Chapter 5: What the Federal Agent Wanted
She didn't answer immediately.
"Mrs.
Moretti," Marcus Hale said again.
"I'm not calling to pressure you.
I want to be clear about that from the start."
"Then what are you calling to do?"
"To tell you that we know you left last night.
And to tell you that whatever you took with you when you left — we're not interested in it.
That's your business."
Amara moved to the kitchen table and sat down.
"How did you get this number?"
"We've been watching the household for eight months.
We have most of the numbers."
"Including Selena Ward's."
A brief pause.
"Yes."
"Then you know more about my husband's life than I do."
"In some ways," Hale said.
"In others, considerably less." He paused again.
"Mrs.
Moretti, I'm not going to ask you to do anything.
I want to make that clear.
You're not a target.
You're not a subject.
You're not being asked to cooperate."
"But."
"But if at any point you wanted to speak with us — voluntarily, with your attorney present, on your own terms — we would make that very easy for you."
Amara looked at the envelope on the table.
"What is Dante being investigated for?"
"I can't discuss the specifics of an active investigation."
"Then I can't discuss anything either." She kept her voice even.
"Mr.
Hale, I left my husband last night.
I have a lawyer.
I have a protective order being filed this morning.
I have a six-month-old daughter who is going to need a stable world to be born into." She paused.
"I am not interested in becoming part of whatever case you're building.
I'm interested in getting out cleanly."
"That's completely reasonable."
"Then we understand each other."
"We do." A beat.
"One more thing.
Dante is going to tell you — or tell people close to you — that you triggered this investigation.
That your leaving was a signal to us.
He'll use that to justify whatever he decides to do next."
Amara's hand tightened around the phone.
"Is it true?" she asked.
"Did my leaving accelerate anything?"
"No," Hale said.
"The timeline was already set.
You leaving didn't change our schedule by a single day."
"But it changed his."
Silence.
"Yes," Hale said.
"It changed his."
She hung up.
For a long moment she sat without moving.
Then she called Nadia.
"Federal investigation," Amara said when Nadia answered.
"Eight months.
They're not asking me to cooperate.
But Dante is going to believe I already have."
"I know," Nadia said.
"You knew before you told me about Hale last night."
"I suspected."
"Nadia."
"I needed you out of that house before I told you everything." Her voice was steady but careful.
"If you'd known the full picture while you were still inside, you might have moved differently.
Too fast.
Too visible."
Amara pressed two fingers to her temple.
"What else haven't you told me?"
A pause.
"Selena Ward," Nadia said.
"She's not just Dante's mistress."
"Then what is she?"
"She's the one who's been cooperating with Hale's investigation for the past four months."
The room went very quiet.
"Dante doesn't know," Nadia said.
"No," Amara said slowly.
"He doesn't."
The woman in her chair.
The woman wearing his sweater.
May you like
The woman Dante had asked Amara to accept.
She was the one who had been dismantling him from the inside.
