Chapter 4 - The Letter Roman Never Read
Arthur Lombardi looked ten years older beneath fluorescent police lights.
Nora sat across the interview-room table with a detective beside her.
Roman waited outside.
That had been Nora’s condition.
To her surprise, he had agreed.
Arthur twisted his wedding ring.
“I never wanted anyone hurt.”
“You sold my location.”
“I owed money.”
“To Victor?”
Arthur nodded.
“How much?”
“Eighty thousand.”
Nora stared.
“Gambling?”
Arthur looked ashamed.
Victor’s men had offered to erase the debt if Arthur confirmed Nora’s identity.
“Why did you come here?”
“Because after I called them tonight, I heard what they planned to do.”
Nora’s stomach turned.
“What?”
Arthur looked toward the one-way glass.
“They weren’t going to take you.”
He lowered his voice.
“They were going to kill you and make Bellini think he did it.”
Nora went still.
“Why?”
“To start a war.”
The detective leaned forward.
Arthur continued.
“Victor’s losing control. Bellini’s legitimate businesses are squeezing him out. Victor needs Roman angry enough to return to the old ways.”
Nora frowned.
“Legitimate businesses?”
Arthur gave a humorless laugh.
“You really have been gone.”
The interview ended twenty minutes later.
Nora walked into the hallway.
Roman stood beside a vending machine holding terrible coffee in a paper cup.
The sight was so ordinary it felt absurd.
“What did he say?”
Nora told him.
Roman showed almost no reaction.
“What legitimate businesses?” she asked.
Roman glanced at Tommy.
Tommy suddenly found the ceiling interesting.
“Roman.”
“I sold most of the old operations.”
“When?”
“Started two years ago.”
“Why?”
Roman took a sip.
His face suggested the coffee had personally insulted him.
“Because you were right.”
Nora stared.
“That’s it?”
“No. There were federal investigations, two indictments, a betrayal by three captains, and an accountant who stole seven million dollars.”
“That sounds more like you.”
Roman almost smiled.
“But yes,” he said. “You were right.”
They located the old building contractor the following morning.
The property from Nora’s apartment had been transferred to a municipal storage warehouse.
Thousands of boxes sat beneath dust and fluorescent lights.
Finding one yellow envelope seemed impossible.
Then an elderly clerk named Mrs. Palmer examined Nora’s old identification.
“I remember this.”
Nora’s heart jumped.
“You do?”
“You kept sending certified letters asking whether we had received a package.”
Nora nodded.
Mrs. Palmer disappeared.
She returned carrying a small cardboard archive box.
Nora’s hands shook.
Inside was a yellow padded envelope.
Unopened.
Roman stood several feet away.
Nora lifted it.
Her handwriting covered the front.
NORA ELLIS.
Her old name.
She opened the envelope.
A flash drive fell into her palm.
Then a folded letter.
Roman looked at it.
“That’s for you,” Nora said.
His expression changed.
“You don’t have to read it.”
“I wrote it three years ago.”
“That woman had something to say.”
Nora handed him the letter.
Roman did not open it.
“Not here.”
They took the flash drive to the police.
The recording was damaged, but recoverable.
Victor’s voice could clearly be heard discussing Luca.
Not the entire plan.
Enough to reopen the investigation.
Roman disappeared for an hour.
Nora found him later in an empty courthouse stairwell.
The letter was open in his hand.
He had read it.
She stopped.
Roman’s eyes were red.
Nora had seen him bleeding.
She had seen him furious.
She had seen him stand beside his brother’s coffin without shedding a tear.
She had never seen this.
“What did I write?” she asked softly.
“You don’t remember?”
“Pieces.”
Roman looked at the page.
“You wrote that you loved me.”
Nora swallowed.
“I did.”
“You wrote that you were afraid I would eventually make you choose between loving me and recognizing yourself.”
She remembered that sentence.
“And?”
“You said if I ever loved you, I would let you disappear.”
Nora looked down.
Roman folded the letter carefully.
“I didn’t.”
“No.”
“I searched.”
“Yes.”
“I told myself it was because I needed answers.”
“Was it?”
“No.”
His honesty surprised her.
“I searched because I couldn’t accept that you had made a decision I couldn’t overrule.”
There it was.
The truth.
Roman stepped closer, then stopped.
“You didn’t betray me, Nora. I betrayed what you believed I could become.”
She had imagined this conversation for years.
In some versions she screamed.
In others she slapped him.
Sometimes she walked away.
Instead she asked, “What happens now?”
“I testify.”
Nora stared.
“Against Victor?”
“And myself.”
Her breath caught.
“What have you done?”
“Enough.”
“You could go to prison.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
Nora looked at him in disbelief.
“You’d voluntarily confess?”
“I have lawyers negotiating.”
“Of course you do.”
A shadow of humor crossed his face.
“But yes.”
“Why?”
Roman looked at the letter.
“Because you were right about something else.”
“What?”
“I kept thinking changing meant becoming a nicer version of the same man.”
He shook his head.
“It doesn’t.”
Nora said nothing.
Roman handed her the letter.
“Changing means accepting consequences.”
He walked toward the stairwell door.
Nora called after him.
“Roman.”
He stopped.
“I don’t forgive you.”
“I know.”
“I may never trust you.”
“I know.”
“And this doesn’t mean I’m coming back.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
Nora watched him leave.
For the first time since she had known Roman Bellini, he asked for nothing in return.
Then Nora unfolded the letter.
Something was written at the bottom.
Not in her handwriting.
Roman had added one sentence.
You deserved the freedom to choose me.
Nora stared at it until the words blurred.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
“Nora Ellis?”
“Yes?”
A man laughed quietly.
Then Victor Dane spoke.
“Roman finally found you.”
Nora’s blood turned cold.
“Unfortunately for him,” Victor continued, “I found something he never knew existed.”
A photograph arrived.
Nora opened it.
Her knees nearly gave way.
The man in the photograph had Roman’s eyes.
May you like
Luca.
Alive.
