Johnny wrapped his arms around her and squeezed. “It’s okay, Kat. It’s okay. He’s alive. He’s well. His name is Kazimir now. Kaz. Dmitri lied to you. He lied to Kaz. He told him you were the one who was dead, and they sent him into hiding with a new identity. Dmitri said there were assassins after you, and they would kill our son if they found him. He’s spent the past several years in Vladivostok. He’s a naval intelligence officer there.”
Kat sucked back tears and forced herself to calm down. She had to listen, had to take it all in. Roman was alive. Alive and well and not dead at all. If Dmitri were still alive, she’d kill him with her bare hands. But he wasn’t, and she couldn’t get the time back anyway.
“Where is he? How did you find this out? When can we see him? Will he want to see us? Oh god, Johnny, I don’t know if my heart can take this.”
Johnny was vibrating with pent-up emotion. She could feel it in him. See it. His smile could hardly be contained. There were tears in his eyes.
Tears. In. His. Eyes.
Her big strong operator who never cried was crying. In front of people. She wasn’t sure whether to be alarmed or amazed.
“It’s a long story, but he’s here, Kat. He’s here and he’s really our son. The DNA is unmistakable.”
Kat blinked. “Here? In DC?”
“Here. He’s waiting in the hallway. I didn’t want to shock you.”
She couldn’t speak. Her entire body went cold and then hot. She couldn’t move, couldn’t process it all. But Johnny could. He stood and pulled her gently to her feet. Held her close as he turned them toward the hallway to the garage.
“Kazimir,” he called out. “Come and see your mother.”
Kat thought her heart would explode at the sight of the young man who walked into view. He was her Roman, just as she remembered him. Well, not quite as she remembered. He was a man now, not a boy. But he was still hers. Hers and Johnny’s, so unmistakably. He looked so much like his father that it hurt. She could still see her little boy, though. Her sweet Roman who’d loved animals and wanted to be a vet.
“Roman…” She was speechless. Unable to move.
“Hello, Mother,” he said—and Kat’s limbs were moving again as she rushed to him. He caught her in his arms and folded them around her while she sobbed brokenly. So much time lost. So many empty days and nights, and yet he’d been alive the whole time. Thinking she was gone forever and that he was an orphan.
“I’m sorry, Roman. So sorry. I thought you were dead. They told me—” She couldn’t say it again.
His grip on her tightened a moment. “I know. I thought you were dead too. I thought I was a target. Peter and Ludmilla died, and you were gone, and I was alone except for Uncle Dmitri. He took me to an orphanage and left me.”
Uncle Dmitri. It chilled her to hear those words out of his mouth. “I’m sorry he did that to you. I would kill him if I could.”
Roman laughed. “So would I. But he’s dead and we don’t have to.”
She managed to push away and look up into his face. His eyes were glassy, but no tears had fallen. He was so like his father. “We have much to talk about. You can stay for a while, yes?”
She wanted him to stay forever, but he was a man now and she couldn’t simply keep him. He had a life somewhere, as strange as that seemed.
His gaze flickered up to meet Johnny’s. Something passed between them, but she didn’t know what it was. Understanding?
“Yes,” he said softly. “I can stay.”
Epilogue
Christmas Day, one year later…
“Elena,” Kat said. “Don’t eat that. Put it down. No nasty wrapping paper in your mouth.”
Roman—he’d gone back to being Roman with his parents, though he mostly went by Kaz with everyone else—sat on the couch and laughed at his baby sister as she looked at Kat with big blue eyes. Mendez watched his son, his heart so full it hurt. It hadn’t been entirely simple, bringing Roman home and into their lives, but it was worth every moment.
He still remembered the instant when Ian had delivered the news that the DNA was a match. He’d known it already by then, after talking to Roman for a couple of hours and watching his reactions to the news his mother was alive. Still, to have it confirmed was both a relief and worrisome when he realized he was going to have to tell Kat.
His beautiful, strong, amazing wife who’d just given birth to their daughter and needed to recover. But no way could he keep it from her, so he’d taken Roman home with him. There were a lot of things Mendez still didn’t know about his son, but maybe one day Roman would talk about his life after he’d been taken from the Yelchins’ care. He’d hinted at it but hadn’t said a lot. Not even to Kat.
They were a family now, though Roman had needed to return to Russia and his job in the navy. He’d been on personal leave last Christmas, which is when he’d decided to do some investigating of his own. He’d heard his father’s name over the course of his job in intel and he’d determined to find out as much as he could about John Mendez. He’d learned everything he could through his job, but he’d wanted more. For that he’d needed to see the Tiger. He’d learned from Yuri that Mendez had been there with a woman who’d claimed to be his mother’s twin. That had puzzled him because his mother had always said she was an orphan.
Mendez didn’t know why Yuri hadn’t told the truth about Kat, but maybe he’d decided that was a thing for Mendez to do when Roman finally made
