Chapter 6 - The UnravelingThe private interrogation room beneath the Calder shipping docks smelled of salt water, damp timber, and old diesel.
Evelyn Sterling sat strapped to a heavy wooden chair, her expensive red coat stained with warehouse grime, her hair hanging in greasy strands around her pale face. The haughty, untouchable socialite was entirely gone, replaced by a terrified woman trembling in the damp dark.
The heavy iron door swung open with a hollow screech, and Roman stepped into the room. He didn't raise his voice; he didn't need to. The sheer, crushing weight of his presence filled the small space like a rising tide.
He pulled up a metal chair, sat down directly in front of her, and rested his elbows on his knees, staring at her with dead, unblinking eyes.
“R-Roman,” Evelyn stammered, her voice cracking. “Please... it was a mistake! That girl, she manipulated you! She wanted our life, our wealth! You can’t do this to me—my father will go to the police, the press will—!”
“Your father’s company is currently filing for emergency bankruptcy protection,” Roman interrupted smoothly, his voice like sliding glaciers. “And as for the press, any reporter who tries to run your family’s name will find themselves buried under so many federal securities fraud indictments they won’t see daylight for twenty years.”
Evelyn began to sob hysterically, thrashing against the heavy leather straps binding her wrists. “Why are you doing this over a kitchen maid?! She’s a nobody! She’s trash from Highlandtown!”
Roman stood up slowly, leaning down until his face was inches from hers. His voice dropped to a terrifying whisper.
“She is not trash, Evelyn. She is everything you could never be: loyal, strong, honest, and real,” Roman said, his eyes blazing with contempt. “You thought you could play god with people’s lives because your family had a crest on their stationery. You thought you could hurt a child just to secure your social status.”
He reached out, slowly peeling a sparkling diamond ring off her finger—the engagement ring he had given her three years ago—and dropped it onto the concrete floor with a sharp, metallic clink.
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“Our engagement is over,” Roman said coldly. “By noon today, your family will be stripped of every commercial asset in Maryland. You are going to pack whatever you can carry in a single suitcase, board a cargo ship heading for South America, and never, ever set foot in Baltimore again. If you ever return, or if you ever breathe a word about Nora Hayes or her brother, I won’t just ruin you. I will end you.”
Evelyn stared at him, finally realizing the horrifying truth: the man she thought she understood was a monster, and she had just unleashed him upon herself.
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