,” she said.
Roman shook his head.
“I believed what was convenient.”
He looked at her.
“My brother was fighting with me before the crash.”
“About what?”
“The company.”
Roman sat on the bed.
“Our father had just died. I wanted Julian to finish college before taking any responsibility.”
“And he disagreed?”
“He thought I was trying to control him.”
Narelli said nothing.
Roman continued.
“He told me I was becoming exactly like our father.”
His voice broke.
“I told him he was too irresponsible to understand what I was carrying.”
“What happened?”
“He left.”
Roman looked down.
“That was the last time I saw him.”
Narelli sat beside him.
“My father used to say that the last argument isn't the whole relationship.”
Roman turned toward her.
She smiled sadly.
“He died when I was seventeen. The last thing I said to him was that he never listened.”
Roman swallowed.
“I'm sorry.”
“So am I.”
She looked at the photograph.
“But he knew I loved him.”
Roman closed his eyes.
He wanted desperately to believe the same was true of Julian.
Later that evening, Meredith called.
Investigators had identified a possible location connected to the photograph.
A private medical facility in Pennsylvania.
The property had once belonged to a charitable foundation associated with Elliot Vane.
Roman stared at the phone.
“Is Julian there?”
“We don't know yet.”
“Then what do we know?”
Meredith hesitated.
“The facility operated a residential treatment program under a series of different names.”
Roman's stomach tightened.
“For what?”
“Neurological rehabilitation and psychiatric care.”
He looked toward Narelli.
She had gone pale.
Meredith continued.
“Roman, there are indications that someone matching Julian's description lived there under an assumed name.”
Roman gripped the phone.
“What name?”
Meredith answered.
“Daniel Ward.”
Roman closed his eyes.
Daniel was their father's first name.
Ward was their mother's maiden name.
Julian had chosen a name that belonged to both of them.
May you like
Or someone had chosen it for him.
Either possibility terrified Roman.
