Chapter 4 - Roman’s Story
“Where are you?”
Roman answered immediately.
“My attorney’s office.”
That was smart.
It also told me he expected trouble.
He agreed to meet investigators with counsel present.
I went too.
Roman looked worse than I had ever seen him.
No tailored confidence.
No jokes.
Just exhaustion.
“Mia called me at 1:48 that morning,” he said.
“Why you?”
“She didn’t trust your phone.”
That hurt.
I kept listening.
Roman said Mia believed someone was monitoring her movements inside the mansion. She had discovered documents connected to my late brother Adrian’s finances.
“What documents?”
“She wouldn’t tell me over the phone.”
Roman arrived through the service gate at 2:13.
Claire let him in.
That matched the vehicle.
“What did she say?”
“She told me Mia had locked herself in the cellar after having some kind of breakdown.”
Claire had lied to him too.
Roman opened the cellar.
Mia was inside.
Alive.
Furious.
“She said Claire put her there.”
My hands curled.
“What happened next?”
“I got Mia upstairs.”
“Then why didn’t you call me?”
Roman stared at the table.
“Because Mia begged me not to.”
“Why?”
“She said you were part of whatever Adrian had been doing.”
My dead brother.
Now the room felt smaller.
Roman drove Mia away from the mansion.
That contradicted his earlier statement.
“You just said she didn’t leave the property with you.”
“She didn’t.”
He swallowed.
“We reached the west gate. Mia saw a black sedan parked outside.”
“What sedan?”
“I don’t know.”
“She panicked. Told me to turn around.”
Roman brought her back.
At 2:54, Mia left his SUV near the guesthouse because she believed whoever was outside would follow Roman if he drove away.
“Where did she go?”
“I don’t know.”
“You left her?”
“She ordered me to.”
I stood.
Roman didn’t flinch.
“I know how it sounds.”
“It sounds like you abandoned my brother’s widow while someone was hunting her.”
“Yes.”
The admission took some heat out of my anger because he didn’t hide behind excuses.
Roman handed investigators his dashcam storage.
It showed Mia in the passenger seat.
Alive.
Wearing the silver bird pendant.
Timestamp 2:37 a.m.
That was our first major payoff.
Mia had been locked in the cellar.
Roman freed her.
She survived that confinement.
Whatever happened next happened later.
Then the dashcam showed something else.
When Roman returned toward the mansion, the black sedan followed.
At 2:51, its headlights disappeared behind them.
At 2:53, the dashcam cut out.
Roman swore he hadn’t touched it.
Investigators later found the power cable had been physically cut.
From inside the vehicle.
May you like
Mia had cut it herself.
📖 Mia deliberately disabled Roman’s camera before disappearing again, which meant she was hiding something even from the man trying to rescue her. 👇
