Chapter 7 - THE PROMISE ROMAN NEVER FORGOT
Roman Bellamy was standing alone in his office when Tessa arrived.
The office occupied the top floor of a restored building overlooking the Hudson.
There were no gold decorations.
No extravagant paintings.
Only dark wood, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a photograph of a woman sitting beside a little boy on a beach.
Tessa recognized Roman immediately.
He couldn't have been older than eight.
“Your mother?” she asked.
Roman nodded.
“She died when I was fifteen.”
Tessa placed her father's letter on his desk.
“Explain this.”
Roman read it.
For the first time since meeting him, she saw his composure fracture.
“Where did you get this?”
“Grand Central.”
“Your father wrote it?”
“Yes.”
Roman sat slowly.
Tessa remained standing.
“What promise?”
He stared at the letter.
Then he said, “When I was nineteen, I discovered my father had been using his businesses to force people out of their homes. I confronted him.”
“What happened?”
“He told me the world belonged to people willing to take it.”
Roman looked toward the window.
“I believed him for longer than I should have.”
Tessa waited.
“Four years later, your father came to me with evidence of Project Seventeen. He thought I could stop it.”
“Did you?”
“I tried.”
“What does that mean?”
“I gave him money to relocate your family. I also arranged a meeting with someone I believed could protect him.”
“Victor Sloane.”
Roman nodded.
Tessa felt sick.
“You sent my father to the man who destroyed him.”
“Yes.”
The admission hung between them.
“I didn't know Sloane was involved,” Roman continued. “When your father disappeared, I spent years trying to find out what happened.”
“Why didn't you contact us?”
“Because I was told both daughters had been placed under federal protection.”
Tessa laughed without humor.
“We were living in a one-bedroom apartment with a broken heater.”
Roman lowered his eyes.
“I learned that later.”
“And did nothing?”
“I arranged anonymous assistance.”
Tessa remembered a scholarship fund that had paid part of Lily's nursing tuition.
A landlord who suddenly forgave three months of rent.
A hospital bill that disappeared without explanation.
Her anger sharpened.
“You were watching us?”
“I asked a lawyer to make sure you were safe. I never requested details about your private lives.”
“You should have told us.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you?”
“Because I was ashamed.”
The answer startled her.
Roman stood.
“My father built an empire by making people afraid. I inherited it, and for years I told myself I could turn it into something legitimate without exposing what it had been.”
He met her eyes.
“I was wrong.”
Tessa looked at the photograph on his desk.
“What happened to your mother?”
Roman's expression closed.
“She tried to leave my father.”
“Did he hurt her?”
“He made sure she never had the chance.”
The room fell silent.
Then Roman said, “Your father made me promise that if anything happened to him, I'd protect his daughters.”
Tessa swallowed.
“You didn't.”
“No.”
He didn't defend himself.
That was somehow harder to hate.
“I failed him.”
A knock interrupted them.
Daniel entered.
“Roman, we found Victor's financial records.”
“Where?”
“Inside one of our companies.”
Roman went still.
Daniel continued.
“Someone in Greybridge has been paying him for eleven years.”
Tessa stared at Roman.
“Who?”
May you like
Daniel looked toward the photograph of Roman's mother.
“Your uncle.”
