Chapter 10 - TWO GIRLS
Security doubled around Grace.
Ava refused to leave Grace’s side.
“They keep acting like we’re supposed to hate each other,” Ava said while the girls sat on the library floor.
Grace shrugged. “I don’t hate you.”
“I lied about you.”
“You said sorry.”
Ava stared at her. “That’s it?”
Grace thought. “No. You have to stop lying too.”
Ava gave a broken little laugh. “Deal.”
Across the room, Celeste watched them through the glass doors.
Detective Cross had not arrested her yet. The evidence proved manipulation and assault, but the older conspiracy was still being untangled.
Emiliano confronted her in the study.
“You knew Isabella.”
Celeste closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“You entered my life eighteen months after she died and never told me.”
“I was terrified.”
“Of me?”
“Of Adrian. Of Malcolm. Of what they would do if they knew Isabella had given me copies.”
Emiliano laughed without humor. “So you protected yourself by targeting my daughter?”
Celeste’s face twisted. “I started by getting close to you because I thought I could find the rest of Isabella’s evidence. Then…”
“Then what?”
“I liked the life.”
“I liked being Mrs. Vega before I even became Mrs. Vega. I liked cameras. I liked people moving when I walked into a room. Grace reminded everyone that I came second.”
Emiliano stared at her.
“So you tried to erase a child from a photograph.”
“And then from your home,” she whispered.
Before he could answer, glass shattered downstairs.
Mateo shouted over the radio.
“Movement in the west corridor!”
Emiliano ran.
The library doors were open.
Grace was there.
Ava was not.
Grace pointed toward the service hall, terrified.
“A man took her.”
Celeste came running behind him.
“Who?”
Grace’s lips trembled.
“Uncle Adrian.”
May you like
Celeste made a sound Emiliano had never heard from her before.
Then Grace added, “He said he grabbed the wrong girl.”
