Chapter 5 - The Man Who Knew Their MarriageBy morning, the problem had changed.
They were no longer looking for someone who knew Audrey’s schedule.
They were looking for someone who understood her marriage.
That was a much smaller list.
And a much more dangerous one.
Jack arrived at six thirty with coffee and three folders.
Audrey sat at the dining table in sweatpants.
Nico stood by the windows.
No one had slept much.
“The device came from a batch of sixty purchased eighteen months ago,” Jack said.
“Who had access?” Nico asked.
“Corporate security, executive protection, internal investigations.”
“How many employees?”
“Forty-three.”
Audrey rubbed her forehead.
“That isn’t small.”
“No,” Jack said. “But only eleven people could remove equipment without a second signature.”
Nico turned.
“Names.”
Jack opened the first folder.
Audrey watched her husband.
There was a version of Nico she rarely saw anymore.
Cold.
Precise.
Built for conflict.
Years ago, that man had frightened her because she could not always tell where his power ended and her freedom began.
Now she saw something different.
The power was still there.
The difference was discipline.
He no longer treated every ability as permission.
Jack listed the names.
Audrey recognized three.
One made Nico react.
“Anthony Rusk.”
Jack nodded.
“Your cousin’s former security director.”
“Former?”
“Resigned six months ago.”
“Why?”
“Officially, relocation.”
“Unofficially?”
Jack looked at Audrey.
She noticed.
“Say it.”
“He had gambling debt.”
“How much?” Nico asked.
“Approximately seven hundred thousand.”
Nico swore quietly.
Audrey frowned.
“Would he know about us?”
“Everyone in the family knows about us,” Nico said.
“No. I mean the details.”
Nico looked at her.
“The canceled wedding. The tracking issue. Why a Bellandi device would affect me differently than another tracker.”
Jack answered.
“Rusk worked security at the Westchester estate.”
Audrey’s stomach dropped.
“When?”
“The weekend the first wedding was canceled.”
Silence.
Nico’s face became unreadable.
“Find him.”
“We’re trying.”
“Try harder.”
Jack did not react.
Audrey did.
“Nico.”
He looked at her.
She did not correct him.
Not yet.
Some anger deserved room.
Jack continued.
“There’s something else.”
“Of course there is,” Audrey muttered.
“The watcher has been identified.”
Jack placed a photograph on the table.
Same man.
Dark coat.
Ordinary face.
“Daniel Cross. Forty-seven. Private investigator.”
“Who hired him?” Nico asked.
“We don’t know.”
“Ask him.”
“We did.”
Audrey looked up.
“You found him?”
“Last night.”
“And?”
“He says he was hired to document Elena Marino’s meetings with Nico.”
Nico’s eyes narrowed.
“By whom?”
“He claims client confidentiality.”
Nico smiled.
Audrey hated that smile.
It belonged to a younger version of him.
Jack apparently recognized it too.
“Nico.”
“What?”
“Don’t.”
Audrey looked between them.
“Don’t what?”
Neither answered.
She stood.
“Nico.”
He rubbed his face.
“Nothing.”
“That was not a nothing smile.”
Jack almost laughed.
Nico glared at him.
Audrey folded her arms.
“What were you going to do?”
“Have a conversation.”
“With Daniel Cross?”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
“The productive kind.”
“Nico.”
He looked at her.
Then something in his expression softened.
“I wasn’t going to hurt him.”
“Were you going to make him think you might?”
Silence.
Audrey sighed.
“Progress is exhausting.”
“Yes.”
Jack closed the folder.
“There’s no need. Cross already agreed to meet again.”
“When?”
“Ten.”
“I’m coming,” Audrey said.
Nico immediately replied, “No.”
The room became silent.
His face changed.
He heard himself.
Audrey raised an eyebrow.
Nico inhaled.
“I would prefer you not to come.”
“Better.”
“I strongly prefer it.”
“Noted.”
“Audrey.”
“I’m coming.”
“Why?”
“Because he was watching me.”
“He says he was watching Elena.”
“He photographed my office and my home.”
Nico could not argue with that.
Jack looked between them.
“I can arrange a neutral location.”
Audrey nodded.
“Do it.”
At ten fifteen, Daniel Cross entered a private conference room on the twenty-third floor of a Midtown law office.
No Bellandi property.
Audrey’s condition.
Cross looked ordinary because being ordinary was apparently his profession.
Gray suit.
Blue tie.
Wedding ring.
He looked at Nico first.
Then Audrey.
That annoyed her.
“I’m the person you photographed,” she said. “You can look at me.”
Cross did.
“I apologize.”
“No, you don’t.”
He accepted that.
Nico sat beside Audrey.
Not in front.
She noticed.
Jack remained near the door.
Cross placed both hands on the table.
“I was retained approximately three weeks ago.”
“By whom?” Audrey asked.
“I cannot disclose—”
Nico moved slightly.
Audrey touched his wrist.
He stopped.
She looked at Cross.
“Someone attached a tracker to my car.”
“I had nothing to do with that.”
“Can you prove it?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“My contract prohibited electronic surveillance.”
“Convenient.”
“I have documentation.”
“Give it to Jack.”
Cross nodded.
Audrey continued.
“What were you hired to establish?”
“Whether Mr. Bellandi and Ms. Marino were engaged in a relationship beyond business.”
Nico’s jaw hardened.
Audrey felt strangely calm.
“Did you establish that?”
“No.”
“Did you try?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Observation. Photographs. Public records.”
“Did you follow my husband?”
“Yes.”
“Elena?”
“Yes.”
“Me?”
Cross hesitated.
“Yes.”
Nico’s chair moved.
Audrey tightened her fingers around his wrist.
He stayed seated.
“Why me?” she asked.
“To establish marital routines.”
The phrase made her skin crawl.
“What does that mean?”
“When you left home. When you returned. Whether you and Mr. Bellandi attended events together. Whether either of you slept elsewhere.”
Audrey stared.
Cross looked uncomfortable for the first time.
Good.
“Did you enter my office?”
“No.”
“My building?”
“No.”
“My car?”
“No.”
“Did you photograph me inside my home?”
“No.”
“Do you know who placed the tracker?”
“No.”
“Do you know Anthony Rusk?”
Cross blinked.
There.
Small.
But visible.
Nico saw it too.
Jack stepped forward.
Cross leaned back.
“I know the name.”
“How?” Audrey asked.
“He contacted me.”
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
The room changed.
“What did he want?” Nico asked.
Cross looked at him.
“To purchase my files.”
Audrey felt cold.
“Did you sell them?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because that would violate my contract.”
Nico gave him a look.
Cross added, “And because Rusk wanted information I had never collected.”
“What information?” Audrey asked.
“Details about your marriage.”
Silence.
Cross looked at her.
“He asked whether you and Mr. Bellandi were having problems. Whether the Marino negotiations caused arguments. Whether you had temporarily moved out.”
Audrey felt Nico’s hand turn beneath hers.
Their fingers interlocked.
“What did you tell him?”
“Nothing.”
“Why would he think you knew?”
“Because whoever hired me wanted the same information.”
Nico leaned forward.
“Who hired you?”
Cross said nothing.
Audrey understood.
“You’re protecting someone who may be connected to stalking me.”
“I’m protecting a client relationship.”
“Your client may have information about a crime.”
Cross looked at Jack.
Then Nico.
Finally Audrey.
“My client is Celeste Bellandi.”
No one moved.
Audrey felt as though the room had tilted.
Nico’s hand went cold.
“That’s impossible,” he said.
Cross said nothing.
Nico stood.
“My mother hired you to investigate whether I was sleeping with Elena?”
“Yes.”
Audrey closed her eyes.
Of course.
Of course it was Celeste.
Five years of apologies.
Five years of gradual improvement.
Five years of awkward dinners and boundaries and attempts.
And beneath all of it—
Surveillance.
Nico walked toward the window.
Audrey remained seated.
“Why?” she asked.
Cross looked genuinely uncomfortable.
“I was told Mrs. Bellandi feared the acquisition was being used to recreate an alliance privately.”
Audrey laughed.
It sounded terrible.
“So she thought Nico might be having an affair.”
“I was not told specifically—”
“Please don’t insult me.”
Cross stopped.
Audrey stood.
“Give Jack every photograph containing me.”
“I’ll need authorization.”
“Get it.”
She walked out.
Nico followed.
In the elevator, neither spoke.
Audrey stared at the numbers.
Twenty.
Nineteen.
Eighteen.
Nico finally said, “I didn’t know.”
“I know.”
“She had no right.”
“I know.”
“I’ll handle it.”
Audrey turned.
“No.”
His expression hardened.
“Audrey.”
“No.”
“She’s my mother.”
“And I’m the person she had followed.”
The elevator continued downward.
Nico looked away.
Audrey’s voice became quieter.
“If you handle this for me, we repeat the same structure.”
“What structure?”
“Your family does something to me. Then you decide the consequences.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
“It is.”
“I’m trying to protect you.”
“I know.”
The elevator reached twelve.
Audrey looked at him.
“And I love you for wanting to.”
His face softened.
“But this time I speak first.”
Nico said nothing.
Then he nodded.
“All right.”
Celeste received Audrey at four that afternoon.
She looked older than she had five years earlier.
Of course she did.
They all did.
Age had softened nothing essential about her.
She still sat as though chairs had been designed to support her authority.
Audrey entered the conservatory alone.
Nico waited outside.
That had been Audrey’s request.
Celeste saw her expression.
“You know.”
Audrey stopped.
“That’s your opening?”
Celeste set down her tea.
“I assume Daniel Cross spoke.”
“You hired someone to follow me.”
“I hired someone to follow Elena.”
“He documented my home.”
“I instructed him to determine whether Nico’s marriage was being affected.”
Audrey stared.
Celeste’s expression shifted.
Perhaps she heard it after saying it aloud.
Perhaps not.
“You instructed a stranger to investigate my marriage.”
“I was concerned.”
“You were curious.”
“No.”
“You were afraid.”
Celeste became still.
Audrey walked closer.
“You were afraid Nico might choose Elena.”
“That is absurd.”
“Not romantically.”
Celeste said nothing.
“Strategically.”
There.
The truth.
Audrey saw it.
Celeste looked toward the orchids.
“The Marino acquisition would restore relationships Nico severed years ago.”
“Because of me?”
“Because of principles he developed during that period.”
Audrey laughed quietly.
“You still can’t say it.”
“Say what?”
“That he changed.”
“Of course he changed.”
“No. You say I changed him. As though he was infected.”
Celeste’s mouth tightened.
Audrey sat across from her.
“You know what bothers you?”
“I suspect you’re about to tell me.”
“Nico learned there are things he won’t trade.”
Celeste’s eyes sharpened.
“That is an oversimplification.”
“Maybe.”
Audrey leaned forward.
“But before me, you understood his price.”
Silence.
“You understood what pressure worked. Family. Legacy. Duty. Fear. His father.”
Celeste’s face became pale.
“And then one morning, you canceled our wedding and accidentally taught him there had to be limits.”
“That is a very flattering version of events for you.”
“It isn’t flattering.”
Audrey’s voice softened.
“It nearly destroyed us.”
Celeste looked away.
Audrey continued.
“But we rebuilt something. And you don’t get to enter it through a private investigator because uncertainty makes you uncomfortable.”
“I was trying to determine whether Elena was manipulating him.”
“Then ask him.”
“He would have denied—”
Audrey stood.
“That sentence is the whole problem.”
Celeste looked up.
“You believe your fear gives you permission to bypass another adult’s answer.”
“I have responsibilities you do not understand.”
“Maybe.”
Audrey walked toward the door.
“But my marriage isn’t one of them.”
Celeste’s face tightened.
“What do you want?”
Audrey stopped.
There it was.
The Bellandi question.
What does this cost?
What settlement?
What consequence?
Audrey turned.
“I want nothing.”
Celeste looked confused.
“You hired the investigator. You decide what kind of person that makes you.”
“That is very convenient.”
“No. A punishment would be convenient.”
Audrey opened the door.
“I could tell Nico never to speak to you. He might even agree right now because he’s furious.”
Celeste’s face changed.
“But then I become you.”
Audrey looked at her steadily.
“I’m not going to control his relationship with his mother to punish you for trying to control our marriage.”
For once, Celeste had no answer.
Audrey stepped into the hallway.
Nico was waiting.
He did not ask what happened.
He simply held out his hand.
Audrey took it.
They walked outside together.
Only when they reached the car did Nico speak.
“What do you want to do?”
Audrey looked back at the estate.
“Go home.”
“That’s all?”
“For tonight.”
Nico nodded.
Then Jack called.
Nico answered.
His expression changed almost immediately.
“What?”
Audrey watched him.
Jack spoke for nearly thirty seconds.
Nico looked toward her.
“What happened?” Audrey asked.
He ended the call.
“They found Anthony Rusk.”
“Where?”
“New Jersey.”
May you like
“And?”
“He’s dead.”
Related Stories
