Chapter 7
Roman asked Nora a question he had avoided.
“Why did you leave me originally?”
They sat on the terrace while Sophie played inside with Maria.
Nora looked at him.
“You know why.”
“I know what I remember.”
“That’s not always the same thing.”
Fair.
Nora took a breath.
She had loved Roman.
That had never been the problem.
The problem was the world around him.
Men arriving after midnight.
Security outside restaurants.
Phone calls that ended conversations.
Roman disappearing for days without explanation.
Helena constantly reminding Nora that women who joined the D’Angelo family followed rules.
After Sophie was born, Nora became more afraid.
“I wanted our own house.”
“I agreed.”
“You agreed after six months of fighting.”
Roman accepted that too.
“I thought you were trying to take Sophie from me.”
“I thought you were trying to turn her into someone who would think armed guards at breakfast were normal.”
They sat with that.
Then Nora said something Roman did not remember.
“Your mother offered me money to disappear before Sophie turned one.”
Roman looked at her.
“What?”
“Two hundred thousand dollars.”
“When?”
“About two months before I moved.”
“What did you say?”
“No.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did.”
Roman stared.
“No.”
“Yes.”
She described the night.
Roman had just returned from Atlantic City.
Nora told him Helena offered her money.
Roman remembered the argument.
But he remembered Nora saying Helena wanted her out of the house.
Not that Helena offered money.
“Did I not hear you?”
Nora looked at him.
“You told me I was turning every disagreement with your mother into a conspiracy.”
Roman closed his eyes.
He remembered saying something close to that.
This was not part of Helena’s deception.
This was his failure.
Helena had learned something from that argument.
Nora could tell Roman the truth and still not necessarily be believed if Helena made the truth sound like emotional conflict.
Roman opened his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Nora looked almost irritated.
“For which part?”
“All of it that belongs to me.”
That answer quieted her.
The investigation was revealing Helena’s plan.
May you like
But it was also revealing why the plan had been possible.
Helena understood Roman’s blind spots because she had spent fifty-three years helping create them.
