Chapter 20 - Found
Six months after Roman came home, the city had mostly stopped talking about the Calder scandal.
Trials moved slowly. Headlines moved fast.
Marco pleaded guilty after the financial records became impossible to explain. Pike was convicted on federal corruption charges. Kerr took a deal that required him to identify every forged medical record he created. Helena began serving her sentence and continued cooperating.
Daniel pleaded guilty too.
Roman visited him once.
Daniel sat behind glass, thinner than before.
“Do you hate me?” he asked.
Roman thought about it.
“No.”
Daniel almost smiled. “That’s generous.”
“It isn’t forgiveness. I just don’t want to carry you anymore.”
Daniel looked down.
“Tell Caleb I’m sorry.”
“You can tell him yourself when he’s ready to listen.”
Outside, Nora waited in the car.
“You okay?”
“Getting there.”
They drove to the smaller house they had rented near Sophie’s school. Roman still kept his own apartment, but his toothbrush had somehow appeared in Nora’s bathroom, and nobody had filed a complaint.
That evening Sophie worked on a school project at the kitchen table.
The assignment was FAMILY.
She drew three houses.
One for Nora.
One for Roman.
And one in the middle with a huge open door.
Roman pointed. “What’s that one?”
“That’s where everybody tells the truth.”
Nora laughed softly.
Roman took her hand.
It was not a promise that everything would become what it had once been. Too much had happened for that.
It was a promise that whatever came next would be real.
Sophie leaned against him.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah?”
“Grandma was wrong.”
“About what?”
“You weren’t dead.”
Roman kissed the top of her head. “No, sweetheart.”
Sophie smiled.
“You were just lost.”
May you like
Roman looked at Nora, at the open kitchen door, and at the life waiting beyond it.
“Yeah,” he said. “But I found my way home.”
