Chapter 9 - Celeste’s Real Marriage
Celeste had never married Adrian for money.
Not his money.
She wanted mine.
Her background collapsed under investigation.
Celeste Morgan did not exist before age twenty-one.
Her education records were fabricated.
Her first employer was a shell company connected to Facility 12.
Even her meeting with Adrian at a charity gala had been engineered.
She targeted him.
Married him.
Fed his resentment.
Encouraged his theft.
Convinced him I was hiding money.
Then waited.
Rosa stared at Celeste’s photograph.
“So Adrian is being manipulated?”
“Yes.”
“Does that make what he did okay?”
“No.”
Good.
I needed someone to ask that.
Adrian had shoved me.
Humiliated me.
Burned medical records.
Threatened Rosa.
Whatever Celeste had whispered into his ear, his hands belonged to him.
But Celeste had a larger objective.
The trust.
Orpheus.
And the sealed trustee authority.
David helped us trace her family.
Her biological father had worked at Shaw Meridian.
One of the two original Orpheus engineers.
The engineer I believed had died.
Dr. Malcolm Voss.
He had not.
He changed identities after I killed the project.
And Celeste was his daughter.
Then we found something worse.
Malcolm Voss had been present at the lake the day David disappeared.
Thomas had not been protecting David from my husband.
He had been protecting him from Voss.
Why?
David’s father had discovered Voss was secretly using Orpheus prototypes to steal financial identities.
He threatened exposure.
Voss retaliated.
Thomas got David out.
But instead of trusting me, Thomas hid everything.
One terrible decision created thirty years of lies.
Agent Hale asked:
“Where is Voss?”
David answered:
“Probably closer than you think.”
At that exact moment, Adrian called.
His voice sounded frantic.
“Where’s Celeste?”
I almost laughed.
“Your wife?”
“She disappeared.”
“Perhaps she got tired of your charming personality.”
“Evelyn, listen to me.”
Mom still did not come.
“She emptied everything.”
“How does that feel?”
Silence.
Then:
“She took my accounts. My crypto. The company shares I stole.”
At least he admitted it now.
“And Thomas?”
Adrian hesitated.
“He came to me.”
“I know.”
“He said Celeste was using me.”
“And you believed him?”
“Not until she tried to kill him.”
My stomach tightened.
“Where is Thomas?”
“I moved him.”
“Where?”
“I’m not telling you until you protect me.”
There he was.
Still bargaining.
Still Adrian.
I closed my eyes.
“What do you want?”
“The trust.”
“No.”
“Then Thomas dies.”
Rosa stared at the phone.
David stood.
Agent Hale signaled technicians to trace the call.
I answered calmly:
“Adrian, you still don’t understand.”
“What?”
“The hundred million was never yours.”
His breathing became ragged.
“Then whose is it?”
Before I could answer, someone spoke behind him.
A woman.
Celeste.
May you like
Adrian screamed.
The call ended.
