Chapter 14 - ORDINARY DAYS
The months that followed were less glamorous than any rumor about Roman Gallow. There were court dates, audits, angry former associates, and long conversations about the difference between taking responsibility and expecting forgiveness. Roman resigned from several companies, sold holdings that could not be made transparent, and placed the legitimate port business under independent management. Investigators continued examining his earlier conduct. He made no claim that cooperating entitled him to escape consequences.
Paige built a life that did not orbit the investigation. Her wrist healed after therapy, and she completed her first term in hospitality management with the highest grade she had ever earned. At the clinic she organized a community dinner that raised enough money to expand evening appointments. Elena joked that Paige had finally found a job where arguing with rich people was part of the description.
Their relationship survived because it was allowed to be inconvenient. Roman attended counseling for the grief he had spent years converting into anger. Paige learned that she could ask for help without surrendering control. They argued about security, privacy, and whether his gifts made her uncomfortable. Sometimes they went home separately. Sometimes he cooked disastrous pasta in her tiny kitchen, and she laughed so hard she had to sit on the floor.
One afternoon Paige received a letter from the administrator handling recovered employee funds. The records from her mother's notebook had helped identify workers and families owed restitution. There would be a formal claims process, independent of Roman. Paige read the letter at the same kitchen table where she had once counted rent money, and she felt the past shift slightly. Nothing could give her mother back the years she had lost. But the truth had finally reached people who could act on it.
Roman arrived with news of his own. The prosecutors had agreed to a formal resolution of certain financial charges, with penalties and continuing oversight; other investigations remained subject to the courts. He did not ask Paige to celebrate. Instead, he asked whether she would come with him to visit the graves of his brothers. She said yes.
At the cemetery, Roman left three small stones beside the flowers. Paige stood a few steps away, giving him the privacy grief deserved. When he returned, he told her he wanted to make a home with her someday, but only when they could both choose it freely. Paige squeezed his hand. “Someday sounds good,” she said. “Let's make sure we like all the ordinary days before we decide.”
Paige and Roman discovered that dating without a crisis required unexpected skills. He did not know how to choose produce without consulting a housekeeper. She did not know how to relax when someone else paid for dinner. They compromised by cooking together, splitting groceries, and making a rule that either could end an argument without disappearing. Some evenings they failed. On the better evenings they apologized before the dishes were done.
May you like
At the clinic's first planning meeting for the annual benefit, Paige proposed that the event include patient stories only when patients freely volunteered and reviewed how their stories would be used. She refused the familiar fundraising habit of turning hardship into entertainment. Elena backed her, and the committee agreed. Paige went home exhilarated by a victory no newspaper would report.
====================================================================
