River Haven

Chapter 6

In the West Falls neighborhood, Aj Lee approached an apartment building. She had changed into a black leather dress and put on red lipstick. She walked up to room 4b and knocked.

"Aj?" Phil asked as he opened the door.

"Hey, baby." Aj said with a smile on her face.

Phil wrapped his arms around her and held her close.

"When did you get released?" Phil asked.

Aj hesitated to answer.

"Not too long ago." She lied to him.

"Wow. I wish I would have known you'd be out today.." Phil said as he looked down at her.

"I wanted to surprise you." Aj told him.

Phil took a deep breath.

"I know this is going to sound very douchbaggy of me but Heyman just called.." Phil began to say.

"You have to work?" Aj asked ufortunately.

"There was a kidnapping and he wants me on the scene so we can run the story first thing in the morning." Phil tried to explain.

Aj faked a smile.

"Okay then, well you'd better hurry." Aj told him.

"Are you sure?" Phil asked.

"Yeah, of course.  I'll just wait for you." Aj assured him.

"I really am sorry." Phil told her before leaning down and kissing her slowly.

"It's okay, really." Aj lied.

"You're the best." Phil told her before rushing out the door.

Aj let out a disappointing sigh and tried her best to hold in her tears.

At Reigns Enterprise, Roman approached the podium in the center of the room as he prepared to give a speech. Everyone got quiet and gathered around to listen.

"Hello, everyone. Thank you for all coming to honor the memory of my parents tonight." Roman began.

Seth looked on from the side with Dean in support of Roman.

"And I just wanted to say that-." Roman began to say before he froze at the sight of a familiar blonde walking in late to the party.

Seth looked over at the entrance and momentarily lost his breath when he saw Renee in her red dress.

"I-." Roman struggled to to continue as he kept his eyes on Renee.

Everyone turned to see what had gotten Roman's attention. As everyone looked at Renee, she looked behind herself in confusion, not sure who everyone was looking at. When she realized they were all looking at her she let out an awkward smile then look back across the room at Roman. Seth looked down uncomfortably for a moment as Becky tried to closer to the front f the crowd.

"I wanted to say that this party tonight isn't being held to honor my parents like you all think.. I just wanted to make sure you were all here to hear what I have to say." Roman said as he tried to stay focused.

Everyone looked around in confusion.

"I think everyone in this room knows that my parents death wasn't an accident. And I also think that someone in this room is responsible for their death." Roman said suddenly.

Most people tried to keep a poker face to hide their concern.

"So let me just say that you can all keep these fake smiles on your faces and continue to pretend like everything in this city is perfect but it's not going to stop me from doing everything I can to find the person that killed my parents. I won't rest until justice is served." Roman said bravely.