Chapter 7 - WHEN SADIE STOPPED DISAPPEARING
Thomas Miller vanished before we returned.
His passport was gone.
So was two hundred thousand dollars from the safe.
My mother sat in the foyer staring at the empty driveway.
“He left me.”
I almost said, Now you know how it feels.
I didn’t.
Cruelty had been passed around my family like an inheritance.
I had no interest in claiming my share.
Federal investigators became involved the next morning.
Roman turned over copies of the financial records.
So did I.
Gregory spent nine hours answering questions.
For once, nobody could rescue him from consequences.
He admitted signing fraudulent documents.
He admitted warning Victor Hale about my audit.
He admitted accepting more than six hundred thousand dollars through Harbor North.
But he also provided information about Hale’s network.
It might reduce whatever sentence waited for him.
Might.
I visited Gregory after his interview.
He looked smaller without the tailored suits and expensive watch.
“Do you hate me?” he asked.
I sat across from him.
“I don’t know.”
He nodded.
“I would.”
“That’s your problem, Gregory.”
He looked up.
“You keep telling yourself what other people should feel instead of listening when they tell you.”
He wiped his eyes.
“I was jealous of you.”
I almost laughed.
“Of me?”
“You were smarter.”
“Dad never cared.”
“I did.”
That stopped me.
“He knew it too,” Gregory said. “Every board meeting, every report—you fixed everything. I knew someday everyone would figure out I was pretending.”
“So you helped destroy me first.”
His face twisted.
“Yes.”
At least he finally told the truth.
I stood.
“Sadie.”
I stopped.
“I’m sorry.”
I looked at my brother.
For years I had dreamed of hearing those words from somebody in my family.
They didn’t magically heal me.
But they mattered.
“I hope someday you become the kind of man who deserves forgiveness.”
I left.
Roman waited outside.
He handed me coffee.
Cream, no sugar.
“Thank you.”
We walked toward the SUV.
Reporters had discovered the story.
Cameras waited beyond the gates.
Miller Development’s stockholders were panicking. Investors were filing lawsuits. Headlines called my father a fugitive.
And somewhere inside that chaos, my photograph appeared.
MILLER HEIRESS EXPOSES FAMILY FRAUD.
I hated it.
Roman noticed.
“You don’t have to speak to them.”
“I know.”
“They’ll eventually get bored.”
“When?”
“Probably when an actor gets divorced.”
I laughed.
Roman opened the SUV door.
Then a reporter shouted.
“Sadie! Did your father trade you to Roman Costa to settle his debt?”
I froze.
Another shouted.
“Are you romantically involved with Costa?”
Roman’s expression became dangerous.
I touched his arm.
“Don’t.”
He looked at me.
For years, I would have run.
Instead, I walked toward the microphones.
Roman followed but remained several feet behind.
The questions exploded.
I raised my hand.
Silence slowly spread.
“My name is Sadie.”
My voice trembled.
I continued anyway.
“I am not collateral. I am not payment for anybody’s debt. I am not responsible for the financial decisions made by Thomas Miller or Gregory Miller.”
Cameras flashed.
“The records uncovered this week will be provided to investigators. Investors deserve the truth. Employees deserve the truth. And families deserve better than being used as shields for somebody else’s mistakes.”
A reporter shouted, “What about Roman Costa?”
I glanced back.
He watched me.
Not possessively.
Not impatiently.
Proudly.
I faced the cameras again.
“Mr. Costa asked me a question nobody in my family bothered to ask.”
“What question?”
“Whether I wanted to leave.”
I walked away.
Inside the SUV, my hands started shaking violently.
Roman climbed in.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“You were extraordinary.”
I looked at him.
“I thought I was going to throw up.”
“Both things can be true.”
I laughed.
Then cried.
I hated crying.
I covered my face.
Roman waited.
He didn’t tell me to stop.
Didn’t tell me I was overreacting.
Eventually his hand touched mine.
I threaded my fingers through his.
“I don’t know who I am anymore.”
“Yes, you do.”
“My name isn’t even mine.”
“Sadie is.”
I looked at him.
He squeezed my hand.
“Everything else is paperwork.”
That broke something open inside me.
I leaned toward him.
Roman went still.
“Sadie.”
“What?”
“If you kiss me right now, I need you to be sure it’s because you want to.”
I stared at him.
Even now he was giving me a choice.
So I made one.
I kissed him.
For two seconds, Roman did not move.
Then one hand gently cupped the back of my neck.
The kiss deepened.
Slowly.
Carefully.
No urgency.
No ownership.
Just warmth.
When we separated, his forehead rested against mine.
“I’ve wanted to do that since the kitchen,” he murmured.
“The bandage?”
“The indigestion joke.”
I smiled.
His phone rang.
We both groaned.
Roman answered.
His expression changed immediately.
“What?”
I watched his eyes darken.
“Where?”
He ended the call.
“What happened?”
“Hale’s men took your mother.”
My blood turned cold.
Roman continued.
“They left instructions.”
“For what?”
His eyes met mine.
“Hale wants the waterfront trust transferred to him by midnight.”
“And if I refuse?”
Roman hesitated.
May you like
I already knew.
“He kills her.”
