Chapter 9 - THIS TIME, THEY CHOSE TOGETHER
Gabriel expected Roman to move Amelia.
He expected armored vehicles.
A safe house.
A frantic evacuation.
Instead, the Towson house remained occupied.
At least, it appeared that way.
Lights switched on at normal hours.
Curtains moved.
A woman resembling Amelia carried a bundled infant past the upstairs window.
Gabriel watched from two blocks away.
What he could not see was Amelia sitting in a Baltimore police command vehicle three miles away with Lily asleep against her chest.
Roman sat beside her.
“You’re sure?”
Amelia gave him a look.
“That’s the fifth time.”
“I’m improving.”
“You used to ask zero times.”
“Progress.”
Miles, sitting opposite them, groaned.
“If marriage counseling happens in my surveillance van, I’m resigning.”
Amelia smiled.
Roman almost did.
The plan had been hers.
Gabriel wanted Roman emotionally compromised.
So they would give him exactly that appearance.
Police tactical officers occupied the house.
Evelyn had insisted on participating until everyone threatened to physically remove her.
She was now at the hospital with Lily’s pediatric nurse on standby.
“I still think your aunt is scarier than Gabriel,” Miles said.
“She is,” Roman replied.
At 11:18 p.m., a motion sensor triggered behind the house.
Everyone went silent.
A figure crossed the backyard.
Roman leaned toward the monitor.
Gabriel.
He entered through a basement window.
Exactly as Amelia predicted.
“He thinks the security system has a blind spot there,” she said.
Miles looked impressed.
“How did you know?”
“Roman complained about it for two years.”
Roman looked at her.
“You remember that?”
“I remember everything you complain about.”
“Then our marriage has extensive archives.”
Miles whispered, “Please stop flirting during the felony.”
Amelia looked away.
Roman smiled.
Inside the house, Gabriel climbed the stairs.
He entered the nursery.
The woman holding the bundle turned.
Gabriel raised a weapon.
Police lights exploded outside.
“Police! Drop the weapon!”
Gabriel froze.
The bundle fell open.
Empty blankets.
He had been tricked.
Gabriel fired toward the hallway.
Officers returned fire.
He escaped through the bedroom window before the perimeter closed.
Roman stood.
Miles blocked him.
“No.”
“He’s running east.”
“Police have it.”
Roman looked toward the monitor.
Every instinct told him to go.
Hunt.
Control.
Finish it himself.
Then Amelia touched his wrist.
Roman looked down.
“Stay.”
One word.
Months earlier, another woman had whispered his name and sent him running.
Now his wife asked him to remain.
Roman sat.
“Okay.”
Amelia’s eyes softened.
Twenty minutes later, police found Gabriel injured near a drainage canal.
He surrendered.
No heroic execution.
No revenge.
No blood debt.
Just handcuffs.
For Roman, that was harder.
And better.
Gabriel Marino was charged with kidnapping, conspiracy, attempted murder, unlawful surveillance, and several older financial crimes uncovered through Anthony’s ledger.
This time there would be no private justice.
Amelia insisted.
Roman agreed.
The morning after Gabriel’s arrest, Roman drove Amelia back to the rental house.
Lily was still with Evelyn.
The nursery window was broken.
Glass covered the floor.
Roman stood in the doorway.
“I’ll have someone clean it.”
“No.”
Amelia surprised him by taking a broom.
“Help me.”
They cleaned together.
For twenty minutes, neither spoke.
Then Amelia found something beneath the crib.
Her old wedding ring.
Roman froze.
“I didn’t put that there.”
“I did.”
“When?”
“The day we brought Lily home.”
Roman stared at her.
“Why?”
“I didn’t know.”
She picked it up.
“I think part of me wanted to know what it felt like having it near me again.”
Roman said nothing.
Amelia looked at the ring.
“I loved being your wife.”
“Past tense?”
She met his eyes.
“I don’t know yet.”
Roman nodded.
“I can live with that.”
“Can you?”
“No.”
She smiled.
“At least you’re honest.”
He took the broom from her.
Amelia remained beside the crib.
“Roman.”
“Yes?”
“Do you know what hurt most?”
He waited.
“It wasn’t that you saved Vanessa.”
His expression tightened.
“It was knowing that if I had never seen that video, you would have come to the hospital believing everything was fine.”
Roman looked down.
“You would have kissed me. Told me you loved me. Taken me home.”
“Yes.”
“And I would never have known that when the impossible choice came, your instinct wasn’t me.”
Roman’s voice became quiet.
“I can’t change that moment.”
“No.”
“I would if I could.”
“I know.”
He looked at her.
“All I can change is who I am in the next one.”
Amelia’s eyes filled.
“That’s why I’m still here.”
Roman stopped breathing.
She walked toward him.
Not all the way.
But closer.
“I’m not ready to move back.”
“Okay.”
“I’m not ready to pretend we’re fixed.”
“Okay.”
“And I’m definitely not renewing our vows because you’ll turn it into a six-hundred-person event.”
“I was thinking eight hundred.”
She laughed.
Roman smiled.
Then Amelia held out her hand.
The ring rested in her palm.
“I’m not putting this back on yet.”
Roman nodded.
“But I don’t want it hidden under a crib either.”
She placed it in his hand.
“Keep it safe.”
Roman closed his fingers around it.
“For how long?”
Amelia looked at him.
“Until I ask for it.”
He nodded.
Then she did something he had stopped allowing himself to imagine.
She stepped forward.
Wrapped both arms around him.
And rested her cheek against his chest.
Roman remained perfectly still.
“Are you going to hug me?” she whispered.
“I’m afraid there are rules.”
Amelia laughed against him.
“You’re learning.”
Roman slowly wrapped his arms around her.
And for the first time since the warehouse, Amelia felt safe there.
Not because Roman Vale could protect her from everything.
But because he had finally learned that love was not protection without permission.
Outside, dawn spread across Baltimore.
Gabriel was in custody.
Vanessa was gone.
Lily was safe.
And Roman believed the worst was finally behind them.
He was wrong about one thing.
May you like
There was still one choice left.
And this time, it belonged entirely to Amelia.
