The feeling of failure overwhelmed him. Failure to have been there for his son. Failure to have been there for his wife. Mikaella didn't want him to be there and quite frankly he didn't want to be there too. But his son was there and that gave him the strength to stay.

He was a hundred percent sure that Marcus was involved with his son's kidnapping now seeing Phil Radoll get arrested for kidnapping his son surprised him alot.

"Are you okay, man?" Kevin approached him from behind.

"No. I'm not. We need to talk"

"Okay? About what?"

Roman simply stared and emphasized on the words... privately.

Luckily as soon as Phil got apprehended, Seth was taken to the nearest hospital, St Monica, to cool down his fever and any wounds that the lunatic had inflicted on him. Mikaella didn't want to leave his son's side as for the rest of the family members stayed at the hospital to act as moral support.

Roman pulled his brother to the chapel, seating down on the wooden benches and inviting his brother to seat next to him.

"Dude, I think mom's prayers were enough don't you think?"

Prayers. He sure wished they had come to pray for his son's wellbeing and not to relive their sins that too in the eyes of the Lord. His sins were affecting his family. Threatening Phil to stay away from his family some months back caused all this. His son almost died. He lost his wife because he was afraid that the past was catching up to him.

And maybe it was.

"Marcus Pierce..."

And his brother chuckled,"I've seen the way you look at him. Look, the guy might have beaten us a while back but he's cool. I've seen the way you look at him and trust me, he's no threat to you. Roman you've always had insecurities since Jo left. Mikaella is not Jo, she's upset but she'll get over it"

"Ruby,"Roman muttered inaudibly.

"What?" Kevin asked uneasily. They hadn't mentioned her name in a long time.

"Ruby Grayson is Marcus Pierce's wife"

And Kevin pulled away from Roman, a cold chill running down his spine. Suddenly, for those few minutes they stayed there the night that changed their lives forever appeared in their minds.

His grandfather had actually left him incharge of the family company and he couldn't be happier. Life was really looking good. With the love of his life by side, they all raised their glasses of champagne for a toast.

"To new legacies," his grandfather cheered. Legacies that involved Roman taking over after him. Ironically, Roman had lived all his life trying to make his grandfather proud rather than his father. In the eyes of Jonas Nicolo Cervantes, his son had ended as a worthless piece of shit by joining the army but his grandsons? His grandsons would end up carrying on his legacy to the next generations.

Ofcourse he was right. One of his grandson, Roman, had ended up being a chip off the old block unlike his other grandson, Kevin.

With everyone sipping down their drinks, Roman's phone rung and he picked it out excusing himself from the little get together.

"Which bar should I pick you up from, Kev?"

He whispered angrily.

His brother's shenanigans had gone on for too long. Alcohol, sex and parties, those were his Holy Trinity day in day out and the worse of all is that Roman had to bear any consequence Kevin did. Be it get into a fight with bartenders, have a fight with women basically everything he did that would end him up in trouble, Roman was there. To rescue him.

"Ro...Roman...we had an accident. Miguel's covered with blood. I-I can't move. Help...help me,"Kevin cried.

"Kev? Where are you? Where?"

"Maine street 344 th-there's a diner..."

And he hung up leaving his brother terrified.

"It's Kev. He got in a fight, I have to go get him,"he had lied that night to Joanna and his grandfather the moment they asked why he was leaving the party.

And when he reached there, the gruesome image of two cars smashed against the road met him. Kevin's BMW had a huge dent on one side and the other car, a small one for that matter had the windshield smashed into tiny pieces by a metallic pole. Not to mention the blood heavily coated on the other car made him sick.

He got out of his car fast running to where Kevin's car lay.

"Kevin! Kevin!"

He shouted and with the help of his phone's flashlight, he saw Kevin with a small cut from his head that oozed blood. Luis, Kevin's friend, who was seated in the passenger's seat was unconscious. The smashed bottle of Chrome in Kevin's car was enough to confirm that his brother was driving under the influence of alcohol and that meant trouble.

"Help...I... can't move"

And with adrenaline pumping through his body, Roman angrily opened the door not giving a hoot whether the tiny pieces of glass pierced his skin or not. Getting rid of the seat belt, he dragged Kevin from the car wreckage laying his body on the tarmac road. The neon lights of McHenry's Diner flickered as if to warn the two brothers that the bad night wasn't over yet.

"Can you stand?"

Roman asked helping his brother up, which he successful did.

"I-I didn't see the car. Miguel was talking,,,I was drunk...I-I"

Shaken as his brother, he simply put his hands on Kevin's cheeks staring at his eyes.

"Look at me! It was not your fault. Now stay here while I check if the driver of the car is fine"

Walking to the other car, it was hard to even imagine someone had survived that. The pole had struck the windshield, smashing the roof of the car too. And when he got there, the woman was already dying. Blood oozed from her head covering her face. He watched. He watched her gasp looking for the last breath to inhale. Her left hand was impaled by the impact of the pole and her right hand lay on her bulging tummy. She was pregnant.

He didn't want to get any closer. The woman was dead without a doubt. Checking her for a beating pulse would only confirm what he knew, that his brother had murdered a woman with child.

"How's he?"Kevin asked after seeing Roman coming back from the other car mortified, as if he had seen a ghost.

"She. S-she's dead"

And Kevin almost fell backwards.

"I killed her? I killed her"

Sad truth was that he actually did. But Roman wasn't ready to watch his brother go to prison let alone see his life fall apart. And on that night, he did the old switcheroo. He put an unconscious Luis Miguel on the driver's seat wiping any evidence that would have made Kevin looked like he was in that car.

Having inherited his grandfather evil wits, he orchestrated everything. From bribing witnesses to threatening Luis Miguel that if he didn't confess to having been behind the wheel when the accident happened, his family would suffer. And that was that, Luis Miguel paid the penalty, Kevin roamed free.

The death of Ruby Grayson was done away with. Even with a cold heart, he still ensured that the Grayson family whoever they were, were compensated. And just like that, the past had been buried.

xXxXxXxX

"No! Fuck no! Does he know?"

"I believe he does. I know he does. And I know he's coming for us"

And they both looked ahead.

"You are being paranoid. The past is in the past, Roman. It's just by coincidence that he happens to know your wife. Chloe has the same last name as Rub...as that woman that doesn't mean I'll start getting paranoid and believe they are related because it's the past and it's long gone"

Sure, it was easy for him to say. It was as easy as a one two three saying that it was the past. But between them, Roman had actually seen a woman trying to gasp for help. A woman trying to reason whether her unborn baby would survive. So no it was not easy to him.

"My son is lying on a freaking hospital bed. My wife despises me, come to think of it, a divorce may possibly be headed my way. She has every reason to, to despise me, because I have been keeping things away from her. Things I'm not proud of. Call it paranoia, jealousy, guilt but the guy is upto something Kev. I won't sit around and wait for my family to be hurt so that I can know what he's upto"

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying I'm tired. Tired of trying to act like a hero and ending up being hurt. I acted like a hero when you were in a mess look where's it gotten me. I'm losing my wife to him, she blames me for my son ending up here and maybe it's time I owned up to my mistakes. My son is in here because of me and next time maybe it will be Mick"

Having had said those words, someone scoffed from behind and both men turned around.