Chapter 3 - The Daughter Hidden in Plain Sight
Roman turned his living room into an investigation center.
Photographs covered the table.
Hospital records.
Security logs.
Bank transfers.
Old family records.
Nora sat silently while Tommy moved between computers.
The name Elise appeared repeatedly.
Every lead pointed toward the same problem.
She had been changing records.
But she had not been hiding the child for herself.
She had been hiding the child from someone else.
The question was who.
At six in the morning, Tommy found a financial transfer.
“Roman.”
“What?”
“A private trust.”
“Whose?”
“Nora's.”
She frowned.
“I never had a trust.”
Tommy rotated the screen.
The account had been opened three years earlier.
Monthly deposits.
Small amounts.
Enough to cover a child's expenses.
The beneficiary was listed as a minor female.
Name:
Mia Black.
Nora stared.
“That was her name?”
Roman looked at her.
“You named her?”
“I wanted to.”
“What name did you choose?”
“Mia.”
His eyes filled with something she hadn't seen in years.
Tenderness.
“You never told me.”
“I didn't know if I would survive.”
Tommy found another document.
“There's an address.”
Roman immediately stood.
“Where?”
“A private school.”
“For a three-year-old?”
Tommy shook his head.
“No.”
He zoomed in.
“It's a residential care center.”
Roman's jaw tightened.
Nora reached for her coat.
“We're going.”
Roman nodded.
The center sat outside the city.
A gray stone building surrounded by trees.
The director met them at the entrance.
She looked nervous when she saw Roman.
“I wondered when you'd come.”
Nora's heart raced.
“She's here.”
The director nodded.
“She has been here for almost three years.”
Nora nearly collapsed.
“Why?”
“Your sister brought her.”
Roman closed his eyes.
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“She said you were being watched.”
“By whom?”
The woman looked toward the hallway.
“Your father.”
Roman froze.
“My father is dead.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
The director handed him a file.
“Your father's old organization had an internal faction.”
Roman opened it.
Names.
Payments.
Orders.
The faction was called the Ash Crown.
It had been working inside Roman's organization long before he took control.
Nora remembered the symbol.
Roman understood.
“The people after me weren't my enemies.”
“They were your father's.”
The director nodded.
“Your father wanted the child.”
“Why?”
“She was the only legitimate heir.”
Roman looked at Nora.
His father had known about the pregnancy.
Someone had been monitoring Nora before she disappeared.
The director continued.
“Your sister discovered the plan.”
“Then she saved Mia.”
“Yes.”
“Where is Elise?”
“We don't know.”
The director led them upstairs.
A little girl sat by a window.
Dark curls.
Brown eyes.
A red sweater.
She was coloring.
Nora stopped breathing.
Roman took one step.
The girl looked up.
She studied him.
Then Nora.
The crayon fell from her hand.
“Mom?”
Nora broke.
She ran forward.
The girl jumped into her arms.
Nora held her so tightly that she began crying.
“I thought I lost you.”
The girl hugged her neck.
“You came back.”
Roman stood frozen.
The child looked at him.
“Are you Daddy?”
He couldn't answer immediately.
Then he knelt.
“Yes.”
Mia touched his face.
“You look sad.”
Roman smiled through tears.
“I was.”
“Why?”
“Because I missed you.”
The girl hugged him.
And Roman, the man who had survived wars without crying, finally broke.
Nora watched.
Something inside her changed.
The man in front of her was not the monster she had run from.
He had been a monster.
But perhaps he had spent three years trying to become something else.
They brought Mia home.
For the first time, Roman's penthouse felt like a family residence.
Mia ran through the rooms.
She discovered the piano.
The library.
The kitchen.
The balcony.
She asked a hundred questions.
Roman answered all of them.
Nora watched from the doorway.
Tommy smiled.
“She has his stubbornness.”
Nora laughed.
“And my refusal to listen.”
Tommy nodded.
“Definitely yours.”
That evening, Mia fell asleep on Roman's chest.
Nora stared.
She remembered carrying Mia alone.
The hospital.
The fear.
The nights sleeping in cheap motels.
Working double shifts.
Wondering if Roman was alive.
Roman looked at her.
“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
“I would have protected you.”
“I didn't trust the version of you I knew.”
He nodded.
“That was fair.”
She expected anger.
There was none.
That hurt more.
Roman placed Mia in bed.
Then he returned.
“Nora.”
“Yes?”
“I need to tell you something.”
“What?”
“I was looking for you because I wanted answers.”
She stared.
“And now?”
“Now I want my family.”
Her heart tightened.
“You can't undo the past.”
“I know.”
“I don't know if I can love you again.”
“I know.”
“That doesn't mean I don't.”
Roman looked at her.
Neither moved.
Then Tommy burst through the door.
“Roman.”
They stepped apart.
“What?”
“We found Elise.”
“Where?”
“Not where you think.”
He handed Roman a photograph.
Elise was standing outside an apartment building.
Alive.
The photograph had been taken two weeks earlier.
Roman stared.
Tommy continued.
“She sent us a message.”
“What message?”
Tommy looked at Nora.
Then Roman.
“She says Mia was only one of three children taken.”
Roman's expression changed.
“What?”
Tommy nodded.
“There are two other children.”
“Who?”
“One belongs to a judge.”
“Another?”
“A senator.”
Nora felt cold.
“This isn't about your family.”
“No,” Roman said.
“It’s about the entire city.”
The Ash Crown had been collecting children from powerful families.
Children who could be used as leverage.
Roman stared at the photograph.
Elise was not hiding Mia.
She was investigating the network.
And now she was in danger.
A message arrived on Roman's phone.
You found the girl.
Now bring her to us.
Or Elise dies.
Roman read it.
Then looked at Mia asleep in the next room.
For three years, Nora had run because she believed Roman's world would destroy their child.
May you like
Now she understood something worse.
The world had already found them.
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