Chapter 15 - WHAT CELESTE KNEW
No one answered Grace in front of the broken glass.
Emiliano took her downstairs first.
Later, in the morning room, Celeste asked to speak without her lawyer.
Detective Cross recorded everything.
Celeste looked ten years older than she had at the altar.
“I knew Adrian and Malcolm wanted to frighten Isabella,” she said. “I knew Marcus had access to her car. I told myself they were going to damage it so she’d stop investigating.”
“You told yourself,” Emiliano repeated.
“Yes.”
“Did you warn her?”
Celeste shook her head.
“Why?”
“Because Malcolm had proof I’d helped move money through the charity. I was twenty-nine and stupid and greedy. I thought I could fix it later.”
“And after Isabella died?”
“I knew it wasn’t an accident.”
Emiliano’s voice turned flat. “Then you met me at a fundraiser eighteen months later.”
“I arranged that.”
Grace sat with Ava in the next room, visible through the glass.
Celeste watched them.
“I wanted the evidence Isabella hid. At first that was all. Then I wanted your life. The house. The name. The way people looked at you.”
“And Grace?”
“She was proof I would never be first.”
Emiliano stared at her in disgust.
Celeste started crying. “There is no version of this where I am innocent.”
“No.”
“I hit a child because she touched a plate.”
“You hit her because she existed.”
Celeste lowered her head.
Detective Cross asked, “Who created the false psychiatric file?”
“Adrian paid Harlan. Malcolm’s attorney drafted the petition. I supplied stories.”
“Where is Dr. Harlan?”
Celeste looked up.
“Alive.”
Cross leaned forward.
“Where?”
“Adrian hid him at a hunting lodge near Bear Mountain. Harlan wanted more money and threatened to talk.”
Cross immediately stood and called her team.
Celeste’s voice stopped her.
“There’s one more thing.”
Emiliano turned.
“The wedding portraits weren’t just for publicity.”
She swallowed.
“Malcolm planned to use them in court as evidence that Ava had already become your ‘functional daughter’ and Grace had withdrawn from the family.”
May you like
Emiliano felt sick.
Celeste whispered, “The picture was going to be Exhibit A.”
