Chapter 3 - The Debt That Never ExistedRoman did not shout.
Elena would have preferred shouting.
Anger she understood.
Silence from Roman Duca was worse.
He stood beside the dusty window of her father’s old apartment, staring at the city while dawn turned the buildings gray.
Matteo had left the room deliberately.
The evidence remained spread across the table.
Victor’s betrayal.
Lorenzo’s recordings.
Gabriel Santoro’s files.
None mattered in that moment as much as the question between husband and wife.
Roman finally spoke.
“You married me to investigate my family.”
Elena swallowed.
“At first.”
He turned.
“At first?”
“I knew my father wanted the truth found.”
“That is not an answer.”
She forced herself not to look away.
“Before he died, my father left instructions with my aunt. He said if something happened to him, the evidence would eventually lead back to the Duca family.”
Roman laughed once.
“So when Victor proposed marriage…”
“I thought it might be my only chance.”
“You believed I might have killed your father?”
“No.”
“You barely knew me.”
“I knew you were seventeen when my father disappeared.”
Roman stopped.
That mattered.
Gabriel died—or supposedly died—two weeks after Lorenzo.
Roman had been a grieving teenager.
Elena continued.
“I never thought you personally did anything.”
“But you thought my family did.”
“Yes.”
“And you entered my house to investigate.”
“Yes.”
Roman stepped closer.
“Every dinner?”
“No.”
“Every conversation?”
“No.”
“Every time you asked my mother about the past?”
“Sometimes.”
His jaw tightened.
“Every time you came into my office?”
“I told you that.”
“Twice.”
“Yes.”
He stared.
Elena’s voice dropped.
“I’m sorry.”
Roman’s expression changed.
“For which part?”
The question hurt.
“For lying.”
“Not for marrying me?”
Elena looked at him.
“No.”
Roman went still.
“That answer should make me feel better.”
“It doesn’t?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because now I don’t know what it means.”
Elena understood.
For eight months, their marriage had been restrained but not cruel.
Roman never humiliated her.
Never forced intimacy.
Never treated her as property in private, even if the outside world thought otherwise.
He gave her freedom within his guarded world.
She had grown accustomed to his quiet presence at breakfast.
To the way he always moved her away from the street side of sidewalks.
To how he remembered she hated champagne and had sparkling water placed at her seat without ever admitting he noticed.
Somewhere between suspicion and routine, Elena had begun caring.
That had complicated everything.
“I didn’t expect to like you.”
Roman raised an eyebrow.
“Extraordinary declaration.”
Despite everything, she almost smiled.
“I’m trying.”
“Try better.”
Elena took a breath.
“I married you because Victor threatened my family and because I needed answers.”
Roman nodded coldly.
“At least that part is clear.”
“But I stayed because leaving stopped being what I wanted.”
His expression shifted.
Small.
Almost invisible.
Elena continued.
“You think our quiet dinners meant nothing to me.”
“You barely spoke.”
“Neither did you.”
“That is different.”
“Why?”
“I am naturally unpleasant.”
Elena stared.
Roman’s mouth almost moved.
The tension eased for half a second.
Then he looked at the files.
“Did you find evidence about Gabriel?”
“Not enough.”
“What do you know?”
Elena sat.
“My father vanished fourteen days after Lorenzo was killed.”
Roman frowned.
“I was told he died in a car accident.”
“So was I.”
“You don’t believe it?”
“No body was returned.”
Roman’s attention sharpened.
“What?”
“My aunt identified a watch.”
Roman sat opposite her.
“No body?”
“The vehicle burned.”
“Dental records?”
“Victor handled everything.”
Roman swore quietly.
Of course he did.
Elena opened another folder.
“I found this two years ago.”
A death certificate.
Roman scanned it.
Signed by a private physician.
Dr. Samuel Price.
Roman knew the name.
Victor’s old doctor.
“Price died nine years ago.”
“Yes.”
“Convenient.”
“Very.”
Roman looked toward the evidence.
“So your father may have survived.”
“For some time.”
“You think Victor took him.”
Elena nodded.
“Why keep him alive?”
“For the ledger.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
Gabriel had hidden enough evidence to threaten everything Victor built.
If Victor believed Gabriel knew where the rest was, murder might not have been immediate.
Roman stood.
“We find where Victor kept prisoners twenty years ago.”
Elena looked skeptical.
“That list may be disturbing.”
“It is.”
Roman called Matteo back.
Within an hour, they compiled old properties.
Warehouses.
Farmhouses.
A closed restaurant.
A private sanitarium outside Yonkers.
Elena stopped at the final name.
“St. Vincent Recovery Center.”
Roman looked at her.
“You know it?”
“My aunt received letters from a place called St. Vincent.”
“When?”
“The year after my father disappeared.”
Roman’s attention sharpened.
“What letters?”
“She said they were charity requests.”
“Do you have them?”
“She might.”
Roman’s convoy reached Elena’s aunt’s home before noon.
Maria Santoro opened the door holding a wooden spoon.
She looked at Roman.
Then at six armed men.
Then at Elena.
“You brought the mafia to lunch?”
Elena hugged her.
“It’s complicated.”
Maria looked at Roman again.
“It usually is with men.”
Roman decided he liked her.
Slightly.
Inside, Maria retrieved an old box from her bedroom.
Letters from St. Vincent.
Most were ordinary fundraising requests.
One contained no request.
Only a list of Bible verses.
Roman frowned.
Elena stared.
“My father hated church.”
Maria crossed herself.
“Don’t tell Father Dominic.”
Elena took the paper.
“These numbers.”
Roman understood.
“Code.”
The verses produced letters when matched to a Bible.
Matteo worked through them.
The message emerged slowly.
ALIVE.
LOWER FLOOR.
V KNOWS.
DON’T COME.
Elena’s hand went to her mouth.
Roman felt something painful twist inside his chest.
Her father had been alive after the accident.
Held somewhere.
Warning his family.
“We go to St. Vincent,” Roman said.
The sanitarium had closed eighteen years ago.
Victor had purchased the property afterward through another corporation.
That alone was enough.
They entered near sunset.
Dust filled the corridors.
Broken windows.
Abandoned rooms.
The basement had been renovated differently from the upper floors.
Reinforced doors.
Old restraints bolted into one wall.
Elena stopped breathing.
Roman took her hand.
She did not protest.
At the far end was a small room.
Names had been scratched into the wall.
Dates.
Prayers.
Curses.
One set of initials stood near the floor.
G.S.
Elena collapsed to her knees.
Roman crouched beside her.
Her fingertips touched the carved letters.
“My father was here.”
Roman could not deny it.
Matteo searched nearby.
“Boss.”
They found a loose floor tile.
Beneath it lay a plastic-wrapped notebook.
Gabriel’s handwriting.
Elena recognized it instantly.
The first page read:
If Elena finds this, I failed to keep her away from this world.
Her tears fell.
Roman wanted to look away.
Instead he stayed.
They read together.
Gabriel had survived the staged accident.
Victor’s men abducted him.
They demanded the location of Lorenzo’s financial records.
Gabriel refused.
He documented names.
Dates.
Guards.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Enzo Marchetti.
Roman’s current head of internal security.
Roman stared.
“Enzo.”
Matteo’s face hardened.
“He works for Victor.”
“For twenty years.”
Roman understood why the estate had been compromised.
Enzo controlled cameras.
Guard rotations.
Access codes.
Victor never needed to infiltrate Roman’s security.
He had designed it.
Roman reached for his phone.
No signal in the basement.
Matteo moved toward the stairs.
Then a metal door slammed overhead.
Roman looked up.
The lights died.
Elena whispered, “Roman.”
He drew his gun.
A voice came through an old speaker system.
Victor.
“You always were predictable.”
Roman’s blood turned cold.
Emergency lights switched on.
Red again.
Victor’s voice echoed.
“Gabriel was difficult. Your father too.”
Elena stood.
Roman moved in front of her.
Victor continued.
“But grief makes children so cooperative.”
Roman aimed toward the speaker uselessly.
“Show yourself.”
Victor laughed.
“No.”
“You coward.”
“I survived your father because I knew when not to stand in front of angry men.”
Gas began hissing from vents.
Matteo shouted.
“Move!”
Roman grabbed Elena.
They ran toward the stairwell.
Locked.
Matteo fired twice at the lock.
Reinforced.
The air became bitter.
Elena coughed.
Roman pulled his jacket over her mouth.
“Breathe through this.”
“What about you?”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re coughing.”
“Excellent observation.”
Matteo searched walls.
“There has to be another exit.”
Elena looked at Gabriel’s notebook.
“My father wrote lower tunnel.”
Roman turned.
“What?”
She flipped pages.
“‘Laundry wall. Third brick beneath pipe.’”
They ran toward the old laundry room.
Roman found the brick.
Behind it was a lever.
A section of shelving released.
Narrow tunnel.
Roman pushed Elena inside first.
They crawled as the gas thickened.
Roman’s eyes burned.
His lungs screamed.
Behind them, something exploded.
The tunnel shook.
Victor intended to destroy the building.
“Faster!” Matteo shouted.
They reached an iron grate.
Locked.
Roman kicked.
Nothing.
Elena found a rusted release near the side.
The grate opened.
They emerged behind the facility as flames climbed from basement windows.
Roman dragged Elena farther away.
She collapsed in the wet grass.
He knelt beside her.
“Elena.”
“I’m okay.”
“You’re not.”
She coughed.
He cupped her face.
“Look at me.”
She did.
Roman’s heart slammed against his ribs.
For one terrible minute underground, he had imagined her dying beside him.
The thought had frightened him more than his own death.
“Elena.”
“What?”
He almost said it.
Almost told her what he had not admitted even to himself.
Instead he pulled her against him.
She froze.
Roman Duca was not a man known for embraces.
Then Elena wrapped her arms around him.
They remained that way while St. Vincent burned.
Matteo approached slowly.
“I hate interrupting this touching moment.”
Roman looked at him.
Matteo held up his phone.
“Enzo disappeared from the estate.”
Roman released Elena.
“Mother?”
“Safe.”
“Where?”
“Different location.”
Roman stood.
“Good.”
Matteo’s face remained grim.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“Victor released information to the police.”
Roman narrowed his eyes.
“What information?”
“Security footage from tonight’s gala.”
Elena went still.
“The office?”
“Yes.”
Matteo looked at her.
“It shows Elena entering.”
“And Carlo attacking her.”
“No.”
Roman understood immediately.
Edited footage.
Matteo continued.
“The video begins after Carlo is already on the floor.”
Elena whispered, “So it looks like I murdered him.”
“Yes.”
Roman’s expression became lethal.
Matteo held up another phone.
“Police have issued a warrant.”
Roman looked at Elena.
“For her arrest?”
Matteo nodded.
Roman did not hesitate.
“No one takes her.”
Elena stared.
“Roman.”
He turned.
“You killed a man defending yourself and me.”
“They don’t know that.”
“I do.”
“You cannot start a war with the police because of me.”
Roman stepped closer.
“I am not starting anything.”
He took her hand.
“But I am also not handing my wife to men Victor may control.”
Elena looked at him.
“That will make you look guilty.”
Roman’s mouth curved without humor.
“People have thought worse.”
Then headlights appeared on the road.
Multiple vehicles.
Matteo looked toward them.
“Too fast.”
Roman drew his gun.
“This location was compromised before we arrived.”
Police lights flashed.
Elena whispered, “Roman, don’t.”
He looked at her.
“If you fight them, Victor wins.”
The vehicles stopped.
Armed officers emerged.
Roman’s men raised weapons.
One wrong movement could turn the field into a massacre.
Roman looked at Elena.
She stepped in front of him.
“Let me go.”
“No.”
“Roman.”
“No.”
“If you trust me at all, let me handle this.”
The word trust struck him.
He hated how much power it had.
Police approached.
Elena raised her hands.
Roman caught one.
She looked back.
“Please.”
His grip loosened.
The officers cuffed her.
Roman’s entire body screamed against it.
Elena was placed into a vehicle.
Before the door closed, she looked at him.
“Find the rest of my father’s notebook.”
Roman frowned.
She smiled faintly.
“Victor missed a page.”
The door slammed.
The convoy drove away.
Roman stood in the smoke, watching his wife disappear.
Matteo approached.
“What now?”
Roman looked at the burning sanitarium.
Then at the road.
Victor expected rage.
Roman finally understood Elena’s warning.
So he did the one thing Victor would never expect.
May you like
He put away his gun.
“Now,” Roman said, “we beat him with the truth.”
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