Chapter 2 - The Letter Evan Left.
Roman rode in the ambulance because Della refused to release his hand.
The paramedic cut away the bloodied cuff of her uniform and asked questions Della could barely answer.
Her blood pressure was dropping, but the baby's heartbeat remained fast and present beneath the electronic monitor.
Roman listened to that rapid rhythm and felt something inside his chest shift from concern to obligation.
At St. Catherine's Hospital, nurses rushed Della through double doors while security blocked Roman from following.
He stood in the corridor with blood on his shirt and fragments of mirror glass caught in the knees of his trousers.
Celeste arrived ten minutes later with her lawyer instead of an ambulance.
Her gown had been covered by a black coat, but her diamond necklace still flashed beneath the hospital lights.
“She is a liar.”
Roman did not turn around.
“She is pregnant and injured because you pushed her.”
“She staged the entire thing.”
“You expect me to believe she shattered a mirror with her back to embarrass you?”
Celeste folded her arms.
“You do not know who she is.”
Roman finally faced her.
“That is the first true thing you have said tonight.”
Celeste's lawyer stepped between them with the careful posture of a man accustomed to protecting dangerous clients.
“Miss Voss will cooperate with any lawful inquiry.”
Roman looked at the blood drying across his knuckles.
“She can begin by explaining why she told Della that she had been warned to disappear.”
Celeste's confidence flickered.
“I said no such thing.”
“The ballroom had two hundred witnesses.”
“Two hundred people heard glass break, Roman, not a private conversation.”
The lawyer touched Celeste's elbow.
“We should leave.”
Roman moved closer.
“If she loses that child, you will need more than a lawyer.”
The doors opened before Celeste could answer.
A doctor named Miriam Cole removed her mask and approached Roman.
“The mother is stable.”
Roman released a breath he had not realized he was holding.
“And the baby?”
“The heartbeat recovered.”
The doctor glanced at Celeste and her lawyer.
“Only family should remain for the next update.”
Celeste smiled faintly.
“I am practically family.”
Roman's stare erased the smile.
“You are leaving.”
Celeste's lawyer guided her toward the elevators.
Before the doors closed, Celeste looked back at Roman with an expression colder than anger.
The doctor led him into a small consultation room.
“Della has a deep laceration in her hand and bruising across her shoulder and spine.”
“Will the baby be safe?”
“We need to observe her for placental complications.”
Roman nodded, forcing himself to listen.
The doctor studied him.
“She asked for you by name after she regained consciousness.”
Roman's pulse changed.
“She knows me?”
“She said you are Evan's brother.”
Roman entered Della's room alone.
She lay pale beneath white blankets with her hand bandaged and a monitor strapped around her stomach.
Her eyes opened when he approached.
“You stayed.”
“My brother told me to find you.”
Fear moved across her face.
“What exactly did he tell you?”
“Only your first name.”
Roman pulled out his phone and opened the final voice memo Evan had recorded.
Static filled the room before Evan's strained voice emerged.
Roman, if anything happens to me, find Della.
Do not trust the foundation records.
The message ended with the sound of a door opening.
Della closed her eyes.
“He knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That they were going to kill him.”
Roman sat beside the bed.
“The police said his brakes failed on a mountain road.”
“The brakes were cut.”
“How could you know that?”
“Because he called me forty minutes before the crash.”
Della's fingers curled over the blanket.
“He said someone had searched his office and found the charity ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“A list of donations that never reached the clinics they were meant to fund.”
Roman thought of the Blackwood Foundation, the institution his family displayed like proof of its morality.
Celeste served as its public director.
His mother chaired the board.
Evan had handled internal audits before his death.
“Why did you disappear?”
“Because Evan told me to.”
Della looked at him directly.
“He said if the family learned about the baby, they would use the child to control whatever evidence I had.”
Roman's voice lowered.
“Is the baby Evan's?”
Della did not answer immediately.
The monitor marked each second with a steady electronic pulse.
“Yes.”
The word struck Roman harder than the shattering mirror.
He stood, then sat again because his legs had become unreliable.
“My brother was going to be a father.”
“He already was one in every way that mattered.”
Della's voice softened.
“He talked to the baby every night.”
Roman looked away before grief could dismantle him.
“Were you married?”
Della reached for the chain beneath her hospital gown.
A small ring hung against her chest.
“We married at a courthouse outside Providence.”
“Why secretly?”
“Evan said your father would destroy me if the marriage threatened the trust.”
Roman's father had been dead for three years, but his rules still governed the family like scripture.
Roman stared at the ring.
“Do you have the certificate?”
“I did.”
Della looked toward the window.
“Someone broke into my apartment after Evan died.”
“They took it?”
“They took every photograph, every letter, and the original certificate.”
Roman's jaw tightened.
“What evidence remains?”
Della's hand moved instinctively toward her bandaged palm.
“Evan hid something in my apron before the gala began.”
Roman remembered the blood-soaked uniform sealed in a hospital property bag.
“What did he hide?”
“I do not know.”
“He has been dead for six months.”
Della looked at him with exhausted patience.
“He arranged for a package to be delivered if the foundation held its annual gala without announcing my pregnancy.”
Roman stood.
“Where is the apron?”
A nurse entered before Della could answer.
Two hospital security officers followed her.
The taller officer held a beige evidence bag.
“Mr. Blackwood, the police need to speak with Miss Hart.”
Roman saw Della's name tag inside the bag.
The apron was missing.
The officer's expression hardened.
“There is also a warrant for her arrest.”
Della went white.
“For what?”
May you like
The officer looked at Roman.
“For the murder of Evan Blackwood.”
