Chapter 6: What Daria Wanted
Roman didn't sit down.
He stood near the window with his back half-turned while Ethan told him.
His hands were in his coat pockets.
He didn't move.
He didn't interrupt.
He let his son speak in that careful, precise way — every detail in order, the hand on his back, the words, the smile — and when Ethan finished, the room was silent for a long time.
Then Roman turned around.
His face was composed.
That was the frightening part.
"You waited to tell me," he said to Ethan.
"I wanted to make sure Claire was okay first."
Roman looked at Claire.
She held his gaze.
"Smart," he said finally.
To Ethan.
Not to her.
He crossed to the bed and sat on the edge of it.
He put one hand on the back of Ethan's head, briefly, the way you touch something you almost lost.
Then he stood back up.
"I need to make some calls," he said.
"Vera will stay with you."
"Dad."
Roman stopped.
"Don't do something bad," Ethan said.
The words sat in the air.
Roman looked at his son for a moment that stretched.
"I'm going to find her," he said.
"That's all."
"That's not all and you know it."
Roman's jaw tightened.
He glanced at Claire — just once, quickly, as if checking whether she'd heard — and then he looked back at his son.
"Get some rest," he said quietly.
And he left.
Claire followed him into the hallway.
"Roman."
He stopped but didn't turn.
"She said 'tell your father I said hello,'" Claire said.
"That's not the language of someone who wants you dead.
That's someone who wants you scared.
Someone who wants you to make a move."
He turned slowly.
"I know what it is."
"Then you know going after her directly is what she's counting on."
"Miss Bennett—"
"She pushed your son into a river to get your attention," Claire said.
"She has it now.
Whatever she actually wants, this was just the opening.
If you react the way she expects, she controls everything that happens next."
Roman studied her.
"You're a nurse," he said.
"I'm a nurse who spent six years in an emergency room watching people make the worst decisions of their lives in the first sixty seconds after something terrible happened." She met his eyes.
"Don't be that person."
The hallway was quiet.
From somewhere deeper in the house, a phone rang once and stopped.
"Daria Voss left my organization eight months ago," Roman said.
"She didn't leave clean.
She took something."
"What?"
"Information.
Names.
Specifically — the names of three people who testified against a man named Viktor Hale in a federal case four years ago.
Sealed testimony.
Daria was in a position to access it."
"Viktor Hale." Claire turned the name over.
"Any relation to your Dr.
Hale?"
Roman's expression didn't change.
"His brother."
The floor shifted slightly under Claire's feet.
"Your son's doctor tonight," she said slowly, "is the brother of the man whose sealed witnesses Daria Voss stole."
"Marcus Hale has nothing to do with his brother's business.
He hasn't for fifteen years.
I trust him completely."
"Does Daria know that?"
Roman went very still.
May you like
Then he turned and walked quickly back toward Ethan's room.
Claire was already moving.
