CHAPTER 3 — “THE NIGHT SHE WAS FORGOTTEN”
The restaurant emptied under silent command.
No police arrived.
No witnesses spoke.
Le Beaumont erased itself like it had never happened.
Only Savannah remained seated at a private corner table, wrapped in a coat she didn’t remember being given.
Roman sat across from her.
Watching.
Waiting.
Like a man standing in front of a locked door he had already opened once before.
Savannah’s voice was barely audible.
“What night?”
Roman exhaled slowly.
Then reached into his coat again.
This time, he placed a burned photograph on the table.
Edges blackened.
Half-destroyed.
But still visible.
A younger woman.
Savannah.
Standing beside Roman.
Not waitress.
Not afraid.
Holding a small baby.
Her fingers trembled.
“That’s not me…” she whispered.
Roman leaned back slightly.
“You were different then.”
Her breathing grew uneven.
“I don’t remember any of this.”
A pause.
Then Roman said the words that changed the temperature of the room.
“You weren’t supposed to.”
Silence again.
But heavier now.
Like something buried had started moving underground.
Savannah looked up at him.
“What did you do to me?”
For the first time, Roman looked away.
Not guilt.
Not weakness.
Something closer to regret held too long.
“I didn’t protect you.”
The admission felt more dangerous than any gunshot.
Outside the window, black cars arrived again.
But these were not bodyguards.
They were not escorts.
They were hunters.
Savannah noticed them.
“So what happens now?”
Roman stood.
Straightened his coat.
And spoke calmly.
“Now they know you’re alive.”
A long pause.
Then—
A final truth dropped like a blade.
“And they will come finish what they started.”
The lights of the restaurant flickered once.
Then died.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Footsteps echoed outside the door.
Getting closer.
Savannah turned toward Roman.
Her voice shook for the first time with real fear.
“Who are they?”
Roman looked at her one last time.
May you like
And answered quietly:
“The people who made me erase you.”
