Chapter 4 - THE NIGHT MY HUSBAND DIED
Police records said Noah lost control of his car during heavy rain.
No alcohol.
No drugs.
No other vehicle confirmed.
The accident happened on Route 3 at 11:47 p.m.
I remembered that night in fragments.
A voicemail from him:
Running late. Don’t wait up.
Mia had been sixteen months old.
She had a fever.
I fell asleep beside her.
At 2:13 a.m., police knocked on the door.
For almost two years, I believed weather took my husband.
Then Vincent’s investigators recovered Noah’s old phone records through records I still legally possessed.
His last outgoing calls were not to me.
Three calls to a number registered through a Castalano corporate line.
Marco Bellini’s office.
One call connected.
Six minutes.
Then another number.
Dominic Vale.
Two minutes.
My hands turned cold.
“Why would Noah call them?”
Vincent answered carefully.
“Probably because he was trying to reach me through people he thought had access.”
Then Renzo found an archived visitor request.
NOAH REED.
Appointment request:
11:00 p.m.
Location:
Castalano Midtown office.
Date:
The night Noah died.
Status:
Canceled by security.
Canceled by:
D. VALE.
I stared.
“He was going to meet you?”
Vincent looked like someone had hit him.
“I never knew.”
My anger arrived all at once.
“You never knew because you built a system where people were afraid to reach you.”
He did not argue.
“You were so protected nobody could tell you anything.”
Still silence.
“And my husband died trying.”
Vincent lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
No defense.
That almost made anger harder.
Then Renzo said:
“We do not know the crash was caused intentionally.”
I looked at him.
“I know.”
It mattered.
Suspicion was not proof.
Noah could have died in a genuine accident while investigating dangerous people.
Both things could be true.
Then the private-surveillance invoices revealed something else.
Marco began monitoring me after Noah died.
Not because he thought I knew everything.
Because he wasn’t sure whether Noah had left evidence.
One investigator report read:
WIDOW APPEARS UNAWARE.
Another:
NO CONTACT WITH CASTALANO LEADERSHIP.
Then nine months later:
SUBJECT EMPLOYED AT CASTALANO ESTATE.
I stared.
“I applied because the benefits were good.”
Renzo opened my original HR record.
Household experience:
Limited.
References:
Strong.
Initial application decision:
DECLINE — MORE EXPERIENCED CANDIDATES AVAILABLE.
Then a later override.
APPROVED BY EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY.
Vincent leaned forward.
“I did not approve you.”
My stomach dropped.
Someone had forced my hiring through.
Approval credentials:
M. BELLINI.
Marco had put me inside Vincent’s estate.
May you like
Not to help me.
To keep me close enough to watch.
