CHAPTER 2: “THE NAME THAT SHOULD NOT EXIST”
Emma felt the air change the moment Roman Callahan said it.
Caleb.
Her daughter stirred slightly in Roman’s arms, still asleep under his dark jacket, unaware she was resting against a man whose name made Chicago criminals lower their voices.
Emma’s throat tightened.
“That’s… impossible,” she said quietly.
Roman’s eyes sharpened.
“You know something.”
It wasn’t a question.
It was a fact.
Emma shook her head too quickly. “No. I just… you said Caleb Price. That’s a common name.”
Roman studied her face like he could see lies the way others saw light.
“Not in my family,” he said.
A long silence followed.
Somewhere outside the office, thunder rolled over Chicago, shaking the glass behind Roman’s desk.
Emma forced herself to breathe evenly.
“My daughter’s father,” she said carefully, “was named Caleb Price.”
The room didn’t move.
But Roman did.
Very slightly.
Like something inside him had shifted its weight.
“Say that again,” he said.
Emma swallowed.
“He worked at a garage in Pilsen. He disappeared before she was born.”
Roman set Lily down gently on the leather couch without waking her.
Then he turned back to Emma.
And for the first time since she entered his office, he didn’t look like a boss.
He looked like something sharper.
“Describe him,” Roman said.
Emma hesitated.
“Brown hair. Scar on his left hand. Always smelled like engine oil and cheap coffee.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
Emma continued, quieter now.
“He used to hum when he fixed things. Old country songs. He said he didn’t like silence.”
Roman’s hand slowly curled into a fist.
Then—
he reached into his desk drawer.
And pulled out a photo.
He slid it across the table.
Emma looked at it.
And went completely still.
It was Caleb.
But not just Caleb.
Caleb standing beside a younger Roman Callahan.
Both of them smiling.
Before the world had broken them into different men.
Emma’s voice barely worked.
“You… knew him.”
Roman didn’t answer immediately.
Then:“He was my brother.”
The words landed like a gunshot that didn’t make noise.
Emma shook her head.
“No. That’s not possible. Caleb never mentioned—”
“Because he left,” Roman cut in.
His voice stayed controlled, but something underneath it was breaking through.
“He took something. Something that belonged to people who don’t ask twice.”
Emma felt her stomach drop.
“That’s not who he was.”
Roman looked at Lily.
“She exists because of him,” he said quietly.
That hit harder than anything else.
Emma stepped back.
“You think he stole something and ran?”
Roman didn’t deny it.
“That’s what I know.”
Emma’s voice rose slightly. “Then you don’t know him.”
Roman stepped closer.
“And you do?”
Silence.
Because Emma didn’t have proof.
Only memory.
Caleb laughing in a tiny apartment kitchen.
Caleb fixing broken toys instead of buying new ones.
Caleb crying when she told him she was pregnant because he was afraid—not of responsibility—but of the life he couldn’t promise her.
Finally, Emma whispered:
“He was scared. Not guilty. Scared.”
Roman didn’t respond.
But something in his expression shifted again.
Not belief.
Not yet.
May you like
But doubt.
And in Roman Callahan’s world, doubt was dangerous.
