Chapter 7 - The Press ConferenceAt 10:15 that morning, the Romano penthouse lobby became the center of Chicago.
News vans lined the curb. Reporters shouted into microphones. Cameras pointed toward the bronze doors as if a president were about to step out instead of a grieving widow, a bruised accountant, and a baby who had slept through most of his own kidnapping.
Gabriel hated press conferences.
His father had taught him that powerful men did not explain themselves.
Daniel had disagreed.
“Sometimes silence is just cowardice wearing a good suit,” Daniel had once said.
Gabriel had laughed at him then.
He was not laughing now.
Inside the lobby, Mia stood near the private elevator with Leo in her arms.
Sofia stood on one side of her.
Gabriel stood on the other.
The image was not accidental.
It said what words might not survive.
The mother trusted her.
The uncle protected her.
The child rested against her.
Mia’s face was pale beneath carefully applied makeup. The bruise at her temple could not be fully hidden. Neither could the stiffness in her ribs or the bandage beneath her sleeve.
Gabriel noticed her fingers trembling against Leo’s blanket.
He leaned down slightly.
“You don’t have to speak.”
Mia looked at the cameras through the glass.
“Yes, I do.”
“No.”
She turned to him. “They are calling me a kidnapper.”
“I’ll handle them.”
“I know you can scare people,” she said. “I need them to believe me.”
Gabriel had no answer.
Sofia reached over and squeezed Mia’s hand.
“You won’t be alone.”
The doors opened.
Sound crashed over them.
Questions flew like stones.
“Mia, did you know the kidnappers?”
“Mrs. Romano, why is she holding your son?”
“Mr. Romano, is Sterling involved?”
“Was Daniel Romano connected to Mia Carver before his death?”
At that question, Sofia stiffened.
Mia flinched.
Gabriel stepped forward.
The shouting died.
He did not raise his voice.
He did not need to.
“Six-month-old Leo Romano was taken last night during a coordinated attack on a family convoy,” Gabriel said. “He is alive because Mia Carver protected him, escaped with him, and brought him to safety while injured.”
Cameras clicked.
A reporter shouted, “Was she involved in the abduction?”
Gabriel’s eyes found him.
“No.”
“Then why did footage show her fleeing with the child?”
“Because edited footage is useful to cowards.”
A ripple moved through the crowd.
Sofia stepped forward.
Her voice shook at first, then strengthened.
“My husband, Daniel, died before he ever held his son. Last night, I believed I had lost Leo too. Mia Carver gave him back to me.”
She turned toward Mia.
The cameras followed.
Sofia continued, “Anyone who calls her a kidnapper is calling me a liar.”
Silence.
Then Leo made a small happy sound and reached for Mia’s necklace.
The cameras caught it.
Mia closed her eyes for one second.
When she opened them, she spoke.
“My name is Mia Carver. I work in corporate accounting. I was placed in the third SUV at the last minute because of the storm. When the convoy was attacked, I was taken with Leo. I do not know every person involved. I do know this: whoever released that footage wanted you to see seven seconds and ignore three hours.”
A reporter called out, “Why would someone frame you?”
Mia looked at Gabriel.
Then at Sofia.
Then at the cameras.
“Because I found evidence that Daniel Romano’s death was not an accident.”
The lobby erupted.
Gabriel’s head snapped toward her.
Marco muttered a curse behind him.
Sofia’s hand flew to her mouth.
Mia kept going.
“If anything happens to me, my father, Mrs. Romano, or her son, that evidence will go to federal authorities and every major newsroom in the country.”
Gabriel stared at her.
That had not been discussed.
Mia’s voice remained steady.
“The people behind last night are not afraid of grief. They are not afraid of money. They are not even afraid of Gabriel Romano.” She paused. “But they are afraid of being seen.”
A dozen reporters shouted at once.
“Who killed Daniel?”
“Do you have proof?”
“Is Vincent Romano involved?”
Gabriel stepped in front of Mia before she could answer.
“This conference is over.”
He guided her back toward the doors.
The cameras captured his hand near her back, not touching the injury, protective without possession.
That image would be everywhere by noon.
Inside the lobby, Gabriel turned on her.
“What the hell was that?”
Mia handed Leo to Sofia with careful tenderness.
“The truth.”
“You exposed yourself.”
“I was already exposed.”
“You named Daniel.”
“They already planned to use him.”
Gabriel’s voice dropped. “You challenged people who arranged my brother’s death and took my nephew.”
Mia looked up at him.
“Yes.”
“You should have warned me.”
“You would have stopped me.”
“Yes.”
“Exactly.”
For one blazing second, they stared at each other with equal fury.
Sofia watched them and saw what neither of them did.
Not romance.
Not yet.
Something more dangerous.
Recognition.
Gabriel Romano had spent his life surrounded by people who obeyed him.
Mia Carver had just disobeyed him in public to protect his family.
That made her either reckless or extraordinary.
Maybe both.
Marco approached with his phone.
“Boss. It worked.”
Gabriel did not look away from Mia. “What did?”
Marco held up the screen.
The internet had turned.
Clips of Sofia placing Leo in Mia’s arms were spreading faster than the warehouse footage. Hashtags had already formed. Reporters were replaying Mia’s statement. Former employees were posting stories about her staying late, helping coworkers, quietly catching errors.
The villain story was cracking.
Then Marco’s expression changed.
“What?” Gabriel asked.
Marco turned the phone.
A new video had appeared online.
It showed Daniel Romano standing in what looked like a parking garage, alive, tense, speaking directly to a camera.
The timestamp was three days before his death.
Daniel’s face filled the screen.
“If you’re watching this,” he said, “then my brother Gabriel needs to know I lied to him.”
Sofia’s knees nearly gave out.
Gabriel caught the counter beside him.
Daniel continued.
“Dad changed the trust before he died. Vincent helped. Cassandra covered it. And there’s only one person outside the family I trust with the numbers.”
Daniel looked away, then back.
“Her name is Mia Carver.”
The video cut off.
Mia whispered, “No.”
Gabriel turned to her.
Her face had gone white.
“I never released that,” she said.
Marco looked at his phone.
“Then who did?”
Across the city, in a dark room with no windows, Vincent Romano watched the same video and smiled.
May you like
Because the clip ended before Daniel said the most important sentence.
And Vincent still had the rest.
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