Chapter 16 - Everett’s Confession
No one spoke for several seconds.
Even Charles lost his smile.
Everett entered slowly and sat in the nearest chair.
Declan knelt beside him.
“You should be in bed.”
“I have spent too many years in bed while cowards ruined what better people built.”
His eyes moved toward Charles.
His own son.
“Tell them.”
Charles crossed his arms.
“You are confused.”
Everett laughed weakly.
“That excuse might work on a doctor.”
He pointed toward me.
“It will not work on her.”
I sat opposite him.
“What happened to my mother?”
Everett looked tired.
“Elizabeth discovered shell companies Charles was using to siphon trust money.”
“Did Celeste know?”
“Not at first.”
Celeste’s jaw tightened.
“Then she found out and protected the family name instead of exposing him.”
Celeste looked away.
That was her crime.
Not beginning the theft.
Helping bury it.
“What about Brier?” Declan asked.
Everett closed his eyes briefly.
“Charles recruited her through a consulting firm.”
Brier had been twenty-three.
Smart.
Ambitious.
Close enough to Celeste to hear everything.
Close enough to Declan to influence him.
“She was supposed to watch Sarah,” Everett said.
My skin prickled.
“For how long?”
“Years.”
I remembered my mother’s note.
Brier is watching my daughter.
“Why?”
“Because Elizabeth believed she had enough evidence to remove Charles from every family structure.”
Everett looked at me.
“And she planned to transfer her oversight rights to you.”
I swallowed.
“Then she died.”
“Yes.”
“Was her accident an accident?”
Everett’s eyes filled with something I had never seen from him.
Shame.
“I could never prove otherwise.”
Charles scoffed.
“Because there was nothing to prove.”
Everett turned toward him.
“You paid the mechanic.”
The room froze.
Charles said nothing.
Everett continued.
“Two days before Elizabeth’s accident, fifty thousand dollars moved from one of your companies to a man who serviced her car.”
My hands went numb.
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
My heart dropped.
“But before he died, he sent me a statement.”
Charles moved suddenly.
Security stepped forward.
Everett reached inside his coat and removed a sealed envelope.
Charles stopped.
“You don’t have anything.”
Everett handed the envelope to me.
I opened it.
Inside was a photocopy of a handwritten statement and a flash drive.
At the bottom was a signature.
Calvin Reese.
Mechanic.
The statement described being paid to tamper with a brake line.
I could barely breathe.
Then I reached the final sentence.
The instruction did not come from Charles Whitmore.
I looked up.
Everyone was staring at me.
I read the name again.
The person who had allegedly given the order was not Charles.
May you like
It was Martin Kessler.
The family attorney.
