Chapter 5 - THE FIRST TIME NICO ASKED INSTEAD OF ORDERING
We had ninety seconds.
Arthur killed the lights.
Nico came through the downstairs door carrying no visible weapon and no entourage.
That frightened me more than twenty guards would have.
Nico never went anywhere unprotected.
His eyes found mine immediately.
For one second, everything inside me betrayed me.
Relief.
Anger.
Love.
Pain.
All at once.
He looked terrible.
Same black shirt from the night before.
No tie.
Red eyes.
A cut across one knuckle.
“You’re alive.”
I almost laughed.
“Disappointed?”
His expression flinched.
Good.
He deserved that one.
“No.”
Arthur interrupted.
“We need to move.”
Nico nodded.
Then he looked at me.
“Will you come with us?”
Not an order.
A question.
It shouldn’t have mattered.
It did.
“Where?”
“A property Vincent doesn’t know exists.”
“How do I know that?”
“You don’t.”
At least he wasn’t lying.
Nico held out his phone.
“Call the attorney listed under Rachel Stern. Ask who owns 318 Hudson Ridge Road.”
I did.
Rachel answered on the second ring and confirmed that the property belonged to an irrevocable holding company established fifteen years earlier by Nico’s mother.
Vincent’s name appeared nowhere.
I handed the phone back.
“I’ll go.”
Nico nodded.
He didn’t touch me.
We left separately.
Thirty minutes later, I stood inside a modest stone house overlooking the Hudson.
Nico waited until Arthur finished checking the rooms.
Then we were alone.
For the first time in three years, Nico looked unsure what to say.
I saved him the trouble.
“Were you lying?”
“Yes.”
“Which part?”
“The part about not caring.”
“And the rest?”
His jaw tightened.
“The black card was real.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“I know.”
He looked away.
“I did think giving you everything meant taking care of you.”
“Everything except yourself.”
His eyes returned to mine.
“I was wrong.”
I hated how badly I wanted those words to matter.
“You put evidence in my bag without telling me.”
“Yes.”
“You let a microphone listen while you described me like furniture.”
“Yes.”
“You planned to relocate me the next morning without asking.”
“Yes.”
I laughed bitterly.
“And now suddenly you’ve discovered consent?”
“Yes.”
That stopped me.
Nico didn’t defend himself.
He didn’t explain how dangerous his life was.
He didn’t tell me I didn’t understand his world.
He simply stood there and let me be angry.
Then he said:
“You don’t have to come back.”
Something inside me cracked.
“What?”
“When this is over, you can leave.”
I stared at him.
“I thought you’d change the locks.”
His face went pale.
“Mara.”
“No. You said it.”
“I said it because I wanted the person listening to believe—”
“You chose words that sounded believable because they were built from how you’ve treated me for three years.”
He closed his eyes.
That one landed.
Then Arthur entered holding the laptop.
“We found another recording.”
The three of us listened.
Vincent’s voice filled the room.
A second man asked:
“What happens if the girl runs before we get the ledger?”
Vincent answered:
“Perfect. Nico will think she left because of him.”
Then he laughed.
“By the time he realizes she was taken, he’ll be too broken to notice who’s taking everything else.”
My skin turned cold.
Arthur looked at Nico.
“They weren’t waiting for me to leave.”
May you like
I whispered.
“They were planning to make me disappear.”
