Chapter 11 - CELESTE TALKS
Celeste asked to speak with Ethan through attorneys.
He refused at first.
Mara said, “You don’t owe her a conversation.”
Sophie’s advocate agreed.
Ethan changed his mind only when police said Celeste wanted to identify where Richard might go.
They met at the station.
No touching.
No private room.
Celeste looked nothing like the woman who hosted charity dinners at the mansion.
“You think I planned all of this,” she said.
“You locked my daughter in a suitcase.”
Her eyes filled.
“I didn’t mean to leave her there.”
“That sentence does not help you.”
“I was going back.”
“You had one-way tickets.”
She covered her face.
Then the story came out.
Celeste met Richard before she met Ethan.
They had dated briefly.
Richard ended it, then reappeared after Amelia became ill.
He introduced Celeste to Ethan at a foundation event eight months after Amelia died.
At first, Celeste claimed, there was no plan.
She genuinely fell in love with Ethan’s life.
Ethan noticed the wording.
“Mine?”
She looked away.
Richard contacted her again after the wedding.
He told her Amelia had left Sophie “too much power.”
He promised Celeste a future with him if they could separate Ethan from the trust.
“And you believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
“What happened today?”
“Sophie saw us take the box.”
“So you locked her up.”
“I panicked.”
“Stop using panic to rename choices.”
Celeste cried.
Then she gave police a location.
Richard maintained a cabin in Litchfield County under Halcyon ownership.
Police raided it before dawn.
Richard was gone.
But the cabin contained something worse than financial records.
A wall covered with photographs of Ethan’s family.
Amelia.
Sophie.
Daniel.
Celeste.
Dates.
Weaknesses.
May you like
And beneath Sophie’s photograph, two words:
TRANSFER POINT.
