Chapter 4 - CELESTE
Celeste Ward lived under another last name in a coastal town in Maine.
Grant drove there alone.
He did not tell Evelyn.
He did not tell Rachel.
He was afraid that saying the name aloud would make the whole thing disappear.
Celeste opened the door wearing gardening gloves.
She was sixty-two.
Dark hair gone mostly silver.
Grant saw his own eyes in her face before either of them spoke.
She gripped the doorframe.
"Oh, God."
"You know me."
"I knew you the second I saw you."
"You were told I died?"
Her face changed.
"I was told you died."
Grant felt the world tilt.
Celeste invited him inside.
Thirty-seven years earlier, she had worked as a bookkeeper for Bennett Construction.
Arthur Bennett was separated from Evelyn for almost a year.
Celeste and Arthur became involved.
When Celeste became pregnant, Arthur promised to support the baby.
Then he reconciled with Evelyn.
"Evelyn couldn't have children," Celeste said.
"She told everyone she was pregnant."
"A fake pregnancy."
Near the end of Celeste's term, Evelyn offered money.
Celeste refused.
Then labor came early.
There were complications.
Celeste lost consciousness.
When she woke, a doctor told her the baby had suffered respiratory failure.
No viewing.
Closed casket.
No records she could access.
"Evelyn took me."
"I didn't know until years later."
"How?"
"Arthur found me."
"When?"
"When you were sixteen."
Arthur admitted the truth.
He said he had not known Evelyn stole the child until Grant was five.
By then, Arthur claimed exposing it would destroy Grant's life.
"He called silence protection."
Grant thought of Rachel.
Of Maddie.
Of himself standing in a doorway and deciding what he saw before asking one question.
The pattern made him sick.
"Why didn't you come for me?"
"Because Arthur threatened to bury me in lawsuits and call me unstable."
Grant could barely breathe.
"Your father left this with me before he died."
Grant recognized Arthur's handwriting.
TO GRANT, IF EVELYN EVER FORCES THE BLOOD QUESTION.
Inside was a key.
May you like
And one sentence.
The truth is under the east chapel.
