Chapter 4 - The Mistress's Paradox
At 3:00 p.m., an unexpected visitor arrived at my private apartment. It was Celeste Vale.
She looked entirely different from the glamorous woman who had been flaunting her lifestyle on Instagram. Her expensive designer bag was gone, replaced by a cheap plastic folder containing her legal paperwork. She looked small, frightened, and completely broken.
"Victoria," she said as I opened the door. "Please. Don't turn away. I have nowhere else to go."
I stood in the doorway, my arms crossed. "You have a lot of nerve coming here, Celeste. You were sleeping with my husband in a hotel room paid for by my family’s business card less than twenty-four hours ago."
"I didn't know!" she cried, her hands shaking as she held up the folder. "I mean, I knew he was married, and I know that makes me a horrible person. I won't deny that. But he told me you were abusive! He told me you were bleeding him dry, that you were crazy, and that he was trying to get a divorce so he could be with me!"
"And you believed him because he bought you a three-million-dollar penthouse?" I asked, my voice devoid of sympathy.
"He told me the money was his bonus!" Celeste wept. "I didn't know it was stolen from the company! The feds told me today that if I don't cooperate fully, I'm going to prison as a co-conspirator for money laundering. My career is over, my family won't talk to me, and Daniel... Daniel called me from the holding cell and told me that if I take the fall for him, he’ll make sure I'm taken care of later."
I looked at her, seeing past the makeup and the bad choices. She was just another casualty of Daniel’s manipulation. He used women like currency—spending them until they had no value left, then tossing them aside.
"Come inside," I said, stepping back to let her into the apartment.
Celeste sat on the edge of my sofa, trembling. "Why are you being nice to me? I helped him hurt you."
"You didn't help him hurt me, Celeste. You were just the distraction I needed to finish my work," I said, sitting across from her. "Daniel didn't hit me because of you. He hit me because he realized he couldn't control me anymore. Now, if you want to stay out of prison, you’re going to do exactly what I tell you to do."
May you like
She nodded frantically. "Anything. I'll do anything."
"Good," I smiled, opening my laptop. "Let's talk about the secondary offshore account he set up under your mother's maiden name. The one he thinks I don't know about."
