Roman took another step forward.
“Why did you kill my sister?”
Gabriel did not answer immediately.
The wind moved through the damaged roof, making the old curtains whisper above the stage.
“She planned to dismantle everything,” he said at last. “Your father left controlling shares of the legitimate companies in her name. She wanted to sell the ports, expose the political accounts, and remove the family from every illegal operation.”
“She wanted us free.”
“She wanted to erase generations of work.”
“She was your family.”
“She was a threat.”
Roman’s hand moved toward the weapon beneath his jacket.
Elara caught his wrist.
Gabriel noticed.
A faint smile appeared.
“You see?” he said. “She has already taught you hesitation.”
“No,” Elara replied. “She taught him the difference between justice and revenge.”
“You believe the law will protect you?”
“I believe evidence makes powerful men nervous.”
Gabriel’s eyes shifted toward the ledgers.
Elara understood what he was about to do.
“Roman!”
Gabriel pulled a small device from his pocket and pressed the switch.
A charge exploded inside the lower level.
The floor shook.
Fire climbed along the stage curtains.
Mateo fired, but Gabriel had already moved behind the stone wall.
Smoke poured into the office.
Roman grabbed the ledgers.
“Leave them,” Elara shouted.
“They contain everything.”
“The building is burning.”
Another explosion tore through the corridor.
The balcony floor cracked.
Elara lost her footing.
Roman dropped the books and caught her arm as the wooden railing collapsed beneath her.
For one terrible second, she hung above the auditorium.
Flames raced across the stage below.
Roman held her with both hands, his body braced against the damaged stone.
“Let go of the bag,” he ordered.
The silver clutch hung from Elara’s wrist.
“The memory card is inside.”
“I do not care.”
“It proves what he did.”
“I said let it go.”
The strap began to tear.
Elara released the clutch.
It fell into the burning auditorium.
Roman pulled her onto the balcony.
He covered her with his body as part of the ceiling crashed behind them.
Mateo found an emergency staircase.
They escaped through a side passage seconds before the upper offices collapsed.
Outside, rain poured across the alley.
Roman turned back toward the burning building.
Gabriel was gone.
So were the ledgers.
Elara coughed, struggling to breathe.
“All the evidence was in the bag.”
Roman looked at her.
“You are alive.”
“That will not convict him.”
“I do not care.”
“You will.”
“Not tonight.”
He held her face between his hands.
The rain ran down his hair, his jacket, and the blood on his temple.
“When you fell,” he said, “I could not remember what the evidence meant.”
Elara’s heartbeat slowed.
“You chose me over the ledgers.”
“There was no choice.”
“There is always a choice.”
Roman’s eyes moved to her mouth.
At the museum, she had kissed him because she was afraid.
This time, neither of them moved for several seconds.
Then Elara closed the distance.
The kiss was slow at first, almost cautious. Roman’s hands remained against her face as though he needed to confirm she was real.
When she gripped his wet jacket, his restraint broke.
He kissed her with the desperation of someone who had spent years treating every emotion as a vulnerability.
Sirens approached.
Mateo turned his back and pretended to study the burning roof.
When Roman finally pulled away, his forehead rested against hers.
“I lied,” Elara whispered.
“About what?”
“The memory card.”
His eyes opened.
“I removed it from the purse before we entered.”
“Where is it?”
“Inside my shoe.”
Roman stared at her.
“You carried evidence against my uncle inside your shoe?”
“I did not trust the clutch after the museum.”
A laugh escaped him.
It was the first time Elara had heard him laugh without bitterness or calculation.
“You are impossible,” he said.
“You proposed to me in a hallway without asking.”
“I was improvising.”
“So was I.”
Gabriel disappeared for three days.
During that time, Elara and Roman released a controlled piece of information: the surviving audit files would be presented during the Meridian Foundation’s emergency board meeting at the museum.
The announcement was false.
The real evidence had already been divided among three attorneys and a federal investigative team contacted through Nia’s law firm.
Gabriel, however, believed the memory card was still in Elara’s possession.
He came to the board meeting disguised as a security consultant.
Everett Sloan arrived with him.
Conrad Bell entered separately, carrying documents intended to portray Elara as unstable and professionally negligent.
They did not know that the museum’s private gallery had been wired for sound.