Chapter 10 - CELESTE’S LAST LIE
Celeste claimed Warren Pike appeared at her Manhattan apartment after midnight.
Bleeding.
Weak.
Terrified.
He said someone had attacked him near Newark.
He wanted money.
Passport assistance.
A way out of the country.
Celeste refused.
Then Warren allegedly gave her the recording about Vittorio and collapsed.
She called a private doctor.
Too late.
Warren died.
“Where is the body?” Claire asked.
Celeste looked toward her.
“I don’t know.”
Claire’s expression became almost insulting in its calmness.
“You watched a man die and you don’t know where his body went?”
Celeste’s mouth tightened.
“The doctor handled it.”
“Name?”
No answer.
Adrian leaned forward.
“Celeste.”
She looked at him.
For the first time, Hannah saw genuine fear.
Not guilt necessarily.
Fear.
Celeste whispered a name.
Dr. Emil Sarno.
Marcus searched.
Sarno had lost his medical license twelve years earlier.
Tax fraud.
Illegal prescriptions.
He had once worked for a Vale-owned private clinic.
Convenient again.
Federal agents located Sarno within hours.
He denied treating Warren.
Denied visiting Celeste.
Denied everything.
Then building security footage from Celeste’s apartment contradicted her story.
Warren never entered.
No doctor arrived.
Celeste had fabricated the entire event.
Why?
The recorder.
Claire sent it for analysis.
The audio had been edited.
Multiple clips joined together.
Warren had said the words.
But not in that sequence.
Someone constructed a confession blaming Vittorio.
Hannah stared at Celeste during the next recorded interview.
Why?
Celeste stopped pretending.
“Because Vittorio deserves the blame.”
Hannah typed:
That does not make fabricated evidence true.
Celeste laughed without humor.
“You think truth survives families like ours?”
Hannah answered:
“My mother made it survive.”
That landed.
Celeste looked away.
Then Adrian asked the question he had avoided.
“Did you kill my mother?”
Celeste went still.
Hannah watched her face.
No legal trick.
No elegant speech.
Just a son asking the woman who helped raise him whether she murdered his mother.
Celeste whispered:
“No.”
Adrian did not move.
She continued.
“I wanted her gone.”
Hannah’s stomach tightened.
Celeste admitted paying Warren to arrange sabotage.
She wanted Lucia frightened.
Stranded.
Embarrassed.
She hoped Vittorio would finally see Lucia as unstable and remove her from foundation control.
She claimed she never ordered anyone to kill her.
The damaged fuel line was supposed to prevent Lucia from leaving the marina.
But the mechanic did poor work.
The boat still started.
Lucia left.
Celeste called Vittorio.
Told him Lucia planned to run with Adrian.
Vittorio followed.
Then Lucia died.
Celeste insisted she did not know what happened on the water.
Hannah typed:
Why did you call Vittorio?
“Because I loved him.”
There it was.
Celeste had wanted Vittorio long before Lucia died.
She believed Lucia stood between them.
After Lucia’s death, she became indispensable.
First helping with Adrian.
Then foundation events.
Then Vittorio’s personal life.
Years later, she married him.
Adrian looked sick.
Celeste’s motives were ugly.
But motive still was not proof of murder.
Then Frank Mercer appeared at Claire’s office.
Unannounced.
He looked exhausted.
He carried a file.
“I’m done hiding.”
Inside was the final section of his notebook.
Pages he had removed from Warehouse 17 years earlier.
Frank admitted following Vittorio the night Lucia died.
Not closely enough to see everything.
But after Vittorio returned to the marina, Frank saw him sitting beside his damaged boat.
Wet.
Bleeding.
Crying.
Vittorio said:
“She turned away too fast.”
Frank believed there had been a collision.
Whether deliberate or accidental, he did not know.
Then Vittorio ordered him to remove marina camera negatives.
Frank hid copies.
The same negatives investigators found.
Adrian asked:
“Why did he cover it up?”
Frank stared.
“Because Lucia was trying to leave him. Because the company was already under federal scrutiny. Because Celeste’s sabotage would be discovered. Because your father believed one scandal would destroy everything.”
Hannah understood.
Power again.
Always power.
Frank continued.
Vittorio spent the rest of his life trying to control consequences.
He protected Daniel secretly.
Protected Rachel indirectly.
Paid Frank.
Kept evidence.
But never told the truth.
Adrian signed:
He called that protection.
Frank nodded.
“He did.”
Adrian looked toward Hannah.
Neither needed to say what Lucia wrote.
Protecting family and protecting power were not the same thing.
The district attorney reopened Lucia’s death investigation.
No immediate murder charge.
Too much time.
Too many dead witnesses.
But Celeste faced potential exposure for the sabotage payment, obstruction, fraud, and her recent fabrication.
Warren remained missing.
Then Trevor arrived at Hannah’s apartment.
He looked wrecked.
His father’s supposed resurrection had destroyed whatever stability he had left.
Hannah almost refused to let him in.
Daniel surprised her.
“Let him.”
Trevor sat across from the man his father had nearly killed.
He could barely look at Daniel.
“I’m sorry.”
Daniel’s answer was quiet.
“You didn’t hit me.”
Trevor looked at Hannah.
“But I brought her to that dinner.”
“Yes.”
No easy absolution.
Trevor accepted it.
Then he revealed something.
Before Warren disappeared, he sent Trevor a second package.
Trevor had hidden it because he was afraid.
Hannah’s anger sharpened.
Claire demanded it immediately.
Inside was a memory card.
A video.
Not Warren.
Vittorio.
Recorded six months before his death.
Older.
Weak.
Sitting in the Northstead office.
Vittorio looked into the camera.
“If Adrian sees this, then Frank decided the truth is finally more useful than loyalty.”
Adrian stopped.
Vittorio confessed.
Not to murder.
To the collision.
He followed Lucia onto the water.
They argued boat to boat.
He tried to force her back toward shore.
He steered too close.
Lucia turned sharply.
Their boats collided.
Lucia was thrown into the water.
Vittorio jumped after her.
He could not find her in the darkness.
He searched.
Then panicked.
When he returned to shore, he knew Celeste’s sabotage would be discovered.
He knew his criminal finances might emerge.
So he lied.
He allowed authorities to call the death an accident without revealing the collision.
Adrian turned away from the screen.
Vittorio continued.
“I did not mean to kill her.”
Hannah watched Adrian’s shoulders tighten.
Intent did not erase consequence.
Vittorio admitted hiding Daniel after Warren’s attack.
Lying about Rachel’s pregnancy.
Keeping Rachel under surveillance.
All because he believed the truth would destroy Adrian’s inheritance and the company.
Then Vittorio said:
“I saved what I could.”
Hannah felt anger rise.
Adrian faced the screen.
His hands moved though Vittorio could not see him.
No.
Hannah looked at him.
Adrian signed again.
You saved the company.
Vittorio’s recording ended.
The truth was finally clear enough to hurt.
Lucia’s death was caused by Vittorio’s reckless pursuit and collision.
Celeste’s sabotage and manipulation set the confrontation in motion.
Warren attacked Daniel and helped conceal crimes.
Vittorio covered everything to protect power.
No single monster.
A chain of selfish choices.
Then Claire’s phone buzzed.
She read the message twice.
Celeste Vale had disappeared.
Her driver found her car at JFK Airport.
Inside was her phone.
Her passport was gone.
And according to airport records, someone using Celeste’s identity had boarded a private flight less than an hour earlier.
May you like
Destination:
Switzerland.
