Chapter 8 - What Roman Forgot
Roman replayed the video.
Same words.
Same ending.
You were.
Claire watched him.
“What does he mean?”
Roman shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Daniel took the phone.
“No metadata.”
“It was stripped.”
Roman walked outside.
Cold air hit his face.
His father was alive.
That fact alone should have consumed him.
Instead, one sentence did.
You were the reason Sophie was taken.
A memory surfaced.
Broken.
Incomplete.
The night before Sophie disappeared, Roman had attended a company dinner.
Arthur had already been dead several months.
Roman had drank too much.
Claire had been angry.
Why?
He could not remember.
Another image.
Sophie crying in her nursery.
Roman standing in the hallway.
A man in a dark coat.
No.
Roman closed his eyes.
“Roman?”
Claire stood behind him.
He turned.
“What happened the night before Sophie disappeared?”
Claire’s expression changed.
“What do you remember?”
“Answer me.”
“You came home late.”
“From where?”
“Vale Foundation dinner.”
“Who was there?”
“Board members.”
“Helena.”
“Judge Reed.”
“Thomas.”
“Daniel.”
Roman looked toward the boathouse.
“And?”
Claire hesitated.
“A man named Victor Shaw.”
Roman knew the name.
Victor had worked with Vale Holdings in international acquisitions.
He disappeared eight years ago.
Officially, he moved to Singapore.
“What happened?”
“You were drunk.”
“I remember that.”
“You came upstairs.”
“Sophie was crying.”
“You picked her up.”
Roman waited.
Claire’s eyes filled.
“And then someone called you.”
“Who?”
“I never knew.”
“You went into the hall.”
“When you came back, you told me we had to leave the house.”
Roman frowned.
“Why?”
“You said someone had threatened Sophie.”
His skin went cold.
“I said that?”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t I remember?”
Claire looked away.
“What?”
“Claire.”
“You collapsed twenty minutes later.”
Roman stared.
“I went to the hospital?”
“No.”
“What?”
“Helena brought a doctor.”
“What doctor?”
“Dr. Marcus Hill.”
Roman knew him.
Family physician.
Dead now.
Cancer four years earlier.
Claire continued.
“He said your drink had probably been spiked.”
Roman’s heart accelerated.
“With what?”
“He didn’t test.”
“Why not?”
“Helena told him not to.”
Roman cursed under his breath.
Claire approached.
“You woke up the next morning and remembered almost nothing.”
“And then Sophie disappeared.”
“Yes.”
Roman looked at her.
“Why didn’t you tell me this?”
“I tried.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“You were unstable.”
Roman stared.
“Excuse me?”
“You were having gaps.”
“Headaches.”
“You thought people were following you.”
“And were they?”
Claire said nothing.
Roman laughed bitterly.
“So I wasn’t paranoid.”
“No.”
“Then why hide this?”
“Because you started accusing yourself.”
Roman’s anger faded slightly.
“What?”
Claire whispered.
“You said you had given someone access to the house.”
Roman stopped.
“I said that?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“You couldn’t remember.”
Another fragment struck him.
A key card.
A black envelope.
Someone saying, You did the right thing.
Roman pressed his fingers against his temple.
“What did I do?”
Claire touched his arm.
He pulled away.
“Don’t.”
She stopped.
Roman went back inside the lake house.
He searched the living room.
Photographs showed Sophie at different ages.
None included him.
Then one picture caught his attention.
Sophie at age five.
Standing beside a Christmas tree.
On the table behind her sat a silver picture frame.
Roman picked up the photograph.
He zoomed in with his phone.
Inside the frame was another photograph.
A man.
Victor Shaw.
Roman stared.
“Nora.”
She came over.
“What?”
“Who is that?”
Nora studied the picture.
“I don’t know.”
“Sophie.”
The girl approached.
Roman crouched and showed her.
“Have you seen this man?”
Sophie nodded.
Roman’s stomach tightened.
“When?”
“He visited Grandma.”
Helena.
“At the lake house?”
“No.”
“At Grandma’s other house.”
Roman frowned.
“What other house?”
“The one with the red gate.”
Claire stared at Sophie.
“What red gate?”
Sophie looked confused.
“You know.”
“No, sweetheart.”
“I went there with Grandma.”
“When?”
“A lot.”
Roman felt anger rise.
Helena had another property.
One Claire did not know about.
“Where is it?”
Sophie thought.
“There were horses.”
“And a stone bridge.”
“And a church with a blue roof.”
Daniel heard enough.
He started searching mapping databases.
Roman turned back to Sophie.
“What did Victor do there?”
“He talked to Grandma.”
“Did he talk to you?”
“Sometimes.”
“What did he say?”
Sophie’s face became uneasy.
“He asked questions about you.”
Roman swallowed.
“What questions?”
“If I remembered you.”
“If Mom talked about you.”
“If I had dreams about you.”
“Anything else?”
Sophie nodded.
“He showed me pictures.”
“What pictures?”
“Men.”
Roman’s pulse quickened.
“Did you recognize any?”
“One.”
“Who?”
Sophie pointed at Daniel.
Every adult in the room turned.
Daniel froze.
Sophie continued.
“He said Uncle Daniel was the man who took me from my crib.”
Daniel went pale.
Roman crossed the room before anyone could stop him.
He grabbed Daniel by the collar and slammed him against the wall.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Did you take Sophie?”
“No.”
“You admitted entering the nursery.”
“To remove the horse.”
Roman drove him harder into the wall.
“Tell me the truth.”
“I am.”
Sophie cried out.
“Dad!”
Roman released Daniel immediately.
He stepped back.
Sophie was frightened.
Of him.
Roman hated himself for it.
Daniel straightened his jacket.
Then he reached slowly into his pocket.
Roman tensed.
Daniel removed a tiny memory card.
“I was going to give you this after I knew who could be trusted.”
Roman stared.
“What is it?”
“Footage from the night Sophie disappeared.”
Claire gasped.
“You said the cameras were erased.”
“They were.”
“I kept one copy.”
Roman took the card.
“Why?”
Daniel looked at Sophie.
“Because I knew someday she would come back.”
Thirty minutes later they watched the footage on Claire’s laptop.
Timestamp.
2:11 A.M.
A man entered Sophie’s nursery.
Daniel.
He approached the crib.
Roman’s hand tightened.
Then another figure appeared.
Roman himself.
Roman stared at the screen.
Video-Roman handed Daniel a sleeping Sophie.
Claire covered her mouth.
Sophie gripped Nora’s hand.
Roman watched himself walk away.
Daniel carried the baby toward the service stairs.
Roman turned slowly toward the real Daniel.
“You took her.”
Daniel’s eyes filled with guilt.
“Yes.”
Roman whispered.
“Why?”
Daniel looked at him.
May you like
“Because you ordered me to.”
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