Chapter 17 - CELESTE'S LAST LIE
Ethan returned immediately.
Celeste was still cooperating with investigators.
He placed Claire’s note in front of her.
She stared at it.
Then closed her eyes.
“I hoped you’d never find that.”
Ethan felt his anger return.
“What original video?”
Celeste remained silent.
“Claire knew you?”
“Yes.”
“Before she died?”
“Yes.”
Ethan stared at her.
Celeste finally confessed.
She had worked briefly for a consulting firm used by Vale Industries.
Claire contacted her after discovering unusual payments connected to Richard.
Celeste became an informal source.
At first, she helped Claire.
Then Richard discovered what she was doing.
Instead of exposing her, he recruited her.
Years later, after Claire died, Celeste deliberately entered Ethan’s life.
She told herself it was because Richard wanted information.
But eventually she married Ethan.
And every lie became harder to undo.
Ethan’s voice was low.
“You married me because Richard sent you?”
“At first, yes.”
The words hurt more than Ethan expected.
“Did you ever love me?”
Celeste looked at him.
“Yes.”
“That’s what made me weak.”
“No.”
Ethan shook his head.
“Love would have made you tell me.”
Celeste accepted the blow.
“The original video is in the mansion.”
“Where?”
“Claire hid a camera in Sophie’s nursery.”
Ethan frowned.
“Sophie was a baby.”
“Exactly.”
“Richard never searched there because he thought Claire only used cameras in her office.”
“What did it record?”
Celeste looked terrified.
“The night Claire died, Richard returned to the mansion after leaving the lake.”
Ethan froze.
“He came back?”
“He met Dorn.”
“The camera captured their conversation through the nursery doorway.”
Ethan understood why Richard had tried so hard to control the mansion.
The evidence had been under his roof for six years.
“Where is the recording device?”
“Inside the wooden music box Claire gave Sophie.”
Ethan remembered it.
A white music box with painted blue flowers.
Still sitting in Sophie’s old nursery.
Agent Shaw immediately organized a team.
They entered the mansion that night.
The nursery looked untouched.
The music box remained on the shelf.
Ethan opened the bottom panel.
A memory card fell out.
Daniel restored the file.
Richard appeared on the video.
Dorn stood beside him.
Richard said clearly, “Claire won’t be talking anymore.”
Dorn asked, “And Ethan?”
Richard smiled.
“Ethan trusts me more than he trusted his own instincts.”
Then Richard said one final thing.
“By the time Sophie is old enough to understand any of this, everything will belong to us.”
The room fell silent.
Agent Shaw removed the memory card.
“We have him.”
But Richard was still missing.
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Then the mansion alarm sounded.
A rear door had just opened.
