Chapter 13 - THE PRICE OF A NAME
"My cousin set up the accident," Dante said when Price showed him the document.
"It suggests fraud," the detective corrected. "We'll trace who submitted it. We cannot leap from that to attempted murder."
"Vincent is dead. Somebody needs to answer for that."
Marina sat beside him in the hospital courtyard. He looked smaller without the mansion's walls around him.
"When I was seventeen," he said, "my uncle taught me the family's favorite rule: make people fear you and they'll never leave."
"Did it work?"
"It made them lie better."
He stared at the bandage on his calf. "I built half the business on favors I wouldn't put in writing. I told myself I was protecting my people. Luca learned from me."
"Then decide what kind of man you want to be next."
Dante looked toward the hospital's physical therapy garden. "I don't know how."
"Start by listening when people say no."
That evening he signed a release allowing independent auditors to examine his personal rehabilitation trust and authorized Price to receive the relevant records through counsel. He also ordered Gabriel to preserve every message relating to the airstrip.
The next morning, Celeste appeared in a television interview outside the courthouse.
"Dante is vulnerable," she said, voice trembling beautifully. "A woman posing as his nurse has isolated him from his doctors and family."
Reporters flashed Marina's nursing license photograph across the screen. Under it was a headline accusing her of exploiting a disabled patient.
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Then a state nursing board investigator called.
"Ms. Reyes? A complaint has been filed against you. Your license is under review."
