Chapter 15 - SOMEONE ALWAYS COMES
“He can come home.”
Roman covered his eyes.
There were conditions, follow-up visits, and more work ahead. He listened to every word. Then he crossed Julia’s living room and picked up his son.
Nicholas grabbed his collar.
“Yeah,” Roman whispered. “Me, too.”
Coming home did not end the consequences.
Over the following months, Charles pleaded guilty to charges connected with the child-endangerment scheme, financial fraud, and destruction of evidence. Vivian admitted her part in arranging the staged discovery and the financial deception. Elise lost her nursing license and faced the consequences of leaving Nicholas in the car.
Roman’s records brought scrutiny to his own businesses. He paid settlements, gave up control of tainted ventures, and cooperated through counsel with investigations that remained open.
He could not erase the man he had been by loving his son.
He could decide what that man did next.
Nicholas’s follow-up appointments brought reassuring news. Roman attended every one. He kept the reports in a drawer he actually opened.
At home, the nursery door stayed open when care allowed. The monitor was an extra pair of eyes, never a substitute for walking upstairs.
Julia came for dinner on Thursdays. Sometimes she and Roman talked about Claire. Sometimes they argued about vegetables or whether Nicholas needed another stuffed animal.
The ordinary arguments felt like gifts.
Rachel rented a brighter apartment closer to her new job. Sophie started preschool and informed her teacher that she was a doctor in training.
One Saturday that fall, Roman invited them for lunch.
There were no reporters. No speeches. No photographer asking Sophie to point at a car.
The silver sedan was gone.
Beyond the garden wall, there were pots of herbs and a bench in the shade.
Sophie arrived wearing both sandals properly and carrying the same red stethoscope, repaired with tape.
Roman handed her a small box.
Inside was a new toy medical kit.
She inspected it carefully.
“This one has two bandages.”
“I checked.”
“Good. People get hurt a lot.”
Rachel looked at Roman. He looked back, and neither of them smiled until Sophie did.
Later, Nicholas pulled himself upright against the bench. He let go, swayed, and took two determined steps toward Sophie before landing on his bottom.
She knelt beside him.
“That was pretty good, patient.”
He laughed.
Roman sat down in the grass, expensive pants and all.
“You know you don’t have to watch him anymore,” he told her.
Sophie glanced at Rachel, then Julia, then back at him.
“Because you’re doing it?”
“Because we are.”
She considered that. Then she took off the red stethoscope and placed it in her mother’s bag.
For the first time since Roman had known her, she ran into the garden with nothing to carry and nobody to save.
Behind her, Nicholas made a small unhappy sound.
Roman picked him up before Sophie could turn around.
“I’m here,” he said.
Across the lawn, the little girl kept running.
May you like
Tomorrow, she would have something new to be.
Today, she finally got to be four.
