Chapter 47: Chapter 47
Rome’s mother was still crying. He’d been home for a few hours, and she was still sobbing as if he was the one that was dead. His father and McNair had spent most of that time in the study while Rome sat in his bloodstained shirt with his arm around his mother, apologizing.
Eventually, the two men came out. “Lacy, why don’t you leave us be for a few moments?” Monty asked in a tone that conveyed it wasn’t a question.
Wiping at her eyes, Lacy got up and walked out of the room, still sobbing but getting control of herself.
“We have made a decision,” Rome’s father said, sitting across from him on a leather sofa that looked identical to the one where he was sitting. “You’ll be going to Italy for a while.”
“What?” Rome could hardly believe what he was hearing. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, as soon as Mark’s service is over, which we’ve learned will be held the day after tomorrow, you will be going to stay at our family home in Verona, Italy, until this all blows over. Do not attempt to argue with me about this, son. It has already been decided.”
Rome was shaking his head, though his lips wouldn’t work. Eventually, he got control of his mouth. “You don’t understand, Father. I don’t want to run away from this. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“We know that, and we don’t think you’ll be charged. But… we want to make sure you’re out of the spotlight for a bit. Besides, we’ve heard about your recent… legal obligations. That seems to be the root of this newfound evil. It will also be taken care of shortly.”
All of the blood drained out of his face. Of course, they’d figured it out. He shouldn’t be surprised at all to know that his father could find out anything he wanted to. “You can’t do that. She’ll never sign the paperwork, and neither will I.”
Monty Verona laughed. “Do you think that’s necessary, Rome? Don’t you know me well enough to understand that won’t stop me from getting what I want?” He slammed his fist down on his leg, hard. “To think… after all I’ve done for you, you go behind my back and marry her--Sinders’s daughter! How could you do something so underhanded, Rome? You’re an embarrassment to your name!”
“I love her, Father! I don’t care what my name is or what hers is! We love each other!”
“Love? Who are you to speak of love? You don’t even know what the word means! If you want to love someone, love your parents--love your family! Instead, you let Sinders’s little whore of a daughter nearly get you locked up for the rest of your life.”
At the use of such an ugly word to describe his wife, Rome jumped up, pointing his finger at his father. “Don’t you ever speak of my wife that way again?”
Monty Verona was not messing around. He stood as well and backhanded Rome hard enough to send blood splattering all over the couch behind him. “You ungrateful bastard. You keep this up, you won’t even be attending Mark’s service. I’ll have you on a plane and out of here before you can lift an eyebrow at me. Now, where’s your phone?”
“I don’t have it!” Rome shouted back, letting the blood drip from his lip. He refused to cover the wound.
“Where is it?”
“In the ocean!” Rome screamed. “Where I may as well be!”
“Yes, go ahead and feel sorry for yourself. Go to your room. Don’t even think of leaving. There are more armed men in this house at the moment than in most jails. Consider yourself a prisoner.”
Rome didn’t have to be told twice. With a glare at the smug lawyer, he walked out of the room, hoping Bart actually had his phone, and he’d be smart enough to lie to his father about it, should he attempt to walk in the front door.
He had to find a way to reach Ella. She must be in so much pain at the moment, having lost her cousin and contact with her husband at the same time.
Rome entered a room he hadn’t called his own in years and locked the door, assuming there’d be men moving in to guard the exit soon enough. This window wouldn’t allow him to get down. It was on the second story with nothing to climb and no roof below. He was trapped.
Collapsing on his bed, he let himself think about how different this day would end than how it had begun, and despite being a grown man, he began to cry.
About an hour after Mary had gone home, saying she’d consider Ella’s offer to come and work for her as her personal assistant, the same butler who’d led Mary in earlier ushered in new guests, unwanted ones.
Ella had been sitting with her bare feet tucked underneath her, staring at the wall, but when her father, his lawyer, Bob Shiner, and Henry walked in, Ella stood, not sure what she should do. The three of them were dressed in suits, and the older gentlemen looked extremely serious as if Ella was the one accused of murder. Henry only looked sympathetic.
“Father. You’re home,” Ella said as her dad stepped over to her, wrapping his arms around her.
“Yes, of course. I headed home as soon as your mother called with the news.” He stepped back and looked her over as Ella decided to let his misspoken title go. “How are you doing?”
“Not well,” Ella admitted as the three men sat down across from her. She slid her feet back into her shoes, as if she might need to run again, as she had the last time she’d sat across from her father, and sat back on the couch.
“It’s a horrible thing that has happened,” her father said, shaking his head. “Tim was a good man.”
“Yes, he was. He’s been one of my best friends my entire life.”
“Did you know he’d taken to carrying a gun?”
Ella nodded, wondering where her father was taking this conversation. Bob set his briefcase across his lap, resting his fat fingers on top of it. “He told me about it last week. But… he said it was because he feared for my safety.”
“Your safety?” Lloyd Sinders scratched his chin. “Who did he fear might harm you?”
“Your men,” she said, directly. “You had them break into my apartment, didn’t you?”
He snorted. “You know I’d never let anyone hurt you, Ella.”
“Tim was afraid that you’d let them take me back to your house against my will. That was what you’d intended, wasn’t it?”
“I told you already, Ella, I wanted you to stay home, to get to know Henry.”
“But that’s not what I wanted. Tim knew that. He was trying to protect me.”
“But it wasn’t my men he ended up having to protect himself from, was it? No, it was those awful Veronas.”
At the sound of Rome’s last name, Ella sucked in a deep breath and held it. “I wasn’t there, but I’ve heard it was Mark Hutio and Tim who were arguing. Mark is not a Verona.”
“He runs with that Rome, though. Or did anyway.” He shook his head. “He may as well be a Verona.”
“Father, he’s dead. Tim shot him.”
“And then Rome Verona drowned Tim.” Her father said it as if it was a fact.
“That’s not true.” Ella tried to keep her words measured. “We can’t blame anyone else for what happened to Tim. It was an accident. They both fell in. I’ve even heard that Rome was trying to find him, to pull him out, but Tim got away from him. We both know Tim couldn’t swim and didn’t care for the water.”
“Why in the world are you speaking out on behalf of Rome Verona?” Lloyd asked, the expression on his face shifting.
Ella knew, then, that he had information he wasn’t giving her, information that would catch her in a lie if she wasn’t careful. “I don’t want to blame anyone for Tim’s death. It was an accident.”
Lloyd Sinders cleared his throat, and Bob opened his briefcase. Ella gasped when he pulled out a white shoe decorated with pink rhinestones. “Do you know what this is?” her dad asked.
Ella nodded. “It’s a shoe.” She tried not to be too sarcastic. Did he know everything, or was he just hoping she’d confirm it?
“Do you know where we got it?”
Studying the shoe for a moment, Ella realized it was the one she’d lost or one that looked exactly like it. “I imagine you got it from a member of the paparazzi. You probably paid quite a lot for it, too.”
“And do you know why I’d go to so much trouble to get this particular shoe?” Her father’s eyebrows were knit together as he stared at her, his dark eyes boring holes into her skull.
“I guess at some point, one procures so much money, they have nothing better to do with it.” Ella kept her chin up and her voice even, and ignored the chuckle that escaped Henry’s lips before he covered his mouth.
Her father didn’t think that was funny. He turned to the man on his left and glared at him. Henry apologized, and Lloyd continued to stare at him for a few more moments before he turned back to Ella. “If one were to search the closet in your apartment, might they find the matching shoe? Or would I need to send my men to Rome Verona’s apartment, which happens to be in the same complex, to find the match?”
“Something tells me you already know the answer to that,” Ella replied. She’d left the shoe in a box in her closet--above her wedding dress. If her father had been there, he’d found all of it. But then, he must’ve already put the facts together in order to have the shoe on the table in front of her since she’d left it behind at the chapel. It probably didn’t take much of a search into Rome’s recent activities to see that he’d gotten married in Vegas. Her father would recognize her in the pictures, even though no one else would.
It surprised Ella that he found her comment humorous, but this time, it was her father who laughed. Bob Shiner opened up his briefcase again and pulled out the matching shoe. Ella wasn’t surprised at all. “I love him.”
No longer laughing, Lloyd Sinders dragged his hands down his pale face. “You snuck off to Las Vegas and married the son of my archenemy. Now, that man has killed your own cousin, and you expect me to allow this sham to continue because you love him?”
Feeling the heat rising in her skin, Ella took a deep breath. “It’s not a sham, Father. I love him. He is my husband. He didn’t kill Tim.”
“Enough, Ella! Enough!” He banged his hand down on the coffee table. “Your stepmother was right to lock you in the attic! Ella--this is over with! Your marriage to Rome Verona will be annulled the moment the courts are open Monday morning. As soon as Tim’s services are over, you will return with me to Paris and marry Henry!”
“Never!” Ella stood her hands in fists. “You can’t make me do any of that!”
“I can--and I will!”
“I’ll never sign--never!”
“You won’t have to!” he shouted back, standing. He reached for her, but Ella knocked his hands away, ready to run again. “This is not up for debate, Ella! If you want to stay for the services, you will not give me any trouble! I never should’ve allowed you out of the attic! You’ve caused shame and misery to befall my household--this is the last of it! And don’t even think about attempting to leave this house!”