Chapter 6 - The Man Beside Marco
“Don’t.”
Nico kept both hands visible.
Marco’s weapon was pointed at his chest.
Mara stood several feet away holding Emma.
No one moved.
“Marco.”
Nico’s voice remained steady.
“I did not kill Jonah Ellison.”
“Two hundred thousand dollars says otherwise.”
“The account is mine.”
“That’s not helping.”
“It was opened in my name.”
“Also not helping.”
“I never controlled it.”
Marco’s face showed no emotion.
Mara realized that was more frightening than anger.
Nico looked toward her.
“Mrs. Ellison.”
“Don’t talk to her.”
Marco’s voice sliced across the room.
Nico returned his eyes to Marco.
“You know me.”
“I thought I did.”
“I’ve been beside you fourteen years.”
“And if you sold my sister and Jonah for two hundred thousand dollars, you overestimated how sentimental that makes me.”
Nico swallowed.
“I found the account three months ago.”
Marco’s eyes narrowed.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“Because I was trying to find who opened it.”
“Without telling me?”
“I didn’t know whether I could tell you.”
Marco stepped closer.
Nico’s jaw tightened.
“Because someone was using your credentials too.”
Silence.
Mara looked from one man to the other.
Nico continued.
“Payments in the ledger carry your signature.”
“You said yourself they’re fake.”
“If someone can fake yours, they can fake mine.”
Marco did not lower the gun.
“Proof.”
Nico nodded toward the computer.
“Open the account creation metadata.”
Mara looked at Marco.
He gestured.
Nico moved slowly.
He pulled up the records.
The account had been created remotely.
The source terminal belonged to Castellano Legal Services.
Adrian Bell’s office.
Mara’s stomach tightened.
“Your attorney?”
Marco looked at Nico.
“Adrian has hundreds of employees.”
“Exactly.”
Nico opened another file.
“Three weeks before Jonah’s death, someone requested duplicate authentication certificates for six senior Castellano executives.”
“Who approved it?”
“Vittorio.”
Marco’s eyes darkened.
Nico continued.
“I suspected somebody was building a system that could make any order look like it came from any of us.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because your uncle told me you approved it.”
Marco’s grip tightened around the gun.
“And you believed him.”
“For a while.”
“Why?”
Nico’s voice changed.
“Because twelve years ago, when your father died, Vittorio was the only reason half this organization didn’t turn on you.”
Marco flinched.
Nico saw it.
“We all trusted him.”
Marco lowered the gun slowly.
Not because he trusted Nico again.
Because he needed answers more than blood.
Mara exhaled.
Nico looked toward the Blue Ledger.
“There is more.”
He opened another folder.
Elena’s name.
Hospital invoices appeared.
One payment had been made to a private obstetric consultant.
Dr. Samuel Leland.
Marco recognized him.
“He treated Elena.”
Mara’s face tightened.
“The doctor who handled her pregnancy?”
“Yes.”
A second payment appeared.
One hundred fifty thousand dollars.
Authorized by a charitable subsidiary controlled by Vittorio.
Date.
Three days before Elena went into premature labor.
Mara stared at Marco.
“What was it for?”
Nico opened the memo.
Consulting services.
Marco laughed bitterly.
“Find him.”
Nico typed.
Then stopped.
“What?”
“Dr. Leland’s phone is off.”
“Home?”
“Security team already checked.”
“Gone.”
Mara looked toward Emma.
“Someone planned Elena’s medical emergency.”
Marco’s voice became cold.
“We don’t know that.”
“You don’t believe in coincidences either.”
“No.”
Nico opened Elena’s medication records.
“There is another issue.”
A prescription had been altered forty-eight hours before labor began.
A medication intended to control Elena’s blood pressure had been substituted at the pharmacy.
Mara felt sick.
“Could that cause what happened?”
“We need Dr. Shah to review it.”
Marco called her.
The answer came fifteen minutes later.
Dr. Shah was careful.
She would not claim causation without a formal investigation.
But the substituted drug could have placed severe stress on an already complicated pregnancy.
Marco sat motionless after the call.
Mara watched something break quietly behind his eyes.
“She didn’t just die.”
His voice barely carried.
“Someone pushed her body toward that room.”
Mara said nothing.
Marco looked at Emma.
Then toward the photograph of Jonah.
“The same people who killed him.”
Nico’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed immediately.
“What?”
Marco stood.
Nico listened.
Then looked toward Mara.
“We have a security breach at the hospital.”
Mara’s heart stopped.
“Leo.”
“They’re locking down NICU.”
Marco was already moving.
The drive took twelve minutes.
It felt like an hour.
When they arrived, hospital security surrounded the neonatal floor.
A man wearing maintenance clothing had attempted to enter the NICU through a service hallway.
He escaped when challenged.
Marco nearly tore the entire floor apart looking for him.
Leo remained safe.
Mara stood beside his incubator after donating again.
“Someone wants him dead.”
Marco stared through the glass.
“Yes.”
Mara turned.
“You said it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Shares.”
“Evidence.”
“Revenge.”
“Maybe all three.”
Mara looked at him.
“You need to move him.”
“The doctors say he’s too fragile.”
“Then move the danger.”
Marco understood.
Within two hours, the hospital floor became one of the most secure medical wards in the city.
Marco placed his own people at every access point.
Hospital administration protested.
Marco made calls.
The protests ended.
Mara watched from a chair.
“You really do solve most things by terrifying people.”
“It’s efficient.”
“Until the thing you’re afraid of is already inside.”
Marco looked at her.
She nodded toward the electronic records.
“The fake nurse credential came from inside the hospital.”
“The altered medication came from a doctor.”
“The storage unit was accessed by someone who knew Elena’s code.”
“Maybe your walls aren’t protecting Leo.”
“Maybe they’re trapping him with whoever is already inside.”
Marco considered it.
Then instructed Nico to audit every employee with access to Leo.
Mara expected him to dismiss her.
Instead he listened.
That unsettled her more than the arguing had.
Later that evening, Emma fell asleep against Marco’s chest by accident.
Mara had been exhausted.
She asked him to hold the baby for ten seconds while she packed the diaper bag.
Marco looked horrified.
“I don’t know how.”
“Support her head.”
“What if she cries?”
“Then congratulations.”
“You’ve met a baby.”
Mara placed Emma in his arms.
Marco froze.
Emma opened her eyes.
She stared up at him.
Marco stared back.
“Why is she looking at me like that?”
“She’s deciding whether you’re suspicious.”
“She has good instincts.”
Emma yawned.
Then fell asleep.
Marco’s entire face changed.
Mara stopped packing.
For several seconds, the dangerous man holding her daughter looked almost terrified to breathe.
“She trusts you.”
Mara said it softly.
Marco looked at her.
“She doesn’t know better.”
“Maybe babies know different things.”
He looked back down at Emma.
“My father would hate this.”
“What?”
“Me standing in a hospital holding someone’s baby.”
“Then your father sounds exhausting.”
Marco smiled.
It was the first genuine smile Mara had seen.
Then the lights went out.
Every monitor switched to backup power.
Emergency lights flashed red.
Marco immediately handed Emma to Mara.
“Stay behind me.”
Security radios erupted.
Nico’s voice came through.
“Generator failure on floors six through eight.”
Marco looked toward Leo’s unit.
The incubators remained powered.
Then an alarm sounded from the service corridor.
Smoke.
Not fire.
A diversion.
Marco understood instantly.
“Lock NICU.”
A figure in scrubs appeared near the stairwell.
Security moved.
The person ran.
Marco followed.
Mara stayed with Emma.
Thirty seconds later, another person entered the waiting area behind her.
A woman.
Dark coat.
Brown hair.
Mara turned.
Rebecca Ellison stood ten feet away.
Alive.
Older.
Terrified.
“Rebecca.”
Rebecca lifted one finger to her lips.
Mara stared at her dead husband’s sister.
“You’re alive.”
“I don’t have time.”
“Jonah thought you were dead.”
“No.”
Rebecca’s face twisted.
“He knew.”
Mara’s anger erupted.
“You let him lie to me?”
“I kept him alive as long as I could.”
“He’s dead.”
Rebecca flinched.
“I know.”
“Why are you here?”
Rebecca looked toward Leo.
“To finish what Jonah started.”
She reached into her coat.
Mara tensed.
Rebecca pulled out a small envelope.
“Give this to Marco.”
“What is it?”
“The name of the person who ordered Jonah’s death.”
Mara grabbed the envelope.
“Is it Vittorio?”
Rebecca’s eyes filled.
“No.”
Mara froze.
“Then who?”
Rebecca looked toward the corridor where Marco had disappeared.
“The order came from Marco Castellano’s private office.”
Mara felt the world tilt.
Rebecca stepped backward.
“Ask him where he was at 11:40 the night before Jonah died.”
Then she vanished through the stairwell.
Marco returned seconds later.
The fleeing intruder had escaped.
He looked at Mara’s face.
“What happened?”
Mara stared at him.
She remembered Jonah’s video.
She remembered Marco’s forged digital signature.
She remembered a payment order labeled cleanup.
Then she looked at the envelope in her hand.
“Where were you at 11:40 p.m. the night before my husband died?”
Marco’s expression changed.
May you like
He did not answer.
And his silence frightened her more than any lie could have.
