Chapter 9 - A Daughter's Confession
Celeste called Adrian from her attorney's office. She wanted to meet and speak without her father. Maya advised against an informal conversation, so the attorneys arranged a recorded interview with everyone's consent.
Celeste arrived without jewelry. She looked exhausted, but Adrian reminded himself that sorrow was not the same thing as accountability.
“My father told me the company would collapse,” she said. “He said investors would ruin us if the deal failed. He wanted the bakery because the access agreement made the other parcels valuable.”
“Why involve my children?” Adrian asked.
“Because he knew you would never risk their future. He told me the trust interests were only listed to satisfy a lender. I didn't ask what that meant.”
Maya asked whether Celeste had supplied signature samples. Celeste admitted she had forwarded scans of Adrian's signed correspondence. She also admitted arranging for Sloane to visit Rosa. She insisted she had not known a dead notary's seal would be used and said Elias had kept the final loan package from her.
“What about telling my mother she'd lose her grandchildren?” Adrian asked.
Celeste covered her face. “I said it. I wanted her frightened enough to cooperate.”
Adrian looked away. The admission was worse than any excuse. She had seen Rosa's vulnerability and chosen to exploit it.
Celeste then gave Maya a flash drive containing messages from her father. She said he had threatened to cut her off financially if she refused to proceed with the wedding. Maya warned that cooperation did not erase Celeste's responsibility and that the contents would need authentication.
Outside the office, Celeste caught Adrian before he reached the car. “Did you ever love me?”
“I loved who I believed you were,” he said.
She began to cry again. “Could you forgive me?”
“Maybe someday. But I won't marry you. And I won't let you near my mother or children while this is unresolved.”
Back at the mansion, Claire was helping Noah build a cardboard bakery for a school project. Adrian watched her patiently tape a crooked roof into place. Noah declared that it was the best building in Chicago. Claire agreed with the seriousness of an architect approving a masterpiece.
Adrian felt a tenderness he had not expected. He was careful with it. Claire worked in his home, and he understood that the difference in power and money made any romantic impulse complicated. He did not want gratitude to become another kind of pressure.
Instead, he asked how her sister was doing. Claire told him she had started a new job and that the family was finally breathing a little easier. They spoke about ordinary things for the first time.
Late that evening, Maya called with the flash drive's first confirmed finding. Elias had instructed a staff member to alter the closing checklist. A message also referred to a second investor who expected the bakery to be vacant before the end of the month.
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The investor's identity was hidden behind a holding company.
But its registered agent was someone Adrian knew very well: his longtime business partner, Dominic Vale.
