Chapter 7 - NAOMI’S LAST TRAP
Roman had no intention of bringing his children anywhere.
Malcolm knew that.
The message was not a negotiation.
It was psychological warfare.
Roman stared at the photograph until he noticed Elena’s left hand.
Three fingers extended.
Two curled inward.
Three-two.
“Zoom in.”
Luca enlarged the image.
Elena was pointing downward.
A faded number was painted on the concrete behind her.
Warehouse 32.
The address Sabrina had supplied was Warehouse 18.
“A decoy,” Luca said.
Roman nodded.
“Elena is telling us where she really is.”
They located Warehouse 32 at a decommissioned shipping yard in Red Hook.
Roman prepared his men.
Then stopped.
Naomi’s recorded voice returned to him.
They need a father more than they need a powerful man.
The old Roman would have entered with guns.
The old Roman would have left bodies.
And another generation would inherit the consequences.
Instead, Roman called federal authorities.
Luca stared at him.
“Your father would come out of his grave just to slap you.”
“Good.”
Roman handed over Naomi’s evidence.
Everything.
Including documents implicating D’Angelo Maritime.
Luca’s eyes widened.
“This could cost you the company.”
“I know.”
“Maybe your freedom.”
“I know.”
“You’re still doing it?”
Roman looked toward the NICU floor above them.
“My children aren’t inheriting this.”
For the first time in his life, Roman chose uncertainty over control.
Federal agents surrounded Warehouse 32 before dawn.
Malcolm had expected Roman.
He had not expected law enforcement.
Elena was recovered alive.
Salvatore was arrested attempting to escape through a loading tunnel.
Malcolm disappeared.
Again.
But Elena had the ledger.
Or so everyone thought.
When Roman asked for it, she smiled weakly from her hospital bed.
“There is no physical ledger anymore.”
“What?”
“Naomi destroyed it.”
Roman stared.
“She spent months digitizing everything.”
“Where?”
Elena looked almost amused.
“She made copies.”
“How many?”
“Enough.”
Naomi had created encrypted archives and scheduled their release to multiple attorneys and investigative organizations if certain people attempted to harm her family.
It had been a dead-man’s switch.
Malcolm had spent months searching for something that no longer existed.
Roman sat beside Elena.
“She beat him.”
Elena shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“She wasn’t trying to beat him.”
Elena reached into her bag.
“She was trying to end it.”
She handed Roman another letter.
Roman,
If Elena gives you this, then you chose not to solve everything with violence. I hoped you would.
Roman laughed once through tears.
Even now, Naomi was testing him.
Our children deserve something neither of us inherited: a life that isn’t built around old debts.
Expose everything.
Even your family.
Even yourself.
Let the truth cost whatever it costs.
Roman pressed the letter against his forehead.
Elena watched quietly.
“She loved you.”
“I didn’t deserve it.”
“That isn’t the same as saying she didn’t.”
Roman looked at her.
Elena continued.
“She was angry. Heartbroken. She planned to leave you after the babies were born.”
He closed his eyes.
He had suspected it.
Hearing it still hurt.
“She rented an apartment,” Elena said. “She had divorce papers drafted.”
Roman nodded.
“She should have left sooner.”
Elena seemed surprised.
Roman stared through the hospital window.
“I used to think regret meant wishing you could undo consequences.”
“And now?”
“Now I think it means accepting them.”
That afternoon, Roman signed agreements turning over the digital evidence.
Investigations began immediately.
Salvatore confessed.
He had rerouted Naomi’s blood shipment.
Not because Malcolm ordered him to kill her.
Because Salvatore believed Naomi intended to expose the family.
He thought a delay would frighten her into silence.
Instead, it helped kill her.
Roman listened to the confession without speaking.
Then he walked into a bathroom and vomited.
Naomi had died partly because of his family’s secrets.
And while she had been fighting to protect their children, Roman had been lying to her.
That night, he sat between Isabella and Matteo.
“I’m going to tell you something your mother should be here to tell you.”
The babies slept.
“She was brave.”
His voice broke.
“Braver than me.”
Claire quietly adjusted Matteo’s monitor.
Roman looked at her.
“Do they understand anything I say?”
“Probably not.”
“Then why do I keep talking?”
“Because you do.”
Roman smiled faintly.
Then Luca entered.
His expression erased it.
“We found Malcolm.”
“Where?”
“He didn’t run.”
Roman stood.
“He’s outside.”
“What?”
“He’s downstairs.”
“Why?”
Luca swallowed.
“He says he’s surrendering.”
Roman stared.
Then Luca added the part that made no sense.
“He brought a little girl with him.”
“A girl?”
“About eight years old.”
Roman frowned.
“Who is she?”
Luca handed him a photograph.
Roman looked at the child.
Dark hair.
Gray eyes.
A familiar dimple in her left cheek.
The same dimple Roman saw every morning in the mirror.
May you like
Then Luca spoke.
“Malcolm says she’s your daughter.”
