Chapter 2 – The Men Who Came Back
Chapter 2 – The Men Who Came Back
At exactly 2:17 a.m., every security alarm on Blackmere Estate activated.
Not from the gates.
From the woods behind the property.
Roman was already awake.
His phone vibrated once.
Movement confirmed. Seven armed men.
He walked downstairs without rushing.
Fear made mistakes.
Preparation never did.
Meanwhile, Nora woke to unfamiliar footsteps outside her door.
Before she could react, someone whispered urgently.
"Miss Vale."
"Come with us."
Blackmere security surrounded her immediately.
Gunfire shattered the silence outside.
Glass exploded across the eastern hallway.
The attack had begun.
Roman reached Nora just as another bullet buried itself in the wall behind her.
He pulled her behind a marble pillar.
"You stay behind me."
"I don't deserve this," she cried.
Roman looked directly into her eyes.
"This isn't about what you deserve."
"It's about what they don't get to take."
The firefight lasted less than eight minutes.
When it ended, six attackers had surrendered.
One had escaped.
The captured leader refused to speak.
Until Roman quietly placed one photograph on the table.
A little girl.
About eight years old.
Smiling beside a woman whose face had been torn away from the picture.
The prisoner's face drained of color.
"Where did you get that?"
Roman answered softly.
"Because the woman beside her..."
He looked toward Nora standing behind the glass.
"...was her mother."
Nora felt the world stop.
"My mother..."
The prisoner lowered his head.
"We never killed her."
"We were ordered to separate you."
"She searched for you until the day she disappeared."
Everything Nora believed about her past collapsed in a single sentence.
Someone had lied.
For twenty years.
May you like
And whoever gave that order...
was still alive.
