Chapter 3 - THE WIFE WHO VANISHED
Silas Romano learned his wife was missing at 2:17 in the morning.
He was standing in his penthouse study when Tommy entered without knocking.
“Boss.”
Silas looked up.
“Did you find her?”
Tommy's face was pale.
“No.”
Silas set down his glass.
“What do you mean, no?”
“She left the restaurant in a taxi. The driver says he dropped her near the Costello estate.”
Silas went still.
“Vincent's house?”
Tommy nodded.
“There was a fire.”
For a moment, Silas heard nothing.
Then he grabbed his coat.
“Get the car.”
By the time they arrived, firefighters were working beneath portable floodlights.
The mansion was blackened.
Police tape stretched across the driveway.
An ambulance waited near the gate.
Silas stepped out.
A detective approached.
“Sir, you can't go inside.”
“My wife was here.”
“Name?”
“Carmela Romano.”
The detective studied him.
“Are you related to Vincent Costello?”
“He's my father-in-law.”
The detective's expression changed.
“We found a body.”
Silas felt a cold pressure beneath his ribs.
“Whose?”
“We haven't confirmed identification.”
“Was it a woman?”
The detective hesitated.
“No. An older man.”
Silas looked toward the ruined mansion.
Vincent.
He had expected the old man to die eventually.
He had even imagined how much easier certain negotiations would become afterward.
But he had not expected this.
Not tonight.
“Where's Carmela?” he demanded.
“We don't know.”
Silas turned toward Tommy.
“Find her.”
Tommy nodded.
“Everywhere.”
Silas grabbed his arm.
“I mean everywhere.”
For the first time in years, Tommy saw genuine fear in his boss's eyes.
By morning, Carmela's disappearance dominated local news.
The daughter of a powerful shipping magnate.
The wife of an influential businessman.
Missing after a suspicious fire that had apparently killed her father.
Reporters gathered outside the Romano penthouse.
Silas issued a statement.
“My wife is the most important person in my life. I ask anyone with information to contact the authorities.”
The words were perfect.
His expression was grave.
The cameras captured every second.
But when he returned upstairs, the penthouse was silent.
Carmela's shoes stood beside the entryway.
A book lay open on the coffee table.
Her favorite ceramic mug sat in the kitchen.
Silas stared at these ordinary objects.
He had never noticed how much space she occupied.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
Her presence had softened the sharp edges of his home.
She remembered birthdays.
She knew which employees had children.
She brought flowers into rooms he barely entered.
He had mistaken all of it for weakness.
Now the silence felt unbearable.
Khloe arrived that afternoon.
She wore sunglasses and a fitted cream coat.
“Darling,” she said, embracing him, “this is awful.”
Silas barely responded.
Khloe stepped back.
“Have they found anything?”
“No.”
She touched his chest.
“At least Vincent's death simplifies the port situation.”
Silas stared at her.
“What?”
Khloe blinked.
“I only mean the negotiations—”
“My wife is missing.”
“I know.”
“Then stop talking about the ports.”
Her expression hardened.
“Silas, don't take this out on me.”
He looked at her.
For the first time, her beauty seemed strangely empty.
He remembered her laughing in the lounge.
Calling Carmela embarrassing.
He remembered laughing too.
A cold thought entered his mind.
What if Carmela had heard them?
He turned toward Tommy.
“Find out whether anyone saw my wife outside the private lounge.”
Tommy hesitated.
“Why?”
“Because I want to know what happened before she left.”
Later that night, Silas opened Carmela's closet.
Rows of carefully arranged dresses hung beneath soft lights.
He recognized almost none of them.
On the dressing table lay a small notebook.
He opened it.
The first pages contained grocery lists, appointment reminders, and charity plans.
Then he found a sentence written in neat handwriting.
I keep trying to become someone he can love.
Silas stopped breathing.
Below it was another.
Maybe the problem isn't my body. Maybe it's that he never intended to love me.
He sat down slowly.
For the first time, the words he had spoken in the restaurant returned with their full weight.
She's a shield.
A useful one.
May you like
Silas closed the notebook.
And in the silence of his wife's empty room, he realized he had no idea who Carmela truly was.
