Chapter 8 - Audrey Finally Told Me What She Had Been Afraid to Say
That evening, after the guests had been cleared from the estate and the wedding planners were dismissed, Audrey finally told me the truth she had been swallowing for months.
“She hates anything that reminds this house who came before her,” Audrey said.
We were sitting in Nora’s old library while Maisie slept upstairs.
“She smiled in front of you,” Audrey continued. “But every time Maisie wore something from Nora’s collection, every time she asked about her mother, every time someone mentioned the founder portraits or old design files, Celeste changed.”
I leaned forward slowly.
“Why didn’t you tell me all of this sooner?”
Audrey’s expression didn’t harden. That almost made it worse.
“I did,” she said quietly. “You just heard it as concern instead of warning.”
That landed exactly where it should have.
Then Audrey told me one more thing.
Three weeks earlier, she had walked into the archive room and found Celeste going through old trust binders and corporate files that had nothing to do with wedding planning. When Audrey asked what she was doing, Celeste smiled and said she wanted to “understand the future.”
Audrey had not believed her.
Neither did I now.
Because the future Celeste wanted had room for the company.
Room for the mansion.
Room for my name.
May you like
But not for the child who carried Nora’s place in all of them.
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