Chapter 7 - The Confrontation on Marble
The lobby of Romano Tower was completely silent except for Maya's sobbing.
"Get up!" Vance growled, pulling Maya by her coat collar while another guard tried to lift the unconscious Hannah from the floor. "You're going to jail for this!"
"Let go of me!" Maya screamed, kicking his shins with her small sneakers. "Help! Somebody help my mom!"
DING.
The private executive elevator doors slid open with a heavy, metallic hiss.
Charles Romano walked out.
He didn't walk; he strode across the marble floor like a storm cloud, his long black coat billowing behind him. His jaw was set in pure, unadulterated fury, his eyes burning with a lethal light that made the surrounding staff instantly back away in terror.
"Vance!" Charles’s voice boomed through the lobby, rough, unmodulated, and echoing like thunder off the marble walls.
Vance froze, dropping Maya’s coat collar as if it had turned into white-hot iron. "M-Mr. Romano! Sir! I'm so sorry for this disruption! These beggars snuck into the lobby and—"
Charles didn't even look at Vance. He walked straight past him, dropped to his knees on the cold marble floor beside Maya and her unconscious mother.
Maya pulled back instinctively, her dark eyes wide with fear, holding her small hands up in front of her face.
Charles looked at the small girl. Slowly, deliberately, he lifted his large, powerful hands and brought his thumb to his forehead, sweeping it down across his cheek, then tapping his palm softly.
I am listening, Charles signed, his hands moving with quiet, profound reverence. Tell me.
Maya looked at the billionaire kneeling before her in the dirt of the lobby floor. She looked at his ears, noticing the sleek hearing aids behind them.
Understanding swept through her like a wave of warm light.
He doesn't hear with ears, Maya realized. He hears like Leo.
Maya wiped her tears with her lavender sleeve, stepped closer to Charles, and brought her small hands up into the air.
Today, Maya signed clearly. Behind Romano Italian restaurant. 2:00 PM. Boy sitting by trash. Crying. Hungry. Trying eat moldy bread.
Charles’s breath hitched in his throat. His hands trembled as he signed back: My son... Leo?
Yes, Maya signed. Stepmother come. Pull his arm hard. Take silver watch from his pocket. Put watch in her coat. Tell man on phone Leo run away. Stepmother lie! She leave him there to suffer!
Behind them, the elevator doors opened again, and Victoria stepped into the lobby, her high heels clicking rapidly as she rushed forward.
"Charles!" Victoria gasped, her face pale as snow. "Darling, don't listen to this crazy child! She’s trying to extort us! Vance, get them out of here immediately!"
Charles stood up slowly.
He turned around to face his wife. The warmth that had been in his eyes when looking at Maya vanished completely, replaced by an absolute, terrifying abyss.
He reached out his hand toward Victoria.
"Give me your coat," Charles commanded, his voice deadly low.
Victoria took a step back, her hand flying to her throat. "What? Charles, don't be ridiculous—"
"GIVE ME YOUR COAT!" Charles roared, his voice echoing off the glass walls so loudly that every person in the lobby flinched.
Two senior corporate security guards stepped forward instantly, blocking Victoria’s exit.
Victoria’s hands shook uncontrollably as she unbuttoned her camel-hair coat and handed it to Charles.
Charles reached his hand deep into the right side pocket of the coat.
His fingers brushed against cold metal.
He pulled his hand out.
Sitting in the palm of his hand was a small, heavy silver pocket watch with a broken leather strap, engraved with the initials: V.A.R.
It was the watch Clara Romano had given to her son Leo before she died—the watch that had gone "missing" six months ago.
Charles stared at the watch in his palm. A single, heavy tear escaped his eye and tracked down his cheek.
He looked up at Victoria.
Victoria backed away until her spine hit the glass wall, her eyes filled with absolute, paralyzing horror.
"Charles... please..." Victoria whimpered, her charm completely shattered. "I... I did it for us! The boy is broken! He drives me crazy! I just wanted him out of our lives so we could have a real family!"
Charles didn't say a single word to her. He raised his hand and pointed a single, trembling finger toward the main entrance.
Four armed police officers, who had been called by the building staff minutes earlier, stepped through the revolving doors.
May you like
"Arrest her," Charles ordered flatly. "For child abuse, endangerment, and grand larceny."
Victoria screamed and struggled as the officers snapped steel handcuffs around her wrists, dragging her out of the grand lobby in full view of dozens of employees and news cameras that had already begun gathering outside.
