Chapter 6 - The Husband Who Thought She Would Come Back
Milwaukee lay ninety minutes north.
The drive felt like nine hours.
Martha sat beside Victor while Daniel coordinated with trusted security teams traveling separately.
Evelyn remained in Chicago.
Before they left, she made Martha repeat three things.
Do not enter anywhere alone.
Do not give Richard your phone.
Do not believe anything Richard says without evidence.
The third instruction bothered Martha.
Not because she intended to believe Richard.
Because some part of her remembered how good he was at making certainty feel unreasonable.
Victor noticed her silence.
“You don’t have to go inside.”
“He asked for me.”
“That doesn’t mean he gets you.”
“It means he thinks I matter to his plan.”
“He thinks everyone is part of his plan.”
Martha looked at him.
“So do you.”
Victor considered that.
“Yes.”
“At least you admit it.”
He turned toward the window.
After several miles he said, “Isabella is twenty-eight.”
Martha waited.
“She runs a literacy foundation.”
“That doesn’t sound very mafia.”
“My mother insisted one of us become respectable.”
“Which one?”
“Isabella.”
Martha smiled faintly.
“Does she know about your life?”
“Enough.”
“Does she approve?”
“No.”
“Good for her.”
Victor looked at Martha.
“You’ll like her.”
The certainty in his tone surprised them both.
Assuming they got her back.
Neither said it.
At the Milwaukee hotel, Richard had rented a private conference suite under a false name.
Victor refused to follow his demand that they come without security.
Instead, Daniel’s team entered through service corridors.
Martha and Victor approached the conference floor together.
Victor stopped outside the door.
“If anything happens, get behind me.”
“That strategy worked terribly last time.”
“You survived.”
“So did the wall.”
Victor stared at her.
“This isn’t funny.”
“No. It’s terrifying.”
Her honesty made him soften.
Martha whispered, “If I don’t joke, I might panic.”
Victor nodded once.
Then they entered.
Richard stood near the windows.
The blue tie was perfectly straight.
Martha hated that she noticed.
Isabella sat in a chair near the center of the room.
Her hands were bound.
A man Martha did not recognize stood behind her.
Victor stopped.
“Let her go.”
Richard smiled.
“Hello, Victor.”
Martha looked at Isabella.
She was frightened but conscious.
A bruise darkened one cheek.
Martha’s anger steadied her.
Richard turned toward his wife.
“Martha.”
She said nothing.
“You look tired.”
The old tactic.
Concern shaped like criticism.
Martha almost admired the predictability.
Richard continued.
“Romano keeping you awake?”
Victor moved.
Martha touched his arm.
Richard noticed.
His smile changed.
“Oh.”
Martha removed her hand immediately.
Richard laughed.
“This is better than I expected.”
“Let Isabella go.”
“Martha, always trying to manage uncomfortable conversations.”
“Richard.”
“All right.”
He walked closer.
“I’ll release Isabella when Victor gives me access codes to three holding accounts.”
Victor laughed.
“No.”
Richard looked surprised.
“You’d gamble with your sister?”
“No. I know you don’t need access codes.”
Richard’s smile disappeared.
Victor continued.
“You need my biometric approval to release frozen funds. Which means this is theater.”
Martha watched Richard recalibrate.
He hated being understood.
“So what do you want?” Victor asked.
Richard looked at Martha.
“Her.”
Silence.
Martha’s heart struck her ribs.
Victor’s voice became dangerous.
“No.”
Richard smiled again.
“She is my wife.”
“Not for long,” Martha said.
Richard ignored her.
“I need Martha to leave with me.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because you and I still have a chance.”
Martha almost laughed.
Isabella did.
Despite the man behind her.
Richard’s face tightened.
“This isn’t amusing.”
Isabella said, “It’s a little amusing.”
The man behind her shoved her shoulder.
Victor took one step forward.
Richard raised a hand.
“Careful.”
Victor stopped.
Martha studied her husband.
“What do you actually need?”
Richard’s eyes returned to her.
“You.”
“No.”
“You asked.”
“I meant why.”
His jaw moved.
“Vale thinks you’re a liability.”
“So?”
“So if you disappear with me, the story remains intact.”
Martha understood.
They needed her alive.
At least temporarily.
“You want investigators to believe we fled together.”
“Yes.”
“And after?”
Richard said nothing.
Martha felt sick.
Victor said quietly, “After, she has an accident.”
Richard’s silence confirmed it.
Martha looked at the man she had slept beside for seven years.
Shared birthdays with.
Made soup for when he was sick.
Waited awake for when he worked late.
She had wondered whether any part of him loved her.
Standing in that room, she realized she no longer needed the answer.
Some questions stopped mattering when the cost of asking them became your own life.
“You increased my life insurance,” she said.
Richard’s gaze shifted.
“For this?”
“You were supposed to be somewhere else when things happened.”
“What things?”
“The investigation. The collapse. Vale would handle the rest.”
“Handle me.”
Richard looked almost annoyed.
“Martha, you’re making this uglier than necessary.”
Something inside her went perfectly still.
There it was.
The sentence beneath every cruelty.
Why are you forcing me to hurt you?
She smiled.
Richard frowned.
“What?”
“You haven’t changed at all.”
“I changed plenty.”
“No.”
Martha took one step toward him.
“You just ran out of rooms where people believe you.”
His face hardened.
“Martha.”
“You lied to me for years and called my confusion proof I was unstable.”
“Martha—”
“You forged my name.”
“Stop.”
“You burned our house.”
“Stop.”
“You were going to let me go to prison.”
“Martha!”
He shouted.
The man behind Isabella looked toward him.
That was all Daniel’s team needed.
The conference door burst open.
Chaos followed.
Victor moved toward Isabella.
The armed man reached beneath his jacket.
Martha ducked.
Security slammed him against the wall.
Richard ran.
Not toward the main exit.
Toward a side door.
Martha saw him disappear through it.
She followed before thinking.
“Martha!”
Victor’s shout came behind her.
Richard entered a service stairwell.
Martha pushed through the door.
He was one flight below.
“Richard!”
He stopped.
Slowly he looked up.
Rain-gray light entered through a narrow window.
For a moment they were alone.
No mafia boss.
No wife.
No armed men.
Just husband and wife in a stairwell.
Richard climbed one step toward her.
“You still came.”
Martha’s stomach turned.
“For Isabella.”
“You came because part of you wanted to see me.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
He smiled.
“You always needed me to explain the world.”
“I needed you to stop lying about it.”
“You’re confused.”
Martha laughed softly.
Richard frowned.
“You said that so many times I started believing confusion was my personality.”
He climbed another step.
“Come with me.”
“No.”
“I can fix this.”
“No.”
“You think Romano cares about you?”
“This isn’t about Victor.”
“It will be.”
Richard’s eyes sharpened.
“He’ll use you until Vale is gone. Then what? You think men like him marry women like you?”
Martha stared.
“You think this is romantic?”
“Isn’t it?”
“No.”
Richard seemed genuinely surprised.
Martha continued.
“This is about the fact that you tried to erase me.”
His expression hardened.
“I gave you everything.”
“You gave me bills in my name and lies in yours.”
“You had a house.”
“You burned it.”
“You had security.”
“You made me unsafe.”
“You had a husband people respected.”
“No.”
Martha stepped closer.
“I had a husband who wanted people to respect him so badly he became a parasite on men he envied.”
Richard slapped her.
The sound echoed through the stairwell.
Martha’s face snapped sideways.
For one stunned second neither moved.
Richard stared at his own hand.
He had never hit her before.
Then he whispered, “Look what you made me do.”
The sentence ended something forever.
Martha looked back at him.
“No.”
She spoke quietly.
“Look what you chose to do.”
Richard grabbed her arm.
Victor appeared above them.
“Take your hand off her.”
Richard turned.
Martha had never seen anyone look as frightened as her husband did then.
He released her.
Victor descended slowly.
Richard backed down.
“You touch her again,” Victor said, “and the police will be the safest people you know.”
Richard laughed nervously.
“So she belongs to you now?”
Martha answered before Victor could.
“I belong to myself.”
Then police entered through the lower stairwell.
Richard looked both ways.
Trapped.
His eyes met Martha’s.
Hatred replaced charm.
“You think this ends with me?”
Martha’s pulse quickened.
“What does that mean?”
Richard smiled.
“Ask Sofia what happened to Victor’s father.”
Victor froze.
Police seized Richard.
He kept smiling as they dragged him away.
Martha turned toward Victor.
His face had changed.
“What did he mean?”
Victor said nothing.
“Victor.”
He looked toward the stairwell where Richard disappeared.
“My father died eight years ago.”
“I know.”
“He had a heart attack.”
Martha remembered the emails.
Antonio’s health deteriorates as expected.
Her stomach tightened.
“As expected,” she whispered.
Victor looked at her.
May you like
For the first time, anger gave way to fear.
“My father was fifty-eight.”
