Chapter 6 - The Debt Written in Nora’s Name
Roman didn't follow Julian.
He didn't order anyone to stop him.
He simply stood in the kitchen while Nora stared at him.
“Tell me he's lying.”
Roman's silence answered first.
Nora's face drained.
“You knew who I was.”
“Yes.”
“When you came into the diner?”
“Yes.”
The cup in Nora's hand rattled against the counter.
Roman reached toward it.
She pulled away.
“Don't.”
He stopped.
“You researched me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was looking into the March property.”
“And my mother's name appeared.”
“Yes.”
“So you decided to investigate her daughter.”
“Yes.”
Each answer cut deeper because Roman refused to soften them.
Nora laughed once.
It sounded broken.
“Apparently no man in Boston has ever met me by accident.”
“Nora.”
“Did you sit at my counter because of the hotel?”
“The first time.”
She closed her eyes.
The first time.
She remembered that evening perfectly.
Rain.
A nearly empty diner.
Roman sitting near the window.
Black coat.
Black coffee.
He had tipped thirty dollars on an eight-dollar bill.
Nora chased him into the rain because she thought he made a mistake.
Roman told her he hadn't.
That was how they first spoke.
She opened her eyes.
“What about the second time?”
“Because I wanted to see you.”
“The third?”
“You.”
“The fourth?”
“You.”
Nora shook her head.
“You expect that to make it better?”
“No.”
“You knew about my mother's shares?”
“I knew she had disputed ownership. I didn't know she had evidence.”
“And you didn't tell me.”
“I planned to.”
“When?”
Roman looked down.
“That is the part I can't defend.”
“Try.”
“I wanted to know whether the claim was legitimate before bringing your mother into it.”
“My dead mother.”
“Yes.”
“You couldn't have said, ‘Nora, I'm researching a hotel and your mother's name came up’?”
“I should have.”
“Instead you dated me.”
“Yes.”
“You proposed.”
“Yes.”
“You married me.”
“Yes.”
“And every day you said nothing.”
Roman closed his eyes briefly.
“Yes.”
Nora wiped tears angrily.
“You made me believe I finally met someone who didn't want something from me.”
“I didn't want the hotel from you.”
“But that's why you found me.”
“Not why I loved you.”
“You don't get to separate those things.”
Roman's face tightened.
“I know.”
Nora wanted him to fight.
Almost.
She wanted him to defend himself so she could become fully angry.
But Roman stood there accepting every accusation.
That somehow made it harder.
She turned away.
“I need to leave.”
Roman's expression changed.
“You can't go back to your apartment.”
“I know.”
“I can put you in a hotel under another name.”
“I work at a hotel.”
“A different hotel.”
“No.”
“Nora, someone photographed your doctor's appointment.”
She touched her stomach.
Reality returned.
The danger was no longer abstract.
“Then I'll stay with Marjorie.”
“They may know her.”
Nora hated that he was right.
Roman added, “Stay here tonight. Tomorrow, I'll arrange somewhere else if that's what you want.”
“Separate wing.”
“Yes.”
“No guards inside my room.”
“Yes.”
“No tracking my phone.”
“Yes.”
“No decisions about my pregnancy without me.”
Roman's expression softened.
“Never.”
Nora looked at him.
“I'm serious.”
“So am I.”
She nodded.
Then walked upstairs.
Roman remained in the kitchen alone.
At 7:00 the next morning, Nora woke to voices downstairs.
Whitmore had returned.
So had two forensic accountants.
The forged debt records were worse than anyone expected.
Julian had opened three credit lines using Nora's information during their marriage.
Two were supposedly for investment properties.
There were no properties.
Money flowed through shell companies connected to Vale Strategic Holdings.
The total debt once attributed to Nora exceeded four hundred thousand dollars.
She stared at the numbers.
“I thought I was bad with money.”
Whitmore looked at her sadly.
“You weren't.”
“I spent years thinking I ruined my life.”
“You didn't.”
Roman sat across the room.
Silent.
Nora thought of every extra shift.
Every declined credit application.
Every apartment rejection.
Every time Julian sighed dramatically when she asked why bills kept arriving.
Anger replaced humiliation.
“What can we prove?”
Whitmore almost smiled.
“A great deal.”
One accountant turned the laptop.
“The loan applications used an IP address registered to Vale Strategic.”
Nora nodded.
“And the forged signatures?”
“We'll need handwriting experts.”
“Do it.”
Roman spoke.
“I'll pay.”
Nora looked at him.
“No.”
“Nora.”
“No.”
Whitmore cleared his throat.
“Actually, if Celeste's ownership claim succeeds, the estate can fund litigation.”
Nora turned.
“How much could the shares be worth?”
The accountants exchanged a glance.
Whitmore answered.
“Depending on valuation, between eighteen and thirty-two million dollars.”
Nora laughed.
Nobody else did.
“You're serious.”
“Yes.”
She stared at the photograph of her mother lying beside the files.
Celeste had died worrying about a six-thousand-dollar hospital bill.
Nora's eyes filled.
“She should have had that money.”
Whitmore nodded.
“She should have.”
Roman looked away.
Nora stood.
“I don't care about the money.”
Whitmore began, “Nora—”
“I care that they took her life apart and convinced her she had no options.”
She looked at the records.
“I want her name cleared.”
Whitmore nodded.
“Then that's what we'll do.”
Roman's phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His expression changed.
“When?”
A pause.
“Send it.”
He ended the call.
Nora watched him.
“What happened?”
Roman looked at Whitmore.
“Peter Sloane's car was found at Logan Airport.”
“Did he fly somewhere?”
“No record.”
“Then where is he?”
Roman's phone chimed.
A surveillance image arrived.
Peter Sloane leaving the airport parking structure.
Beside him was a woman.
Selene March.
Nora stared at the photograph.
“When was that?”
“Last night.”
Whitmore leaned closer.
“After she left the hotel?”
Roman nodded.
Nora's mind raced.
“If Peter worked with Julian years ago and now works for Roman…”
“He had access to my acquisition plans,” Roman said.
“And Selene knew you wanted the hotel.”
“Yes.”
“So she knew my mother's shares could interfere.”
Whitmore nodded slowly.
“If Celeste's claim is valid, the March family may own less of the hotel than they're representing to Roman.”
Roman's expression hardened.
“Meaning Vincent is trying to sell me shares he may not legally control.”
Nora sat back.
This was no longer merely about inheritance.
It was fraud on a massive scale.
One accountant opened another recovered email.
“There's something else.”
The email was from Peter Sloane to Julian.
Three years earlier.
Nora still doesn't know. Keep it that way until the March deal closes.
Nora's blood ran cold.
Three years ago.
She had still been married to Julian.
The March deal had been planned for years.
Roman looked at the timestamp.
“I wasn't negotiating then.”
Whitmore frowned.
“So what deal?”
The accountant searched attached files.
A document appeared.
Not a hotel sale.
A redevelopment project.
Luxury condominiums.
Hundreds of millions in financing.
And on the title page was an unfamiliar company.
Bellamy Harbor Development LLC.
Nora stared at her own surname.
“I've never heard of that.”
The accountant opened corporate records.
The registered owner appeared.
Nora Bellamy.
Her mouth went dry.
“That's impossible.”
Whitmore scanned the date.
The company had been created while Nora was married to Julian.
Roman leaned forward.
“Check liabilities.”
The accountant's fingers moved quickly.
Then he stopped.
His expression shifted.
Nora whispered, “How bad?”
He looked at her.
“Mrs. Calder…”
“How bad?”
“Bellamy Harbor Development owes seventy-eight million dollars.”
Silence.
Nora felt dizzy.
“Seventy-eight million?”
Roman stood.
“That debt isn't hers.”
“Legally,” the accountant said carefully, “someone has spent years making it appear that it is.”
Nora gripped the edge of the table.
Then another document loaded.
A personal guarantee.
Her name.
Her forged signature.
And beneath it, a second guarantor.
Celeste Bellamy.
Nora stared.
“My mother was dead when this was signed.”
The room went still.
Whitmore checked the date.
He looked sick.
“You're right.”
Roman's eyes became ice.
Someone had forged the signature of a dead woman.
And the final page revealed something even worse.
The loan was scheduled to default in six days.
If it did, creditors could attempt to seize every asset connected to the Bellamy name.
Including Celeste's disputed shares.
Nora finally understood.
Julian hadn't suddenly filed his ownership claim because he discovered her mother's secret.
He filed it because a deadline was approaching.
Six days.
May you like
That was all they had before someone attempted to use Nora's stolen identity to take Celeste's legacy forever.
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