Chapter 2 - THE MAFIA BOSS WHO REMEMBERED SEVEN DOLLARS
Roman Vale had imagined finding Nora Ellis thousands of times.
In some versions, she lived in a comfortable house surrounded by flowers.
In others, she owned a little restaurant, had a husband who adored her, and children who greeted her when she came home.
He imagined handing her a check.
Buying her a house.
Giving her every luxury she had sacrificed so he could eat one freezing November night.
Never once had he imagined finding her bleeding in the gutter.
Now he stood beside the ruined shopping cart, watching her collect the remaining cans.
"Nora, stop."
She shook her head.
"I still have to turn these in."
"You don't have to worry about them."
She looked up.
"That's easy for someone wearing a thousand-dollar coat to say."
Roman glanced at his coat around her shoulders.
"It cost more than that."
For a moment, they stared at each other.
Then Nora laughed.
It was a small, exhausted laugh, but the sound struck Roman harder than anything he had heard in years.
He remembered it.
He had carried that sound through prison-like training compounds, bloody family disputes, and cold hotel rooms where sleep never came easily.
It was the laugh of the only stranger who had ever treated him like he mattered.
He crouched beside her.
"Let me help."
She hesitated.
Then handed him a plastic bottle.
His security team watched in astonishment as Chicago's most feared criminal boss began gathering recyclables from the pavement.
Nora noticed their expressions.
"Your friends look confused."
"They usually are."
"Do they know how to recycle?"
Roman looked toward Daniel.
"Apparently they're about to learn."
Within minutes, several suited men were helping collect cans.
It was the strangest thing Nora had ever witnessed.
When they finished, Roman directed someone to replace the damaged cart and arrange compensation for the lost recyclables through the proper process.
Then he turned to Nora.
"Have you eaten?"
She looked away.
Roman recognized the expression.
Ten years earlier, he had worn it himself.
"Nora."
"Some crackers this morning."
His jaw tightened.
"Come have dinner."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Somebody's waiting for me."
Roman went still.
"A husband?"
Nora shook her head.
"My little girl."
His eyes widened.
"You have a daughter?"
"Her name is Lucy. She's eight."
"Where is she?"
"At home. My neighbor's watching her."
Roman noticed the worry in her face.
"Then we should go get her."
Nora stared.
"We?"
He gave a hesitant smile.
"If that's all right."
Forty minutes later, Roman stood in a third-floor apartment that looked as though the landlord had forgotten its existence.
The wallpaper peeled beside the windows.
A bucket caught water beneath a stain on the ceiling.
A small electric heater sat unplugged near the sofa.
Yet every surface was clean.
Children's drawings covered the walls.
One showed a woman with brown hair holding hands with a little girl.
Above them were the words:
ME AND AUNT NORA.
Roman studied the picture.
"Aunt?"
Nora removed his coat.
"Lucy isn't my biological daughter."
She explained that Lucy's mother, Grace Bennett, had been a friend she met while working nights at a downtown diner.
Grace had died when Lucy was still a baby.
There had been no father willing to step forward, and the relatives who could be located couldn't care for her.
Nora had obtained guardianship and raised Lucy herself.
Roman looked around the apartment.
"You've been doing all this alone?"
Nora shrugged.
"That's what family does."
He lowered his eyes.
He had grown up among people who called themselves family while plotting one another's deaths.
Nora had built a home with a child who shared none of her blood.
Then the bedroom door opened.
A little girl with curly brown hair and enormous hazel eyes appeared.
"Aunt Nora!"
She ran into Nora's arms.
Roman watched Nora kneel and embrace the child.
Her entire face changed.
The tiredness disappeared.
For a few seconds, there was only love.
Then Lucy noticed him.
"Who's that?"
Nora smiled.
"An old friend."
Lucy studied Roman's suit.
"Is he rich?"
"Lucy!"
Roman laughed.
"That's a fair question."
"Do you have a big house?"
"Yes."
"Does it have a swimming pool?"
"Two."
Lucy's mouth fell open.
"Two swimming pools?"
Roman nodded solemnly.
"Very inconvenient. Sometimes I forget which one I'm swimming in."
Lucy burst into laughter.
Nora shook her head.
"You're encouraging her."
"She's asking excellent questions."
Then Lucy looked at the empty grocery bag Nora carried.
"Did you get dinner?"
The smile faded from Nora's face.
Roman saw it immediately.
He crouched beside Lucy.
"Actually, I was hoping you could help me choose a restaurant."
Her eyes widened.
"A real restaurant?"
"Absolutely."
"With chicken nuggets?"
"As many as you want."
Lucy looked at Nora.
"Please?"
Nora glanced toward Roman.
He understood the hesitation.
She wasn't proud.
She was afraid that accepting help would create a debt.
"I don't expect anything," he said quietly.
Her eyes filled.
After a moment, she nodded.
"Just dinner."
Roman smiled.
"Just dinner."
At the restaurant, Lucy ordered chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and chocolate milk.
Nora selected the least expensive item.
Roman pretended not to notice.
Instead, he asked about her life.
She told him about cleaning office buildings, collecting cans, and caring for Lucy.
But when he asked about her dreams, she fell silent.
"Dreams?" she repeated.
"Something you've always wanted."
Nora looked down at her hands.
"Years ago, I wanted to open a little diner."
Roman smiled.
"Really?"
"My mother taught me to cook. She always said nobody should leave our table hungry."
She paused.
"Life got complicated."
Roman looked at Lucy, happily eating her dinner.
He understood the things Nora wasn't saying.
She had given away her future to care for other people.
Just as she had given away her last seven dollars for him.
After dessert, Roman reached into his wallet.
He removed a folded, worn receipt protected inside a clear plastic sleeve.
Nora stared at it.
Chicken soup.
Two rolls.
One bottle of water.
Total: $6.87.
"You kept that?"
"Every day."
Her eyes filled.
"Roman..."
"People have offered me millions," he said. "But nobody ever gave me as much as you did."
He placed the receipt between them.
"You gave me food when you couldn't afford your own. You gave me your mother's scarf. You protected me from men who wanted me dead."
His voice grew unsteady.
"I never forgot."
Nora reached across the table and squeezed his hand.
"You were a scared kid. That's all."
Roman looked at her.
"No, Nora. I was a kid who was about to die."
Before she could respond, Daniel approached the table.
His face was grim.
"Boss, we need a word."
Roman glanced at Nora and Lucy.
"Can it wait?"
"No."
Roman excused himself.
Daniel showed him the photograph from ten years earlier.
Roman's blood chilled.
"Where did you get this?"
"An encrypted message. Victor's private contact code."
Roman stared.
His uncle had known.
All these years.
"Why send it now?"
Daniel swallowed.
"There's another message."
He turned the phone.
Finish what should have been done that night.
Roman looked toward the dining room.
Nora was helping Lucy cut her chicken.
She looked peaceful.
Unaware.
Roman's hands slowly curled into fists.
"Find out who has access to this photograph," he said.
Daniel nodded.
"And the women?"
Roman's expression hardened.
"They don't go anywhere without protection."
He returned to the table wearing a gentle smile.
But as Nora looked up, he realized the nightmare he'd escaped ten years earlier had finally followed him home.
May you like
And this time, it wasn't hunting him.
It was hunting the woman who had saved him.
