Chapter 10 - The Bride Who Would Not Sign
Leah made three copies of the carriage clock recording before Detective Mercer arrived.
The view did not include the parking area, but a second clock in the servants' hall did. Its recording showed Celeste opening Wyatt's trunk with a spare electronic key and placing the remote inside.
Mercer watched without blinking.
"Eleanor installed these?" she asked.
Rosa nodded. "After one of the maids accused Mr. Everett of hitting her. The main cameras lost the recording. Miss Eleanor said clocks were harder to bribe."
Wyatt was released before noon. Police seized the remote, both clocks, and the house server. They requested arrest warrants for Celeste and Vance, but the district judge demanded independent verification of the footage. Harold Vance disappeared before the warrants were signed.
Celeste remained at Rosemont.
"How can she be here?" Sadie asked.
"Because wealth buys excellent arguments about edited video," Leah said. "Mercer needs the original memory cards authenticated. Do not give your mother a reason to claim you tampered with anything."
Everett announced that the engagement celebration would continue that evening. Canceling, he said, would reward gossip. Two hundred guests were already coming, along with board members, politicians, and investors.
"He wants witnesses to a performance," Wyatt said.
"Then we change the performance," Sadie replied.
She spent the afternoon with Leah and Daniel in a guest cottage beyond the damaged wing. Daniel's ankle was wrapped, and he moved with crutches, but he refused the hospital's instruction to rest. Together, they reconstructed the pension transfers from the papers saved in the tunnel. Leah prepared a petition to freeze disputed company accounts. Sadie wrote a statement calling for an independent audit and the temporary removal of Everett as chief executive.
Wyatt read the statement beside her. "Once you say this publicly, there is no returning to your old life."
"My old life was built from stolen money and locked rooms."
"It was still your life. You are allowed to grieve it."
Sadie closed the folder. "I will grieve after no one can burn the evidence."
He touched the bandage on her palm. "And us?"
She knew what he was asking. The hidden connection to Rosemont remained between them. So did the photograph of him carrying Mara's keys. Trust had not returned simply because other people were guiltier.
"I love you," she said. "I am still angry. Both things are true."
"I can live with true things."
"No more omissions."
"No more."
"Even if you think the truth will make me leave."
"Especially then."
At seven, Rosemont shone as if fire had never touched it. Sadie descended the terrace in a new blue dress and heard conversations falter.
Celeste waited at the bottom in cream silk. "Smile."
"I am finished smiling on command."
"Then at least stand straight. People forgive cruelty before they forgive weakness."
"Is that why you laughed at Mara?"
Celeste's eyes flicked toward the guests. "You have no idea what I did for your aunt."
"I know you put her in a car."
"I put her somewhere Everett could not reach."
"Where?"
"Sign, and I will tell you."
"Tonight," Everett said, "we welcome Wyatt into a family bound by loyalty."
Wyatt looked at Sadie. She nodded.
They walked to the table. Sadie picked up the contract and faced the guests.
"My father is right about one thing. This family is bound. Not by loyalty, but by fear."
The garden became silent.
Everett moved toward her. Two members of Wyatt's security team stepped between them.
Sadie held up the pension records. "For thirteen years, Halston Heritage concealed transfers from employee retirement funds. My aunt Mara discovered them and vanished. My aunt Eleanor investigated them and died before she could testify. Last night, someone set fire to the evidence and tried to blame Wyatt."
Celeste raised her voice. "Sadie is unwell. Please give us privacy."
"Your image is not privacy," Sadie said. "It is camouflage."
She tore the contract in half. The sound carried farther than the quartet had.
Leah distributed copies of the audit petition to every board member. Daniel connected a projector to the garden screen and played the carriage clock recording. Guests watched Celeste meet Vance. They watched smoke enter the corridor.
Celeste did not look at the screen. She watched the crowd calculate its distance from her.
Three board members signed the petition before the video ended. A fourth called his attorney. Everett seized a microphone and shouted that the footage was forged. Sadie announced that the state police possessed the original.
"You have no company without me," Everett told her.
"Then perhaps the company should end."
The words struck him with physical force. He crossed the table before security could stop him and grabbed Sadie's arm. Wyatt pulled him away. Guests scattered. Cameras flashed.
Celeste took Sadie by the shoulders, pretending to steady her. "You look pale. Drink this."
She pressed a glass of iced tea into Sadie's hand. Sadie set it down untouched, but Celeste's fingers remained at the back of her neck. A sharp sting pierced the skin below her hairline.
Sadie spun around. Celeste held nothing.
"What did you do?"
"Helped you rest."
Heat spread down Sadie's spine. The lanterns blurred. She reached for Wyatt, but Everett overturned the projector. In the confusion, Celeste pulled Sadie toward the rose path.
"The key," Celeste whispered. "Give it to me and I will take you to Mara."
Sadie forced her legs to move. Instead of following Celeste toward the house, she twisted free and ran for the wall marked in Eleanor's photograph. She had hidden the brass key in her locket. The stone opening contained a final compartment they had not searched.
Behind her, Everett shouted her name.
She reached the wall, pulled the loose stone free, and inserted the key into a narrow lock. A metal drawer slid out. Inside lay a memory card and a letter addressed to Detective Mercer.
Everett tore the drawer from her hands.
"You ruined everything!" he screamed.
On the ground beside the opened wall lay one of the old red bricks.
May you like
He picked it up.
