Chapter 6 - The Unbroken Thread
Roman took a step back, as if he had been struck in the chest with an iron bar.
"No," he rasped, shaking his head violently. "No. Clara died. I searched the ruins myself. I dug through the charred wood with my bare hands until my bones showed!" He raised his black-gloved right hand, his fingers trembling. "I burned for her!"
"You burned trying to pull me out of the cellar, Roman," Sadie—Clara—said, stepping toward him, her eyes shining with unshed tears. "But your brother’s men had already taken me out through the storm drain."
Roman’s entire body went rigid. "Julian?"
"Julian set the fire," Clara said, her voice turning into hard crystal. "He wanted you dead, and he wanted your empire. When he couldn't kill you in the blaze, he told me you were dead. He kept me locked in a medical facility in Ontario for three years under a false name, keeping me drugged so I couldn't speak."
Roman’s storm-gray eyes flared with a murderous, terrifying light—a fire far more dangerous than the one that had scarred his flesh four years ago.
"Ontario..." he whispered, the realization settling into his brain like liquid lead. "Julian told me he was running our Canadian shipping lines..."
"He was using your money to keep me hidden," Clara said, stepping right up to him. She didn't look at his scars; she looked straight into his eyes. She raised her hand, resting her soft palm directly against the silver, ruined skin of his right cheek.
Roman flinched, trying to turn away. "Don't look at me, Clara," he choked out, his voice raw with four years of hidden shame. "I'm a ruin. I'm the monster they say I am."
"Look at me, Roman," Clara commanded softly, her fingers pressing firmly into his skin, forcing his gaze back to hers. "You aren't a monster. You're the man who fought through fire to save me. Do you think I care about a few scars?"
Roman looked down at her face—older now, hardened by grief and survival, but unmistakably the woman he had loved more than his own soul. Tears welled in his gray eyes, tracking down his scarred cheek over her fingers.
Beside them, Bear let out a low, happy huff, resting his massive head against both of their legs, binding them together once more.
"How did you escape?" Roman whispered, wrapping his broad arms around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest as if he feared she might dissolve into smoke if he let go.
"I stopped taking the medicine six months ago," Clara whispered into his neck, smelling the familiar pine and leather scent of him. "I waited until the guards were drunk, stole a vehicle, and crossed the border at Detroit. I took the name Sadie Quinn, got a job with Evelyn's agency, and waited for my chance to get inside this house."
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Roman held her tightly, his chest heaving as he buried his face in her hair. "Julian will pay for every second he took from us," he growled into the dark room. "I will tear his world apart piece by piece."
"Not alone," Clara said, pulling back to look at him, her pale eyes blazing with equal fury. "We do it together."
