Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN IN GREEN
Celeste placed the ledger on Charles's desk as if returning a borrowed book.
"I found it in Victor's car," she said.
Detective Brooks asked why she had been inside Victor's car.
Celeste replied that after the gala she followed him to the private parking level because she believed he was hiding something. She saw him place the ledger beneath the spare tire, waited until police took him away, and retrieved it.
"Then why not give it to police immediately?" Charles asked.
"Because my name is in it."
The ledger documented payments from Project Haven to shell companies. Several companies belonged to Victor. Two belonged to Celeste.
She insisted Victor used her signatures while she served as foundation treasurer. Yet emails showed she approved transfers and received substantial consulting fees.
Celeste began to cry, but Charles had watched too many board members discover tears when numbers stopped protecting them.
"Ruth warned Ethan not to trust you," he said.
Celeste's expression changed.
She admitted visiting Bellweather four months earlier. She had learned about Ethan from Victor and wanted proof before Charles changed the succession plan. Victor told her Ruth was blackmailing the family.
"Did you threaten them?"
"No. I offered money."
"To make my grandson disappear."
"To avoid scandal."
The phrase had lived in the Aldridge family for generations. Avoid scandal meant hide the worker injured in an unsafe mill. Avoid scandal meant silence Daniel when he questioned missing charity money. Avoid scandal meant a bruised child arriving through ballroom doors because adults with clean hands had kept making dirty decisions.
Lena arrested Celeste for financial conspiracy and obstruction.
As officers led her away, she turned to Charles.
"Victor didn't kill Daniel."
Everyone stopped.
"How do you know?" Lena asked.
"Because Daniel came to me seven years after the crash."
Charles gripped the desk.
Celeste said Daniel appeared at her apartment one winter night, thin and frightened. He claimed he had survived Victor's attack but could not return because Rebecca and the baby would be killed. He needed money and access to the foundation archives.
Celeste gave him neither.
Instead, she called Victor.
By the time Victor arrived, Daniel was gone.
"You never told me," Charles said.
"I thought he was unstable."
"You thought your inheritance was safer if he stayed dead."
Celeste looked away.
The ledger revealed another fact. Rebecca Reed had been paid monthly through a shell company until eight years earlier—the month Ethan was born. Then the payments stopped.
Hospital records showed Rebecca died during childbirth.
Ruth took custody of Ethan.
But the death certificate carried the signature of Dr. Miriam Holt, Charles's private physician.
When confronted, Miriam went pale.
She admitted Rebecca had not died.
Rebecca had gone into witness protection after agreeing to testify against Victor.
The protection order had been canceled before trial.
Someone inside law enforcement exposed her location.
Rebecca vanished.
Miriam had signed a false death certificate to help Ruth protect Ethan.
"Is she alive?" Charles asked.
Miriam hesitated.
"I saw her six months ago."
"Where?"
"At Aldridge House."
Charles's private estate had stood empty since Margaret's death.
Only one person still maintained unrestricted access.
Charles himself.
Or someone using credentials issued in his name.\n\nCeleste requested five minutes alone with Ethan before officers removed her. Charles refused, but the boy surprised everyone by saying he wanted to hear what she would say.
With Detective Brooks present, Celeste sat opposite him. Her confidence vanished under the child's steady gaze.
"I never wanted anyone to hurt you," she said.
"You wanted me gone."
"I believed your grandmother was using you."
"Did you ask her?"
Celeste opened her mouth, then closed it.
Ethan placed the repaired pieces of the photograph on the table. "You hit this because you were scared of it."
She stared at Daniel's face.
"Your father was supposed to inherit everything," she whispered. "When he died, my father spent his life waiting for Uncle Charles to choose our side of the family. Then you arrived."
"I didn't ask for anything."
"That doesn't matter in families like ours."
Charles heard the sentence from the doorway. It was the most honest thing Celeste had said.
Before leaving, she gave Lena the password to an encrypted drive. It contained years of messages between her and Victor, including one in which he promised that Ethan would never reach adulthood with a valid claim.
May you like
Celeste began to sob when she realized the meaning she had once chosen not to see.
Ethan did not comfort her. He simply took the photograph back.
