Allies and Revelations

Roman, dressed impeccably in a tailored navy suit with his slightly long, curled hair swept back, met Julian’s hostility with a confident smirk. He casually brushed off the bitter verbal jab as if it were nothing. "I would also love to know exactly when you plan to finalize your divorce from Nora, Mr. Crawford."

Julian let out a dark, mocking snicker. He slipped his hands into his tailored pockets, his posture radiating a cold, impenetrable arrogance. "Roman, as your business rival, let me offer you some free advice. There are plenty of fish in the ocean. Why would you purposefully waste your valuable time on a convicted murderer?"

Roman shook his head. He could not fathom how a man so ruthless and calculating in the boardroom could remain so willfully blind to Nora’s true worth and innocence. "Julian, you must be blind not to see her value," Roman fired back immediately, his voice echoing in the tense hospital lobby. "In fact, if you sign those divorce papers right now, I will marry Nora right away without a second thought."

A cruel smile widened on Julian’s handsome face as he pointed out the harsh logistical reality of the situation. "Your elite Kensington family will never permit such a scandalous union."

Roman merely shrugged, completely unfazed by the necessity of his family's backing. "I graduated from Stanford. Even without the Kensington family wealth and background to prop me up, I have my own independent merits. I will never let my wife suffer." He took a calculated step closer, dropping his voice to deliver a sharp, calculated verbal blow. "But you... shouldn't you be giving a proper title to the woman who actually gave birth to your child?"

Julian’s eyes darkened, visibly frosted by the direct challenge regarding Daphne. Ignoring the sudden drop in temperature, Roman offered a final, challenging gaze before stepping smoothly around his rival. He walked straight into the waiting elevator, leaving a clearly irritated Julian standing rigidly in the lobby behind him.

The elevator doors slid open on the sterile hospital floor, and Roman navigated the quiet corridors until he found Nora’s ward. He signaled for his assistant and secretary to leave the expensive suitcases outside the door, choosing to step into the room alone.

As Roman entered, his heart physically ached at the sight before him. This was their very first face-to-face meeting in five long years. Nora had firmly refused all of his visitations while incarcerated, locking him out of her nightmare. Now, seeing her in the harsh fluorescent light, he realized the bright, vibrant girl he once cherished was completely gone. In her place sat a skeletal, fragile woman. Her collarbones jutted sharply against her hospital gown, and her eyes were utterly empty and traumatized.

He swallowed the heavy lump in his throat, his voice going hoarse as he approached the bed. "Nora. It has been a while."

Nora turned her head slowly. A faint, exhausted shadow of a smile touched her pale lips. "You look more like a boss now, Roman."

He pulled up a chair, unable to hide the raw pain in his expression. "You refused to see me. You sent back everything I tried to give you over the past five years. Are you deliberately punishing yourself, Nora? Or do you secretly blame me for failing to save you from your sentence?"

Nora exhausted, shook her head softly against the stark white pillows. "No," she said, explicitly clearing the air. "I have never blamed you. When everything happened, everyone I knew turned their backs on me. You were the absolute only person in the world who believed in my innocence when I was framed. I am profoundly grateful for that."

Roman’s chest tightened with emotion. He possessed an unwavering faith in her. He knew, without a single doubt, that she would never harm Arthur. The older man had treated her like family and facilitated her marriage to Julian. Even when Julian presented the supposedly authenticated, damning video evidence to the court to secure her criminal conviction, Roman refused to doubt her true character for even a second.

Deciding to shift the heavy atmosphere, Roman transitioned to business. "I came with game-changing news regarding your grandfather-in-law."

Nora’s hollow eyes flickered.

"Arthur might have briefly regained consciousness right before his passing," Roman revealed, leaning forward. "The Crawfords kept it hidden, but his lawyer recently announced his final will. He legally left you a massive one-third of the Crawford Group shares."

Hearing this immense shift in power, Nora did not flinch. Instead, she replied with unprecedented, cold certainty. "Divorce is inevitable."

"If you are ready," Roman immediately offered, promising his resources. "I will introduce you to a top-tier professional divorce lawyer. We will secure your exit."

But Nora cut right through the legal talk with a far more desperate, emotionally raw plea. She leaned forward, her fragile hands gripping the edge of the blanket. "Roman, please. Forget the shares. Use your power to find my missing kids."

Roman froze, genuinely shocked by the sudden request. He stared at her, gently reminding her of the tragic narrative they all believed. "Your kids? Nora... didn't you have a premature delivery in the harsh conditions of the prison? I thought the babies did not survive the labor."

Nora’s eyes turned red with fresh tears. Her breathing hitched as she explained her sudden shift in belief. "I thought the exact same thing. But just hours ago, Julian dangled the survival of my kids over my head. He used them as blackmail to force my compliance with the bone marrow surgery." Her voice laced with paranoia and desperation, she grabbed Roman’s sleeve. "Do you think he is simply tricking me to get what he wants?"

Roman frowned, pondering the psychology of his bitter rival. Julian was ruthless, but he was also incredibly arrogant. "No," Roman reasoned logically. "Julian is too proud to tell such a weak, easily disproven lie. If he says they are alive, they must be."

Roman’s mind raced, trying to piece the puzzle together. He assumed the children were kept hidden because they were a disgrace to Julian. He distinctly recalled the scandalous, indecent video exposure of Nora that had flooded the internet, preceding Arthur's tragic accident. Julian likely believed the children were illegitimate.

Sensing his train of thought, Nora delivered a heavy, disappointing correction that shifted the entire context of the mystery. Her voice, heavy with sorrow, broke through the quiet hum of the room.

"Roman, the kids I carried are undeniably Julian's flesh and blood."

Roman’s breath hitched in his throat.

Tears spilled over Nora’s pale cheeks. She lamented her past naivety, the sheer innocence that had cost her everything. "I didn't apply for a formal paternity test back then because the prison doctors told me they died during the difficult labor. I believed them without question." She bowed her head, her bitter remorse hanging heavily in the sterile room. "I regret it every single day. I should have insisted on a DNA test when I had the chance."