Chapter 15 - The Promise
One year after the train ride, Roman returned to the same route.
This time, there were no bodyguards.
No hidden weapons.
No enemies waiting at the station.
Just Roman, Naomi, and three laughing toddlers.
They sat together near the window.
Naomi looked outside.
"Do you ever think about that night?"
Roman nodded.
"Every day."
"What do you remember?"
He looked at her.
"You."
She smiled.
"I was terrified."
"So was I."
"You didn't look terrified."
"I was very good at hiding it."
She laughed.
The train crossed the Delaware River.
Roman reached for her hand.
"I used to think power meant nobody could hurt you."
Naomi looked at him.
"And now?"
"Power is having something worth protecting."
She squeezed his hand.
Across the aisle, Jude was laughing.
Mason was trying to steal Cole's toy.
Cole was screaming.
The entire car turned toward them.
Naomi covered her face.
Roman laughed.
"Sounds familiar."
She looked at him.
"You know what I learned?"
"What?"
"Sometimes the loudest cry is the one that saves everyone."
Roman smiled.
Then his phone vibrated.
He looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
His smile disappeared.
Naomi noticed.
"What is it?"
Roman opened the message.
There was only one sentence.
Your grandfather wasn't the one who started the war.
Roman's blood went cold.
A second message appeared.
Ask Marianne who your real father was.
He slowly looked toward Naomi.
She saw his face.
"What happened?"
Roman locked the phone.
"Nothing."
But outside the window, the train disappeared into a tunnel.
And somewhere in the darkness ahead, another story was already waiting.
Because Roman Vale had escaped the family that created him.
He had saved his sons.
He had found love.
He had walked away from an empire built on blood.
But there was one secret his mother had never told him.
One name buried for thirty-eight years.
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And when Roman finally learned it, he would discover that the most dangerous man in his life had never been his grandfather.
It had been the man whose blood ran through his own veins.
