Chapter 5 - Celeste’s Confession
Celeste wanted protection.
Isabella wanted truth.
“Start talking.”
Helena had recruited Celeste after Julian’s birth.
At first, she only watched.
Canceled events.
Meals.
Arguments.
Then Helena paid her to push harder.
Encourage Adrian’s frustration.
Make jokes about Isabella’s body before he did.
Turn humiliation into something normal.
“If everyone laughed,” Celeste whispered, “nobody would notice it was deliberate.”
Isabella felt cold.
“How much?”
Celeste named enough money to buy a country estate.
She admitted delivering altered medical orders.
She admitted sending Helena measurements.
She admitted suggesting the gold dress.
But she denied forging Dr. Vale’s signature.
“That was Hugo Mert. A palace secretary.”
“And Graves?”
“He told Helena how much pressure your abdomen could tolerate.”
Isabella closed her eyes.
Celeste continued.
Helena had promised her influence if Isabella were declared unfit.
“Did she promise you Adrian?”
Celeste looked ashamed.
“No.”
That answer surprised Isabella.
Celeste had once loved Adrian, but Helena had offered something more useful than romance.
Power.
Before Isabella left, Celeste handed her a key.
“There’s a box in the old royal nursery.”
“What box?”
“Your letters.”
Isabella froze.
The nursery wall contained a hidden cabinet.
Inside were dozens of letters Isabella had written to Adrian during recovery.
Unopened.
Adrian read the first.
Today I walked twelve steps.
The second:
I am afraid you are ashamed of me.
Then:
Please sit with me without asking when I will be normal again.
Adrian lowered the page.
“I never got these.”
“I know.”
The box also held Dr. Vale’s reports.
And one new warning dated three weeks before the ball:
NO TIGHT GARMENTS. RISK OF INTERNAL STRAIN.
Adrian stared.
Someone knew the gold gown could injure her before he ordered her into it.
Then he found a sealed envelope addressed to Helena.
Inside was a short note from Dr. Graves:
May you like
THE DRESS SHOULD NOT BE FATAL IF EXPOSURE IS BRIEF.
Adrian went completely still.
