Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO VANISHED
Twenty-three years earlier, Roman Miller had been Roman Bellini.
She was twenty-four, working as a bookkeeper for a shipping company on the Brooklyn waterfront.
Salvatore Moretti was twenty-nine.
He had inherited a criminal empire he hadn't wanted and a family name he couldn't escape.
They met when Roman discovered missing money in one of his legitimate businesses.
She walked into his office carrying a ledger.
“You have a thief,” she announced.
Salvatore looked up.
“Excuse me?”
“Someone's stealing from your company.”
His guards reached toward their jackets.
Roman ignored them.
“And if you fire me for telling you, you'll still have a thief.”
Salvatore stared.
Then laughed.
It was the first time he'd laughed in months.
Six months later, they were in love.
A year later, he gave her a silver ring.
Not an engagement ring.
A promise.
The two-headed hawk represented his family.
The thorned rose represented hers.
And the crescent was their private symbol.
A reminder of the night he'd proposed beneath a half-moon.
Roman accepted.
They planned to marry quietly.
But Salvatore's uncle, Vittorio Moretti, opposed the marriage.
Roman was an outsider.
She knew too much about the company's finances.
And she had discovered evidence that Vittorio was stealing from the Moretti empire.
One night, Roman received a warning.
Leave Brooklyn.
Disappear.
Or Salvatore would die.
She refused.
Three days later, Salvatore's car exploded outside a warehouse.
The police found wreckage.
Blood.
And a burned jacket identified as his.
Vittorio told Roman that Salvatore was dead.
Then he showed her a photograph.
Salvatore lying unconscious in a hospital bed.
The photograph was real.
The story wasn't.
Vittorio had arranged the attack.
Salvatore survived.
But Roman didn't know.
She was already pregnant.
And Vittorio knew.
He gave her a choice.
Disappear with the child.
Or lose them both.
Roman fled Brooklyn.
Changed her surname.
And raised Griffin alone.
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For twenty-two years, she believed Salvatore Moretti was dead.
Until her daughter walked into the bedroom carrying his business card.
