Chapter 6 - The Woman Roman Couldn’t Control
Vale had made one mistake.
He still thought Evelyn was twenty.
He remembered the grieving girl who had stood beside her father’s coffin.
He did not know the woman Roman’s marriage had accidentally trained.
Four years of living with Roman had taught Evelyn how dangerous men behaved when they believed they had won.
They talked.
Too much.
“Let Vanessa go.”
Vale smiled.
“She betrayed me.”
“So did my father?”
“Your father became sentimental.”
“He discovered you were stealing.”
“I was building.”
“You murdered him for money.”
“No.”
Vale walked closer.
“I murdered him because he was going to destroy everything.”
Evelyn kept him talking.
Her microphone was gone.
But there was another recorder hidden inside her earring.
Roman had not known about it.
Neither had Gabriel.
Evelyn had arranged it herself.
No more relying entirely on men who thought protection meant controlling the plan.
“What do you want from me?”
“Your signature.”
Vale produced documents.
Evelyn read them.
They transferred control of the Moretti family trust.
“You think I’ll sign?”
“I think Vanessa wants to live.”
Vanessa looked at Evelyn.
“Don’t.”
Vale struck her.
Evelyn moved forward instinctively.
“Stop!”
Vale smiled.
There it was.
Leverage.
He placed a pen on the table.
Evelyn picked it up.
Then the theater lights went out.
Gunfire erupted.
Evelyn dropped.
Someone grabbed her.
She drove the pen backward.
A man screamed.
Emergency lights flashed red.
Roman appeared from the darkness.
He hit the gunman once and dragged Evelyn behind a concrete pillar.
“You stabbed him with a pen?”
“You were late.”
“I was being shot at.”
“Excuses.”
Roman stared at her.
Then, absurdly, he laughed.
It was the first genuine laugh Evelyn had heard from him in years.
Another shot hit the pillar.
“Romantic moment later,” Gabriel shouted from across the theater.
Roman returned fire.
Vanessa broke free and ran.
Vale disappeared backstage.
Evelyn started after him.
Roman grabbed her.
“No.”
She looked at his hand.
He released her immediately.
That mattered.
“Together,” he corrected.
They pursued Vale through backstage corridors.
Outside, police sirens approached.
Not corrupt officers.
Federal agents Gabriel had contacted using the evidence from Thomas’s drive.
Vale reached the alley.
A black SUV waited.
He opened the door.
Then stopped.
Vanessa stood behind the wheel.
She smiled sweetly.
“Looking for this?”
She held up his keys.
Vale raised his gun.
Roman fired first.
The bullet struck Vale’s shoulder.
He fell.
Evelyn approached.
Vale looked up at her.
“You think this ends with me?”
“It ends with you in prison.”
“You’re a Moretti.”
“Yes.”
“Your father built an empire with blood.”
Evelyn looked at Roman.
Then Gabriel.
Then back at Vale.
“That’s why I’m going to dismantle it.”
Vale laughed.
“You have no idea what you’re giving up.”
Evelyn did.
That was exactly why she could do it.
Federal agents arrived seconds later.
Vale was arrested.
By dawn, warrants were being executed across Chicago.
Businesses closed.
Accounts frozen.
Officials questioned.
For the first time in decades, the Moretti-Castellano machine began coming apart.
Evelyn watched sunrise from the lakefront.
Roman joined her.
No guards.
No expensive coat.
Just Roman.
“You meant what you said.”
“About dismantling everything?”
“Yes.”
“I did.”
“That includes my businesses.”
“The illegal ones.”
Roman nodded.
“You understand what that costs?”
“You?”
“Hundreds of millions.”
Evelyn shrugged.
“You’ll survive.”
Roman looked toward the lake.
“You’ve changed.”
“No. You finally met me.”
That hurt him.
She could tell.
Good.
Some pain was deserved.
He handed her something.
The sapphire ring.
“Federal investigators finished photographing it.”
Evelyn stared at it.
“I don’t want it.”
“I know.”
Roman placed it on the concrete wall between them instead of trying to put it into her hand.
Another small change.
“I signed the divorce papers.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“You did?”
“Yes.”
No manipulation.
No threat.
No condition.
Her freedom.
Given without a fight.
Evelyn had imagined this moment for months.
She expected triumph.
Instead she felt grief.
Not because she wanted the marriage.
Because somewhere beneath everything ugly, there had once been something real.
Roman seemed to understand.
“I loved you badly.”
Evelyn swallowed.
“That doesn’t make it love.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“But I’m learning the difference.”
Then he walked away.
Evelyn watched him go.
She did not call him back.
Three months later, their divorce became final.
Six months after that, Evelyn received an invitation.
No message.
No demand.
Just an address.
It was for the opening of a community center funded by the legal liquidation of three former Castellano properties.
At the bottom was a handwritten sentence.
You once asked what freedom feels like. I hope you found out.
Evelyn stared at Roman’s handwriting for a long time.
Then she put the invitation in her purse.
May you like
She told herself that did not mean she was going.
She was lying.
