Chapter 18 - THE LAST NAME
Marcus survived.
Under guard at the hospital, he agreed to talk in exchange for protection.
Emiliano stood behind the observation glass while Detective Cross questioned him.
“Who ordered the sabotage?”
Marcus stared at the blanket over his legs.
“Adrian brought the money. Malcolm approved pressure. But the brake line…”
He swallowed.
“Celeste told me to do it.”
Emiliano’s chest tightened.
Cross did not react. “Exact words.”
“She said Isabella couldn’t be allowed to reach the board meeting. I asked how far she wanted me to go. She said, ‘Make sure she doesn’t get there.’”
Celeste had claimed she believed they would scare Isabella.
Marcus continued.
“She called me after the crash. She was hysterical. Said she didn’t mean for Isabella to die.”
That sounded almost like remorse.
It changed nothing.
Cross asked, “Why speak now?”
“Adrian tried to poison me at the motel.”
Adrian still had allies cleaning loose ends.
By evening, three more arrests were made inside a private security company Adrian used.
Emiliano returned home after midnight.
Grace was awake on the couch.
“Is it true?” she asked.
He knew what she meant.
“Yes.”
“Celeste hurt Mommy?”
“Yes.”
Grace’s face crumpled, but she did not cry right away.
“She smiled at me every day.”
“I know.”
“She helped me pick flowers for Mommy’s grave.”
“I know.”
Then the tears came.
Emiliano held her while she shook.
“I hate her.”
“You’re allowed to.”
“Do you?”
He thought about it.
“I hate what she did. I don’t want hate deciding the rest of our lives.”
Grace wiped her face.
“What decides it?”
“We do.”
The next morning, Detective Cross arrived with formal charges.
Celeste would be charged in connection with Isabella’s death.
But there was one complication.
Ava’s biological father had appeared through an attorney demanding immediate custody.
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Celeste had once called him dangerous.
And according to Ava, for the first time in years, her mother might have been telling the truth.
