Chapter 4 — The Price of a Life
Arthur ordered everyone out of his study except Celeste.
The federal agents refused.
He laughed bitterly.
“Still hiding behind uniforms and badges?”
Celeste stood across from the desk where he had once taught her to sign her name.
“I learned what protection looks like after leaving this house.”
Arthur poured himself a drink.
“You think the Navy loves you? Institutions use people, Celeste. At least I never pretended otherwise.”
“You used defective parts in military vessels.”
“I saved the company.”
“You endangered crews.”
“I protected twenty-eight thousand jobs.”
“You protected your stock price.”
Arthur’s hand tightened around the glass.
“You were always your mother’s daughter. Emotional. Self-righteous. Incapable of understanding what it takes to build something lasting.”
Celeste reached into the envelope and placed a copy of her mother’s diary on his desk.
Arthur did not open it.
He did not need to.
“You found that,” he said.
“Mother hid it inside the wall of the lake house.”
“She was ill.”
“She was afraid of you.”
“She was afraid of everything.”
Celeste opened the diary to its final entry.
Evelyn Vale had written about Arthur’s plan to remove Celeste from the company trust. Celeste had discovered secret payments connected to unsafe ship components. Arthur feared she would expose him.
So he had her drugged, declared mentally unstable, and accused of stealing company funds.
Evelyn planned to take the evidence to the authorities.
She died when her car went off a bridge.
Arthur stared at the page.
“You can’t prove I caused the accident.”
“Not yet.”
His eyes lifted.
That single word unsettled him more than any accusation.
Moreno’s phone rang.
She stepped into the hallway to answer it.
Seconds later, she returned with a grim expression.
“Our forensic team accessed the estate server.”
Arthur went still.
“They found a deleted folder labeled ‘E.V.’”
Celeste’s heart hammered.
Moreno continued.
“It contained security footage from the Vale garage, recorded the night Evelyn died.”
Arthur’s glass slipped slightly in his hand.
“What does it show?” Celeste asked.
Moreno looked directly at him.
“It shows someone standing beside your mother’s car.”
“Who?” Vivian whispered.
Moreno turned the tablet around.
May you like
On the screen, nineteen-year-old Julian Vale leaned beneath the vehicle.
And placed something near the brake line.
