Chapter 8 - The Debt
Maya walked around the heavy oak desk and stood right in front of the most dangerous man in Chicago.
"Do you know what was inside that cake, Maya?" Roman asked quietly.
"A trap," Maya said immediately.
Roman’s lips twitched upward into a rare, genuine ghost of a smile. "Yes. A very deadly trap. Tell me, how did you know?"
"The frosting," Maya said, pulling the folded, stained cloth from her apron pocket and placing it on his desk. "Mrs. Elena had ivory frosting on her glove. But the cake was black. And I heard her tell Mr. Julian that you cut the bottom tier first. But you don't. You're left-handed."
Roman stared at the little girl in utter disbelief.
She had noticed his dominant hand. She had matched the frosting colors. She had pieced together a high-level assassination plot that his own multi-million dollar security team had missed.
"You observe everything," Roman noted.
"My mom says we have to be invisible," Maya replied simply. "Invisible people see everything."
Roman looked at Sarah, who was still weeping silently in the chair.
"Sarah," Roman said, his voice carrying the weight of absolute authority. "Your daughter saved my life, my empire, and my legacy today. In my world, a life debt is the heaviest currency that exists."
Sarah looked up, her eyes wide. "We don't want anything. Just our lives."
"You are getting much more than that," Roman said, pulling a sleek black checkbook from his desk drawer. He wrote out a number, tore the check, and slid it across the wood.
May you like
Sarah looked at it and gasped.
It was a check for five million dollars.
