Chương 3
The small movement reminded everyone that the world was still continuing outside their family disaster.
People were still cleaning.
People were still watching.
People were still deciding what they would say tomorrow.
Roman noticed Sophie staring at the shattered glasses.
He took off his suit jacket and carefully placed it around her shoulders.
The jacket swallowed her small frame.
She looked down at it.
“Is this yours?”
“Yes.”
“You need it.”
“I know.”
“Then why give it to me?”
Roman paused.
Because he had no simple answer.
Because the real answer was too painful.
Because he had spent years protecting his reputation while his daughter needed protection from things money could not reach.
“Because you’re cold.”
Sophie accepted that answer.
Children often understood more than adults gave them credit for.
Nora watched quietly.
“You still do that,” she said.
Roman looked at her.
“Do what?”
“Pretend practical things are easier to talk about than feelings.”
He looked away.
It was an accusation he could not deny.
Before he could respond, Helena walked toward the nearest table and picked up her handbag.
The movement was small.
But Roman noticed.
“What are you doing?”
Helena stopped.
“Leaving.”
“No.”
Her eyebrows lifted.
“You think you can order me around?”
Roman stepped between her and the door.
“I think you owe me answers.”
Helena stared at him.
“You always believed control was the same as strength.”
Roman’s expression changed slightly.
“Maybe.”
The honesty surprised her.
“But hiding a child from her father was never strength.”
Helena looked toward Sophie.
For a moment, something almost human appeared on her face.
Regret.
Then it disappeared.
“She was going to hate you.”
Roman frowned.
“What?”
Helena held the handbag tighter.
“You were never around enough.”
Nora flinched.
Roman did not.
Not because it did not hurt.
Because it did.
But he refused to let Helena use his failures to justify hers.
“I made mistakes.”
The admission caused a few guests to look at him differently.
“I missed things.”
He looked at Sophie.
“I should have been there more.”
Sophie stared at him.
“But I would have chosen her.”
The room went silent.
Helena’s face changed.
Roman continued.
“Every single time.”
For a second, nobody moved.
Then Sophie slowly reached for his hand.
Roman looked down at her small fingers touching his.
It was the first time she had chosen to touch him.
Not because she was afraid.
Not because she needed to hide.
Because she wanted to.
The moment was interrupted by the sound of a phone vibrating.
Everyone looked around.
The sound came from Helena’s handbag.
Her face changed immediately.
Roman saw it.
“What is that?”
“Nothing.”
“Your phone is ringing.”
Helena did not move.
Roman held out his hand.
“Give it to me.”
She laughed softly.
“You have become very demanding.”
“And you have become very nervous.”
The guests watched as Helena finally opened the bag.
She reached inside.
Roman noticed the hesitation before she pulled the phone out.
A message notification glowed on the screen.
She turned it away.
Too late.
Roman had already seen enough.
There was a name at the top.
Nora.
Not a contact name.
A saved conversation.
Nora saw it too.
Her face drained of color.
“I never messaged her,” Nora said.
Helena looked at her.
“That is not true.”
“I swear to God.”
Roman took one step closer.
“Why is my mother texting my daughter’s mother?”
Nobody answered.
Outside the banquet hall, traffic moved through the city as if nothing had happened.
Inside, the most powerful family in the room stood frozen around a phone that had just changed everything.
Helena looked at Roman.
The confidence was gone.
The performance was gone.
What remained was a woman realizing the story she controlled was no longer hers.
“You should have stayed away,” she said quietly.
Roman stared at her.
“From my daughter?”
Helena looked at Sophie.
“No.”
Her voice dropped.
“From the truth.”
Roman did not answer immediately.
The room had become too quiet for a normal conversation, the kind of silence where every person present could feel something important moving beneath the surface.
Helena had always been good at controlling rooms.
She knew when to smile.
She knew when to interrupt.
She knew when to make someone feel guilty before they realized they were being manipulated.
But now her hands were no longer steady.
The phone trembled slightly between her fingers.
Roman noticed.
Nora noticed.
Even Sophie noticed.
Children often recognized fear before they understood the reason behind it.
“Who was that message from?” Roman asked.
Helena placed the phone back into her handbag.
“That is private.”
Roman almost smiled.
Not because it was funny.
Because the answer was exactly what he expected.
“Private ended when you made decisions about my daughter.”
Helena looked at him with a mixture of anger and disappointment.
“You think everything revolves around you.”
“No.”
Roman glanced at Sophie.
“Everything revolves around her.”
The sentence was simple.
It was also the first time anyone in that room had heard Roman speak without protecting his image.
The powerful men who worked for him had spent years believing he cared about only two things.
His name.
His control.
They had never seen him admit weakness.
They had never seen him stand in front of a room full of people and say that one person mattered more than everything else.
Nora looked at the floor.
“I should have fought harder.”
Roman turned toward her.
She did not look away this time.
“I should have taken her and left.”
“You were scared.”
“Yes.”
Her honesty surprised him.
“I was.”
The admission carried no excuse.
Only exhaustion.
“I was alone, Roman.”
The words came slowly.
“I had a child who was sick all the time because she was barely eating, and I had people telling me you were dangerous, telling me your life would destroy hers.”
Roman’s face tightened.
“Who told you that?”
Nora looked at Helena.
May you like
The answer was obvious.
But obvious was not the same as proven.
