Chapter 11 - A Heartbeat Behind Closed Doors
Julian survived surgery.
Barely.
Nora learned that at three in the morning from a federal agent who came into the hospital waiting room holding two coffees.
Marjorie had also been found alive at the old March boathouse.
Peter escaped.
Selene disappeared.
Nothing felt finished.
Roman sat across from Nora.
Neither had spoken for almost twenty minutes.
Finally Nora said, “She set the fire.”
Roman nodded.
“Maybe.”
“Julian said her name.”
“He was losing consciousness.”
“You think he lied?”
“I think we verify everything.”
Nora looked at him.
“Still doing that.”
“What?”
“Facts before conclusions.”
Roman shrugged.
“It keeps people alive.”
She glanced at the emergency department doors.
“Sometimes.”
Roman looked down.
He blamed himself for Julian being shot.
Nora could see it.
“Peter shot him,” she said.
Roman didn't answer.
“You didn't.”
“I walked into Peter's trap.”
“So did I.”
“I let you.”
Nora's expression hardened.
“You did not let me do anything.”
Roman looked up.
“I'm sorry.”
“Stop treating my choices like your failures.”
He nodded.
“You're right.”
The baby moved.
Nora placed her hand on her abdomen.
Roman noticed immediately.
“Okay?”
“Just moving.”
He relaxed.
Then Nora felt something else.
Pain.
Sharp.
She inhaled.
Roman stood.
“What?”
“Probably nothing.”
“Nora.”
Another cramp.
She doubled slightly.
Roman's face drained.
Within minutes, nurses had her in an examination room.
Stress, the doctor explained.
Dehydration.
Possibly minor uterine irritability.
But the baby's heartbeat remained strong.
Roman stood near the wall while the ultrasound technician worked.
Nora looked toward him.
“You wanted to come Tuesday.”
Roman blinked.
“What?”
“To the appointment.”
“Yes.”
“Come here.”
He moved beside the bed.
The monitor displayed a tiny shape.
Then the heartbeat filled the room.
Fast.
Steady.
Roman's face changed.
Nora watched him instead of the screen.
He reached for her hand.
Stopped.
Nora closed the distance herself.
Their fingers intertwined.
The technician smiled discreetly.
“Baby looks good.”
Roman closed his eyes.
Nora squeezed his hand.
For the next several minutes, everything outside the room disappeared.
No March family.
No forged debts.
No Peter.
No hotel.
Just a heartbeat.
Afterward, the doctor ordered Nora to rest.
Roman argued for hospitalization.
Nora argued against it.
The doctor sided with Nora.
Roman looked betrayed.
“You're medically dramatic,” Nora told him.
“I don't know what is dramatic when it concerns a baby.”
“That is obvious.”
By morning, Roman relocated everyone from his compromised estate to a secure townhouse in Boston.
Marjorie arrived under protection.
She hugged Nora for so long that neither spoke.
Then she slapped Roman lightly on the shoulder.
“You nearly gave me a heart attack.”
Roman stared.
“You were kidnapped.”
“And?”
Nora laughed for the first time in days.
Marjorie turned to her.
“You married a man with no sense of humor.”
“He had one when I married him.”
“I still have one,” Roman said.
Marjorie looked at him.
“Prove it.”
Roman opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Nora laughed again.
For a brief moment, the world felt normal.
Then federal investigators arrived.
They had recovered evidence from the burned thirteenth-floor room.
Among it was a partial fingerprint on an accelerant container.
Selene's.
Nora sat very still.
Vincent looked devastated.
Roman remained unreadable.
The agent continued.
“We also recovered security footage showing Ms. March entering a restricted stairwell twenty minutes before the fire.”
Vincent whispered, “Why?”
Nobody answered.
Then Nora's phone rang.
Selene.
Roman looked at the agent.
They began recording.
Nora answered.
“Selene.”
Crying.
“I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt.”
Nora closed her eyes.
“Where are you?”
“I can't tell you.”
“Why did you start the fire?”
“Peter told me the room was empty.”
Nora looked at Roman.
Selene continued.
“He said everything in there would destroy my father.”
“So you burned it?”
“I panicked.”
“You could have killed people.”
“I know.”
Nora's anger rose.
“Do you?”
Selene sobbed.
“I've never been afraid before.”
Nora almost couldn't believe the sentence.
“Welcome to the feeling your family gave my mother for fifteen years.”
Selene went silent.
Nora regretted the cruelty only slightly.
“Where is Peter?”
“I don't know.”
“Then turn yourself in.”
“I can't.”
“Yes, you can.”
“He'll release everything.”
“About Roman?”
“Yes.”
Nora looked at Roman.
His face remained calm.
She understood.
Peter's leverage only worked if they continued being afraid of truth.
Nora asked Roman quietly, “What happens if Peter releases your files?”
Roman answered for everyone to hear.
“I deal with the consequences.”
Selene heard.
“So easy for you.”
“No,” Roman said. “Not easy.”
He moved closer to the phone.
“But hiding creates leverage. I learned that too late.”
Nora stared at him.
The statement was not only for Selene.
It was for her.
Roman continued.
“Turn yourself in.”
Selene cried.
“My father will hate me.”
Vincent stepped forward.
Nora handed him the phone.
Vincent's voice broke.
“Selene.”
“Dad?”
“Come home.”
“I ruined everything.”
“You made terrible choices.”
Selene sobbed harder.
“But you are my daughter.”
Nora watched Vincent.
He continued.
“You will answer for what you did.”
“Dad…”
“And I will be there.”
Silence.
Then Selene whispered an address.
Agents left immediately.
Two hours later, she was in custody.
Peter remained missing.
Julian remained unconscious.
The hotel will remained valid pending probate.
And the seventy-eight-million-dollar debt was temporarily frozen.
For the first time, Nora could breathe.
Then Whitmore entered carrying a sealed evidence envelope.
“We found something among Celeste's documents that nobody noticed.”
Nora frowned.
“What?”
He placed an old photograph on the table.
Celeste stood beside another woman in a March Grand housekeeping uniform.
Roman moved closer.
His face changed.
“My mother.”
Nora looked at him.
“You said she worked there.”
“Yes.”
On the back of the photograph, Celeste had written a date.
And one sentence.
Elena knows where Arthur's original ledger is.
Roman stared.
“My mother knew?”
Whitmore nodded.
“If this note is accurate.”
Nora looked between the two women in the photograph.
Their mothers had known each other.
Not casually.
They stood with their arms around one another.
Smiling like friends.
Roman touched the photograph.
“My mother died when I was twelve.”
Nora whispered, “Mine never mentioned her.”
Whitmore flipped over another page.
“There is more.”
Celeste had written:
If anything happens to me, ask Roman about the blue box Elena left him.
Roman went completely still.
Nora turned.
“What blue box?”
He stared at her.
Then at the photograph.
“I've had it for twenty-two years.”
“What's inside?”
Roman swallowed.
“I don't know.”
Nora couldn't believe him.
“You never opened it?”
“My mother made me promise I wouldn't until someone named Celeste Bellamy asked for it.”
Nora's heart stopped.
Roman looked at the photograph again.
“But Celeste never asked.”
Whitmore's voice was quiet.
“No.”
Nora understood before anyone said it.
Celeste had died before she could.
And somewhere among Roman Calder's oldest possessions was a box his mother had protected for Nora's mother.
May you like
A box that might contain the evidence everyone had been searching for.
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