Chapter 4
Roman's message arrived on Christmas afternoon.
THREE O'CLOCK. OLD ST. PETER'S CHURCH. BRING EVERYTHING YOU KNOW.
I knew something was wrong before the car left the hotel.
For seven years, whenever Roman involved me in danger, he prepared an escape route: spare vehicles, hidden exits, armed men waiting beyond the perimeter.
Today, there was nothing.
Only a time, a place, and an order that sounded like a trial.
Snow covered New York in false peace. Families crossed bright streets carrying gifts. Children held their parents' hands. No one knew that on the other side of the city, a woman was traveling toward her death.
The abandoned church rose through the gray snowfall, its broken steeple cutting into the sky.
Roman waited on the steps in a long black coat.
"You came," he said.
"You sound surprised."
"I thought you might refuse."
I stepped out of the car.
"When you needed me, when did I ever refuse you?"
Pain crossed his face and vanished.
He had grown used to my loyalty. Used to my work, my silence, and my place at his side.
"Where are the files?" I asked.
"In the underground vault."
The church smelled of wet wood and old smoke. Unfinished Christmas candles burned in one corner, red flames reflected in broken stained glass like fresh blood.
"Do you know what this place is?" I asked.
Roman stopped beside me.
"A former Moretti site."
He knew.
"What do you want from me?"
"I need to confirm something."
"What?"
Roman held my gaze.
"How much you know."
The entrance to the underground vault required a code. Roman looked at me.
"Enter it."
"You don't know the code?"
He did not answer.
He knew the Moretti family had left something beneath the church. He had simply failed to understand that they had left someone behind as well.
I entered the code.
The steel door opened onto an empty vault. A single table stood in the center with a file resting on it.
Roman picked it up.
His phone rang.
The message was from Isabella.
He saw it and immediately hid the screen.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Nothing."
"You're still lying to me."
Before he could answer, the chamber shook.
An explosion thundered overhead. The lights failed, and red alarms flooded the vault.
A countdown appeared on the wall.
10:00.
Roman's guards drew their weapons.
"The exit sealed, Boss," one man said.
Roman struck the steel door with his shoulder. It did not move.
His phone lit again.
This time, I saw Isabella's message.
YOU HAVE ALREADY MADE YOUR CHOICE.
Another followed.
THE VOSS FAMILY CANNOT BE DESTROYED FOR ONE WOMAN.
I looked at Roman.
"She knew this would happen."
Roman's fingers closed around the phone.
"Vivian..."
"Did you know this place was dangerous?"
He hesitated.
Roman Voss never hesitated.
His silence answered me.
The timer fell to five minutes. Heat thickened the air. Roman entered code after code into the door controls while his men tried dead communication lines and blocked alternate routes.
For the first time, he could not control the outcome.
My phone caught a brief signal. A video downloaded before the bars vanished.
The footage had been recorded outside the church ten minutes earlier.
Roman stood in the snow beside one of his commanders.
"The underground sequence has started," the man said in the video.
Roman stared at the church.
"We can still shut it down."
Snow collected on Roman's shoulders. Agony, doubt, and calculation crossed the face I knew better than my own.
Then Roman spoke.
"Execute."
The video ended.
Cold spread through me despite the fire.
He had known.
He had known I was inside, and he had still made his choice.
"Let me explain," Roman said.
"Explain that you didn't know? Or that you knew and decided I could survive it?"
"I had a plan."
"Did your plan include me leaving alive?"
He stopped.
One minute remained.
Roman grabbed my wrist.
"Come with me."
I pulled free.
"Do you know what hurts most? You never asked me before choosing. You assumed I would stay, understand, and stand behind you forever."
Flames tore through the wall.
Thirty seconds.
Roman's control shattered.
"Vivian, I was wrong."
It was the first time in seven years he had admitted it.
It was too late.
The vault collapsed between us. A steel barrier dropped as Roman reached through the smoke.
"Vivian!"
Our fingers almost touched.
The door crashed down.
His voice disappeared.
Fire advanced from the other side. My hand found a crack in the wall, and hidden machinery came alive beneath my palm.
A narrow door opened.
Behind it stood a black safe marked with an emerald seal. I pressed my ring into the matching hollow.
The lock released.
Inside lay one file sealed with black wax. Smoke covered most of the title, but one name remained visible beneath the emerald crest.
VIVIAN.
A second explosion split the ceiling before I could break the seal. I pulled the file against my chest as the hidden passage opened behind the safe.
Roman believed he had killed the woman who loved him.
He did not know the answer to who I was had survived the fire with me.