Chapter 14 - Celeste Finally Told Us Why
We returned to the mansion together.
Mike stayed with Hadley and the house manager in a separate sitting room.
Police remained in the hallway.
I went into the study.
Celeste was on her knees beside the wreckage of my desk.
Two drawers had been ripped completely free.
Broken wood surrounded her.
Her platinum curls had fallen loose around her face.
For once, she did not look elegant.
She looked desperate.
When she saw me, her eyes immediately moved behind me.
“Where’s Mike?”
“Safe.”
Her shoulders dropped.
Not with relief.
With defeat.
“You found him.”
“Yes.”
She looked toward the broken desk.
Then at the reconstructed scraps of Hadley’s drawing on the carpet.
“You don’t understand what those books were worth.”
I almost laughed.
“I understand exactly what they were worth.”
“No, you understand what collectors say they’re worth. Blaine found a private buyer who would pay enough to save everything.”
“Save what?”
Her mouth tightened.
Blaine’s restoration business had collapsed because Celeste had quietly guaranteed part of his debt.
She had done it without telling anyone.
When the lender began demanding repayment, Celeste panicked.
Selling one book became a solution.
Then another.
Once she realized Blaine could create replicas good enough to fool casual inspection, the scheme expanded.
Seven originals were already committed to a private overseas buyer.
The Lantern Boy was the centerpiece.
Without it, the buyer would not release the final payment.
“And Mike noticed,” I said.
“He meddled.”
“He was eight.”
“He wouldn’t stop.”
“So you used my name to get him into Blaine’s car.”
Celeste looked away.
“You were supposed to be gone until tomorrow.”
That was it.
My early return had interrupted everything.
The book shipment.
Mike’s temporary removal.
The destruction of Hadley’s clue.
All of it.
“You planned to bring Mike back after the sale?”
“Yes.”
“As though nothing happened?”
“He would’ve gotten over it.”
I stared at her.
“No. You expected everyone else to.”
She looked toward the desk again.
“Where is the book?”
Even now.
After Mike was found.
After her brother had confessed.
After the counterfeit chain was exposed.
The book still mattered to her.
That told me one final thing.
She still believed the buyer might pay if she recovered it quickly enough.
I stepped closer.
“You shredded Hadley’s drawing because you thought it showed where Mike hid it.”
Her silence answered.
“But Mike didn’t hide it.”
Her face changed.
For the first time that afternoon, I watched Celeste genuinely lose track of the story.
“Who did?”
I turned toward the doorway.
Hadley stood safely beyond the threshold, holding Mike’s hand.
Mike looked at his sister.
Then at me.
“She did.”
Hadley blinked.
“I did?”
Mike nodded.
“You remember the last picture?”
Hadley frowned.
Then her eyes widened.
May you like
And suddenly the only person in the room who could finish the puzzle was the child Celeste had called useless.
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