Flash Marriage: Shrewd Wife, Devious Husband
Chapter 106: What They Want

Chapter 106: What They Want

"Wait... You guys said I wouldn’t be accepted here..." Marcella placed her hand on her chest and her eyes clouded. "Is it because I am a suspect?" she asked with her lips trembling.

"My Dad is dead, Mom too... My sister is dead and...I ended up with all my father’s wealth... I can understand why I am the perfect suspect...’ Marcella covered her face with her hands.

"No, that’s not~"

"At times I too wonder why I am the one who survived..." she looked at Ruby. "I... My sister should have lived... The baby... whenever I look at him, I am filled with guilt. He should have had his mother with him. He does not want me. He wants his mother. I want him to have his mother too..."

She ended up sobbing. It was her true feeling. She started up as trying to manipulate them, but she ended up opening up her heart. Ruby must have sensed the sincerity in her survivor’s guilt, she became a little soft with her afterward.

The others joined too. There is something powerful in the tears of a woman. It’s a bonus if the woman is beautiful. The crying woman can move mountains just with her tears. She can get the men with iron hearts to melt in her tears and do stuff they wouldn’t normally do.

Marcella smiled in her heart. She never once thought that she could be a suspect. She just pretended to be dumb and emotional.

They went for another round getting hyped up on coffee. They were "concerned" for her and asked her a lot of questions. She answered them patiently and with apt emotions.

Marcella was not ready to leave yet even though it was past seven in the evening. She was just getting a hold of everyone there.

She was getting interrogated, in a fun, manipulative way, she could understand.

Since she knew she was getting interrogated, and they believed that she believes that they are being friendly and kind to her, she ended up manipulating them with her answers.

By now, every one of them found her pitiful one way or another.

"It must have been hard for someone like you to watch what your father does and...be there..." Ruby said holding her hand.

Marcella bowed her head in a somber silence. "I left as soon as I could..."

She made them believe that she left the house because of her father’s legally grey deeds for a reason. She would never give up her father. But she said it because that’s what her father wanted everyone to believe. Not many know that she ran away because of the marriage he arranged, but everyone believed that she ran away because she did not like what her father did because they heard it from the horse’s mouth.

Her father must have done it for a reason. He even disowned her in front of the public.

She thought her father was mad at her in the past. But after Tony told her that her father’s death might be connected to his wish to run for office, she changed her mind.

Her father disowned her to protect her from someone. Tony might know who that someone is but he was not willing to tell her. That someone might be the one responsible for her sister’s death too.

He must be a very powerful someone. And this little interrogation might also be done at the behest of that someone. She wondered if "The Codex" would come up in their conversations.

It was for that reason she couldn’t believe it was Paul Romano. And also, because she didn’t think that Paul Romano would sacrifice his golden heir for anything.

"You really have a tough life. It was as if you got out of the frying pan and into the fire," Mike Langdon, one of the agents said.

Marcella caught a quick glimpse of Ruby glaring at Mike and Mike too fisted his hands in anxiety.

Oh, poor little guy spilled something out, didn’t he? Crying women do lower the guards of mighty men. Heh!

Marcella pretended she didn’t figure them out. "Yeah," she said meekly. "At least, when my father was alive, I had some sort of protection. Now I am on my own..."

"Yeah..."

"Yeah..."

Everyone agreed with her and although Marcella couldn’t look at them, she figured they were sighing in relief.

"Yes!" Ruby almost shouted in glee thinking that Marcella didn’t figure out what it was.

Marcella pressed her lips.

Their interest was not just in her father. They were just asking about her father to get a hold of her emotional state and how she viewed the law.

Tony is their target!

Wow!

Is it because he thinks of running? Is that why they are investigating Tony?

Hmmm...

Marcella stayed with them until eight. They asked her about her work and how she is maintaining her job now that she has a baby to look after.

She had to tell them her connection with Randy, a well-known associate of her father. She gave up information about Henry too. They know about it already; He signed her wedding license.

"They all do their thing now... They are like my relatives. They are all I know..." she gave an explanation.

She could see that they were still doubting her on that.

She kept her guard up the whole time while being casual and pretending to be unassuming. She gave up information and withheld the much more sinister information.

Her married life came up once or twice. She confirmed that Tony was their object of investigation. They couldn’t get her father and now they are trying to get her husband.

They must doubt that Tony is the one who took on her father’s mantle.

Too bad they are the FBI. Even if their instincts are true, they will need pesky things like proof and evidence to indict and convict. She hoped Tony was smart.

They can still conjure up evidence. They are the FBI, after all.

Only time will tell whether the FBI intends to intimidate Tony into backing off from running or if they want him rotting inside a federal prison.

Whatever their plans were, she was not willing to lose him.

After staying there for some more time, Marcella excused herself. "I had a great time here. I wish I could come here again," she smiled with the excitement of a child.

"Of course, you can. We all had a good time too," they all said.

John offered a lift to her home and she didn’t refuse. She had a lot to do but she could not do it that day. She must be getting watched.

"Find out who did it to Mellissa, John, please..." she held his arm as he stopped in front of her apartment building. "I cannot sleep at night, John. I get nightmares in which Mellissa is calling out to me from the beyond... I fear her soul hasn’t rested, John. Her killer hasn’t been caught- that monster. He tortured her and she died thinking of her son... She hasn’t rested. What will I do, John? What can I do for my sister?"

A tear drop rolled down her cheeks. As far as she knew, John Emerson was religious and her sister was his first love. It would touch him if she invoked her dead sister’s soul. She’ll be damned for doing such a low thing, but she was willing to get to any low to bring out her sister’s killer.

"I’ll bring it up to my superiors again, Marcella. I promise..." John patted her hand.

"I..." Marcella wiped her eyes. "I don’t say this to Tony because I don’t want to get him worried, but I think I shouldn’t be having Joseph, John. Maybe he should be with his grandfather~"

"No," John squeezed her hand hard it hurt her. His eyes became sharp and his lips stiffened out of vexation. "Do not say that, Marcella...Mellissa wouldn’t want~" John realized something and blinked his eyes. "Mellissa would want you to take care of her son. So, do not doubt yourself."

Marcella looked down and nodded her head. Squeezing her eyelids shut, she made tears roll down her cheeks.

Paul Romano definitely has something to do with Mellissa’s death! John knows something.

After sitting in the car for a couple of minutes to "compose" herself, Marcella alighted from the car. Waving her hand, she sent off John.

As she turned to enter the apartment building, the redness of her face went away and her eyes turned serious. Tony was home already.

"How was your day?" he asked, closing the door behind her.

"They are investigating you, Tony," she said and looked at her purse. "Do you think they might have bugged me?"

Tony got her purse and checked every inch of it. "It’s not bugged, Birdie... Tell me everything you’ve gathered."

Marcella went to the dining table and she explained everything that happened there. Rather than getting alert or scared, Tony was smiling.

"You already predicted it?" she asked.

She hoped that were the case. Then she will not have to worry.

"No," Tony shrugged. "God! You’re smart," he said. "I want to kiss the sh*t out of you!"

"Really, Tony? Is this the time for that?" Marcella sighed. "You should be worried. I am pretty manipulative. I could be manipulating you all along!"

She supported her forehead on her hand.

Even she couldn’t believe that she could be this manipulative.