Chapter 8 - Grace's Warning
Celeste had a split lip and bruising around one wrist.
Vincent stood at the end of her hospital bed.
“Did Grant do that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He thinks I told you about the garage.”
“You authorized the payment.”
Her eyes closed.
“Grant made me.”
“No. He pressured you. You still signed it.”
Celeste began to cry.
Vincent did not move.
“Grace asked me to help expose him,” she said. “At first, I did.”
“What changed?”
“Grant found out. My brother owed him money. Grant threatened him.”
“So you switched sides.”
“I got scared.”
“And after Grace died, you entered my life.”
Celeste nodded.
“Whose idea?”
“Grant’s.”
Vincent felt sick.
“He wanted someone near you. Someone who could keep Mia away from Grace’s things.”
“And you did more than that.”
Celeste looked away.
“I grabbed Mia. She pulled back and hit the cabinet.”
“You made her clean until her hands blistered.”
“I needed the bird.”
“You terrorized a child for evidence.”
Celeste whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“No. You’re caught.”
Her breathing shook.
“There’s something else.”
Vincent said nothing.
“Grace didn’t die immediately.”
His entire body went rigid.
“She called me from the car.”
Vincent could barely speak. “You answered?”
Celeste stared at the blanket.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Grant was standing beside me.”
Vincent stepped back.
“I watched her name on the screen until it stopped.”
He left before rage swallowed him.
Outside, Marcus handed him a recovered voice file from Hannah’s old recorder.
Grant’s voice said, “If Mia disappears, Vincent believes she was never his.”
Then Grace said, clear and furious:
“You come near my daughter and I bury both of you.”
Vincent looked up.
May you like
For the first time, he understood.
The fake DNA test had been planned before Grace died.
