CHAPTER 11 — CELESTE’S FINAL SECRET
Celeste was moved to a federal detention facility after the terminal raid.
I met her in a windowless interview room the following morning.
My father remained outside.
This conversation belonged to me.
Celeste sat across from me in a gray uniform.
The woman who had watched from a white leather chair was gone.
But the memory of her remained.
“Thomas said someone else ordered Nathan to punish me.”
She stared at the table.
“Adrian.”
“Why?”
“To force you to call your father.”
The answer chilled me.
They had known about the pendant.
They had suspected I was recording evidence.
The punishment was designed to trigger the emergency protocol and bring my father’s private security team, federal contacts, and senior executives into one place.
While everyone focused on Blackthorn Manor, Thomas transferred money, activated the false proxy, abducted Dr. Reyes, and moved the terminal cargo.
I had not trapped them.
They had used my trap to launch their own.
“Why correct the count?” I asked.
Celeste closed her eyes.
“Because Adrian was listening.”
“That does not answer me.”
“He told me Nathan had to complete all two hundred strikes or he would kill my younger sister.”
I studied her face.
“Do you expect sympathy?”
“No.”
“Did you try to stop Nathan?”
“No.”
“Did you warn me?”
“No.”
“Then your sister explains your fear. She does not excuse your choice.”
Celeste nodded slowly.
“I know.”
She revealed that her sister, Lily, had been hidden in one of Adrian’s private residences in Canada.
Mercer’s team found her alive that afternoon.
In return, Celeste surrendered every password, account number, and name she possessed.
The evidence brought down executives, customs officials, contractors, and two foreign brokers.
But one mystery remained.
Adrian had vanished during transport from Vale Meridian headquarters.
The agents escorting him were impostors using credentials created through Thomas’s network.
He had never reached federal custody.
At Blackthorn Manor, investigators discovered a tunnel beneath the wine cellar.
It connected to an old service road beyond the estate walls.
Nathan claimed he knew nothing about it.
This time, the evidence supported him.
The tunnel had been constructed during the renovation.
The company that built it belonged to Adrian.
My house had never been mine.
It had been a stage designed years in advance.
That evening, my father and I stood in the hospital garden.
He asked me to return to the family estate after my release.
“No.”
“You should not be alone.”
“I won’t be.”
“Isabella—”
“I spent four years living inside Nathan’s control. I will not leave it and walk into yours.”
Pain moved across his face.
“I am trying to protect you.”
“You trained me to hide, watch, wait, and collect evidence. You never trained me to leave.”
He looked away.
“That is my failure.”
“Yes.”
He accepted the word.
Before either of us could speak again, Mercer called.
Adrian had sent a video.
On the screen, he stood inside Blackthorn Manor’s grand hall.
Behind him, flames climbed the walls.
“This family began with a fire,” he said.
“It will end with one.”
May you like
The camera turned.
Nathan was tied to the chair where Celeste had sat.
