Chapter 10 - One, Two, Three
Six months later, Mara Bennett stood beneath a chandelier again.
This time she was not carrying a tray.
She was wearing white.
Bennett House had been transformed for the evening.
White roses climbed the exposed brick walls. Candles glowed across long wooden tables. A jazz quartet played beside the windows.
Mara had rejected every expensive wedding venue Roman suggested.
“I spent enough years serving rich people under chandeliers,” she had told him. “I’m getting married somewhere I can kick everyone out myself.”
Roman had proposed three months after his release.
There had been no stadium.
No diamonds hidden inside champagne.
No photographers.
They had been cleaning Bennett House after closing when Mara found Roman standing in the kitchen holding a simple ring.
“I had a speech,” he admitted.
“What happened?”
“I forgot it.”
Mara laughed.
Roman looked terrified.
That made her stop laughing.
This was a man who had once walked through gunfire without changing expression.
Yet asking one woman a question had reduced him to visible panic.
So Mara rescued him.
“Yes.”
“I haven’t asked yet.”
“Yes.”
“Mara.”
“Fine. Ask.”
He did.
She said yes again.
Now, six months later, Noah walked her down the aisle.
“You sure?”
Mara smiled.
“You’ve asked me eleven times.”
“I’m a responsible brother.”
“You hacked a criminal syndicate.”
“Responsibly.”
At the end of the aisle stood Roman.
No tuxedo worth ten thousand dollars.
No armed entourage.
Just a dark suit, nervous eyes, and Luis Ortega’s son standing beside him as ring bearer.
Roman looked at Mara as though the room had disappeared.
Noah stopped beside him.
“If you hurt her—”
Mara groaned.
“Seriously?”
Roman nodded solemnly.
“We’ve covered this.”
“Good.”
Noah kissed Mara’s cheek and placed her hand into Roman’s.
The ceremony was small.
Roman’s vows were smaller.
“I spent most of my life believing power meant nobody could tell me no.”
His thumb brushed Mara’s fingers.
“Then you did.”
Guests laughed softly.
Mara smiled.
“And somehow that was the first moment in years when I understood what freedom actually felt like.”
His eyes became wet.
“You never needed me to save you. You needed someone who respected that you could save yourself.”
Mara blinked through tears.
“So I promise I will walk beside you. Not ahead of you. Not behind you. Beside you.”
Noah muttered loudly, “Acceptable.”
Everyone laughed.
Mara’s vows were less polite.
“Roman Mercer scared me the first time I met him.”
Roman raised an eyebrow.
“You hid it well.”
“I was terrified.”
More laughter.
“But the scariest thing about loving Roman wasn’t discovering what he had done.”
She looked into his eyes.
“It was realizing people can change, because once you believe that, you have to allow yourself to change too.”
Roman squeezed her hand.
“You taught me that strength doesn’t mean disappearing before anyone gets close enough to hurt me.”
Her voice trembled.
“So I’m not disappearing anymore.”
They married beneath the chandelier.
And when Roman kissed her, Noah loudly announced that five seconds was sufficient.
It was not.
The reception lasted until midnight.
Mara danced with Noah.
Roman danced terribly with Luis’s daughter.
Noah filmed it for future blackmail.
Everything was imperfect.
Which made it perfect.
At 12:17 a.m., Mara escaped onto the rooftop for air.
Roman found her.
“Running away already?”
“Considering it.”
He joined her.
Chicago glittered around them.
For years, Roman had looked at those buildings and seen territory.
Tonight he saw home.
Mara leaned against him.
“What happened to the mysterious note?”
Roman had eventually identified the handwriting.
Vincent Mercer.
His uncle.
The man Roman believed had died six years earlier.
Federal investigators discovered that Vincent had survived the attack that supposedly killed him and entered witness protection after secretly cooperating against Ethan and Vale.
He had sent David’s letter after seeing Roman’s testimony.
Roman had chosen not to find him.
Some ghosts deserved peace.
Mara approved.
“Closed chapter,” Roman said.
“Good.”
He kissed her hair.
Below them, laughter drifted from Bennett House.
The business was thriving.
Noah’s cybersecurity company had secured federal contracts.
Roman had begun consulting for companies trying to identify financial coercion and organized-crime infiltration.
The irony delighted Mara endlessly.
Chicago’s former criminal prince now spent meetings explaining how to stop men like the man he used to be.
He hated when she described it that way.
Which ensured she did it frequently.
Roman checked his watch.
“Come downstairs.”
“Why?”
“Trust me.”
“That sentence has historically gone badly.”
“Fair.”
He led her downstairs.
The ballroom was empty.
Everyone had gone outside.
Only the quartet remained.
Mara frowned.
“What are you doing?”
Roman took her hand.
Then she saw the silver tray.
It sat on a table.
Two champagne glasses rested upon it.
Mara laughed.
“No.”
Roman smiled.
“Come on.”
“You planned this?”
“Possibly.”
He picked up the tray and handed it to her.
Mara stared at him.
“What?”
“Six years learning to disappear inside crowded rooms,” Roman said.
She recognized the phrase.
Noah had apparently told him how she described her old life.
Roman gently removed the tray from her hands.
“But you don’t carry this anymore.”
He set it aside.
Then he held out one hand.
Exactly as he had the first night.
Mara looked around.
Same kind of chandelier.
Same music.
Same man.
Completely different life.
“Dance with me.”
She pretended to think.
“I’m sorry. I’m still working.”
Roman smiled.
“Your shift ended ten seconds ago.”
She laughed.
Then placed her hand in his.
Roman drew her gently closer.
“One, two, three.”
They turned.
Mara deliberately stepped on his shoe.
He winced.
“Was that necessary?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“For character development.”
Roman laughed.
They continued.
No sniper waited across the street.
No betrayal hid behind the service door.
Nobody was counting down thirty seconds.
There was only music.
Mara rested her cheek against Roman’s chest.
“I have something to tell you.”
His heartbeat changed.
“What?”
She stepped back.
For the first time all evening, Mara looked nervous.
Roman immediately became concerned.
“What happened?”
“Nothing happened.”
“Mara.”
She took his hand.
Then slowly placed it against her stomach.
Roman stared at her.
For several seconds, the most feared man Chicago had ever known understood absolutely nothing.
Then he understood everything.
His face went blank.
“Mara?”
She smiled through tears.
“Eleven weeks.”
Roman stopped breathing.
“Are you—”
“Yes.”
“We’re—”
“Yes.”
“A baby?”
She laughed.
“That is generally what eleven weeks pregnant means.”
Roman sat down.
Mara burst out laughing.
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
She crouched in front of him.
“Roman?”
“I fought three armed men in a cemetery.”
“I remember.”
“I testified against half the people I knew.”
“Yes.”
“I went to federal prison.”
“Also remember that.”
He looked terrified.
“I have no idea how to be somebody’s father.”
Mara’s laughter softened.
She took his face between her hands.
“Good.”
“Good?”
“It means you understand how important it is.”
Roman’s eyes filled.
Mara kissed him.
“You won’t do it alone.”
He looked at her.
“Beside me?”
“Beside you.”
Roman placed his palm carefully against her stomach again.
Something in his expression changed.
The last shadow of the man who believed power meant controlling everything finally disappeared.
He whispered, “Hi.”
Mara smiled.
“The baby cannot hear you yet.”
“I’m practicing.”
“For what?”
Roman considered this.
“Everything.”
The doors burst open.
Noah entered.
“I knew it!”
Mara jumped.
“What are you doing here?”
“I forgot my phone.”
He stared at Roman’s hand on Mara’s stomach.
Then at Mara.
Then back at Roman.
His eyes widened.
“No.”
Mara laughed.
“Noah—”
“You got my sister pregnant?”
Roman stood.
“We are married.”
“I don’t care!”
“You attended the wedding.”
“That was before I understood the consequences!”
Mara doubled over laughing.
Roman attempted not to smile.
Failed.
Noah pointed at him.
“I’m going to be watching you.”
“You already do.”
“More.”
“Wonderful.”
Noah stopped.
His outrage slowly transformed.
“You’re really pregnant?”
Mara nodded.
Her brother’s eyes filled instantly.
“Oh.”
He hugged her.
Then, reluctantly, he hugged Roman too.
“Still watching you.”
“I assumed.”
Outside, snow began falling softly over Chicago.
Mara looked through the tall windows.
Years earlier she had believed survival meant becoming invisible.
No attention.
No risk.
No attachments strong enough to become weaknesses.
She had been wrong.
Life had not begun when Roman Mercer saved her from a rifleman.
It had begun when she finally understood she did not need to disappear in order to survive.
Roman came beside her.
Noah stood on her other side.
Her husband.
Her brother.
Her child growing quietly beneath her heart.
Mara watched snow settle over the city that had taken so much from all three of them and somehow still given them another beginning.
Roman held out his hand.
“One more dance?”
Mara smiled.
“Are you ordering me?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Good answer.”
She placed her hand in his.
The music began again.
“One,” Roman whispered.
Mara stepped closer.
“Two.”
His arm circled her waist.
“Three.”
May you like
And this time, there was no countdown at the end.
Only a beginning.
