Chapter 8 - WHAT CELESTE DID BENEATH THE LAKE
The chapel roof collapsed before firefighters reached it.
Elena, Julian and Detective Cross entered through the underground passage despite the smoke. Vivian had already moved Celeste from the private room, believing it was no longer safe. She had taken her back to the hidden chamber beneath the chapel without knowing Isabella’s men had discovered the location.
They found Vivian unconscious near the iron gate.
Julian carried her toward the tunnel while Elena and Cross searched for Celeste.
The chamber was empty.
The wheelchair had been overturned.
Cross examined the floor.
“Someone took her before the fire.”
Elena found a trail of wheel marks leading toward a second passage concealed behind the wall.
The tunnel descended beneath the estate.
At the bottom, they emerged near the edge of the private lake behind Valmont Mansion.
Rain had begun to fall.
A wheelchair stood abandoned beside the water.
“No,” Elena whispered.
Cross checked the mud.
“There are footprints. Two men and one set of narrow shoes.”
“Isabella.”
A black motorboat moved across the lake toward an old boathouse.
They ran along the shore.
Inside the boathouse, Celeste sat tied to a chair while Isabella stood near the water. Two armed guards watched the entrance.
Elena and Cross approached through a storage room.
Isabella held the complete locket in one hand.
“You burned the chapel,” Celeste said weakly.
“I burned a room full of memories.”
“You always believed fire could erase truth.”
“It erased Eliana.”
Elena flinched.
Cross raised a finger to his lips.
They listened through the wooden wall.
Celeste looked at Isabella.
“You killed your sister.”
“You allowed it.”
“I didn’t know what you had given her.”
“You knew enough to hide the body.”
Elena turned toward Cross.
Celeste had hidden Eliana’s body.
Isabella stepped closer to her mother.
“Tell me what happened to Samuel after the railway station.”
“I never saw him again.”
“You’re lying.”
“I received one message.”
“When?”
“Five years after Eliana died.”
“What did it say?”
“That Samuel knew what we had done beneath the lake.”
Isabella’s face tightened.
“What did we do?”
“You brought Eliana’s body here. You ordered Marcus to place stones inside the burial shroud.”
“And you watched.”
“I was afraid.”
“You were protecting the family name.”
“I was protecting Elena.”
Isabella laughed.
“You abandoned Elena to a woman you barely knew.”
“Mara was the only person brave enough to oppose you.”
“Where is Eliana’s body now?”
Celeste closed her eyes.
“Not in the lake.”
Isabella grabbed her shoulders.
“Where?”
“I moved her.”
“When?”
“The following night.”
“Who helped you?”
Celeste looked toward the boathouse door.
A shadow appeared outside.
An older man entered carrying a rifle.
His hair was white and his face was scarred along one side.
Elena recognized him from the photograph inside the locket.
Samuel Maren.
Her father.
Isabella stumbled backward.
“You’re dead.”
Samuel aimed the rifle at her.
“So was my daughter, according to your report.”
Elena’s confusion deepened.
His daughter?
Isabella stared at him.
“You know.”
“I know everything Mara discovered before you poisoned her.”
Elena stepped out of hiding.
Samuel’s eyes found her.
The rifle lowered.
For a moment, the lake, the guards and Isabella disappeared from his awareness.
“Elena.”
She could not speak.
Samuel’s face broke with grief.
“You look like Eliana.”
One guard reached for his weapon.
Cross fired into the ceiling.
“Police. Drop it.”
Chaos followed.
The guards surrendered after a brief struggle. Isabella tried to flee through the side door, but Elena blocked her.
Samuel moved toward Celeste and cut her restraints.
Elena continued staring at him.
“You’re my father.”
Samuel looked at her with unbearable sadness.
“I wanted to be.”
The answer struck harder than a denial.
“What does that mean?”
He took the photograph from Isabella’s hand.
“Mara knew I was alive. She found me six months ago.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“Because she discovered the truth about your birth.”
“I know Eliana was my biological mother.”
Samuel shook his head.
“That was only part of the truth.”
Celeste began to cry.
Isabella smiled despite the handcuffs Cross placed around her wrists.
“Tell her, Samuel.”
Elena looked from one face to another.
“Tell me what?”
Samuel reached into his coat and removed an old hospital bracelet identical to the one Elena had found beneath the nursery floor.
Except this bracelet carried another name.
Baby Emilia V.
May you like
Samuel’s voice trembled.
“Eliana gave birth to twins.”
