Chapter 5 - The Woman They Tried to Silence
Avery did not go home.
Sofia insisted she stay at the Marino family townhouse until Detective Elena Reyes arrived.
“You are not safe alone,” Sofia said.
Avery looked through the tall windows toward Central Park, her arms wrapped tightly around herself.
“I don’t even know why I’m involved.”
Sofia sat across from her.
“You are involved because Nicholas trusted you.”
“I met him once.”
“Sometimes one moment reveals more than years.”
Avery wanted to dismiss that as something rich people said when they were trying to make fear sound meaningful.
But she remembered the restaurant.
Everyone had been talking over Nicholas.
Everyone had been trying to solve the emergency around him.
Only Avery had looked at him.
Detective Reyes arrived just before noon.
She was practical, direct, and unimpressed by the Marino name.
After reviewing the threatening messages, the evidence from the safety deposit box, and the photo of Avery’s apartment, she made one thing clear.
“Luca Marino is now a person of interest,” she said. “Grant Keller too.”
Sofia’s face hardened.
“Can you arrest them?”
“Not yet. We need to confirm the journal and recording. But we can obtain protective measures.”
Avery laughed quietly.
“Protective measures. That sounds comforting.”
Detective Reyes met her eyes.
“It is not enough. I know that. But it is a start.”
Then Nicholas Marino woke up.
The call came from St. Vincent’s Hospital.
His condition had stabilized after emergency treatment, but he had demanded to speak with Avery.
Detective Reyes wanted an officer with her. Sofia wanted to come too.
Avery wanted none of it.
She did not want to walk into a billionaire’s hospital room and become part of a family tragedy she never asked for.
But she went.
Nicholas was sitting up when she entered.
He looked weaker than he had at Hawthorne House. His face was pale, and an IV line ran into his arm. Without the suit, the watch, and the controlled posture, he looked younger somehow.
More human.
His eyes found Avery immediately.
“You came.”
“You slipped me a key during a medical emergency,” Avery replied. “It seemed rude not to ask why.”
For the first time, he smiled.
It was faint.
But real.
Sofia stood at the foot of the bed, her face unreadable.
Nicholas looked at her.
“You found it.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Sofia could not answer.
Avery stepped closer.
“Your father left evidence that Luca and Grant are trying to take over Marino Atlantic. He also left a recording about Bianca.”
Nicholas closed his eyes.
For several seconds, no one spoke.
When he opened them again, they were full of old pain.
“I knew Luca was in the car,” he said.
Sofia looked stunned.
“What?”
“I knew he was driving.”
“You knew?”
“I found his jacket in the garage the night Bianca died. It smelled like gasoline and blood. I confronted Father. He told me I was imagining things.”
Nicholas looked at the ceiling.
“Then he told me Bianca had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He said if I asked questions, I would destroy what was left of the family.”
Sofia began crying.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I am so sorry.”
Nicholas turned his head toward her.
“I know.”
The gentleness in his voice made Avery’s heart ache.
He had spent years protecting a family that had never protected him.
Detective Reyes stepped forward.
“Mr. Marino, we need to know if Luca has access to your medical records.”
Nicholas’s expression changed.
“Why?”
“Because your collapse may not have been accidental.”
Avery looked at him.
“What do you mean?”
Nicholas glanced toward the tray beside his bed.
“The tea.”
At Hawthorne House.
The tea Avery had brought him.
He had asked for it himself.
His face tightened with shame.
“I carry emergency medication with me,” he said. “I took my dose before dinner. But I began feeling worse after the tea.”
Avery’s mind raced.
“Did anyone touch it?”
Nicholas looked at her.
“Grant offered to bring it from the service station.”
The room went silent.
Detective Reyes pulled out her phone.
“I need the restaurant’s security footage and any remaining cups, kettles, or service items from Table Fourteen.”
Avery’s stomach dropped.
Grant had not just known Nicholas was sick.
He may have caused the crisis.
But before Detective Reyes could leave, Nicholas’s hospital monitor began beeping.
Fast.
Then faster.
A nurse rushed inside.
“Sir, what did you eat or drink?”
Nicholas’s eyes widened.
His hand moved toward his wrist.
The bracelet.
Avery understood first.
“His emergency medication,” she said. “Where is it?”
Nicholas looked toward the bedside table.
The small black case he had placed there was gone.
Someone had entered his hospital room.
Someone had stolen the medication that could keep him alive.
And on the empty bedside table, written on a folded napkin, were four words:
May you like
Sign the merger. Or die.
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