Chapter 3
Celeste laughed too quickly.
“You cannot be serious.”
Adrian said nothing.
His thumb moved across the screen.
The guests shifted uneasily.
Elena held her injured wrist against her chest while Ruby clung to her side.
Celeste stepped closer to Adrian.
“You don’t need to embarrass this woman further.”
“I’m not checking the footage to embarrass Elena.”
The room went silent again.
Adrian connected his phone to the large television mounted above the fireplace.
The screen turned black.
Then the library appeared from the ceiling camera.
A digital timestamp showed that the recording had begun forty-two minutes earlier.
Celeste stood beside the display cabinet with the Rolex in her hand.
Guests gathered around her.
Adrian fast-forwarded.
People moved across the screen in quick bursts.
Elena remained beside Ruby near the window.
She never approached the cabinet.
Celeste’s face tightened.
“The angle could have missed something.”
Adrian slowed the footage.
On the screen, Celeste glanced around the room.
She slipped the watch into her own evening bag.
Several guests murmured.
Celeste lifted her chin.
“I was protecting it.”
Adrian continued playing the recording.
Ten minutes later, Celeste walked into the kitchen.
Elena had been called upstairs to help Ruby change her shoes.
Celeste opened a drawer.
She removed Elena’s spare apron.
Then she slid the watch into its pocket.
A woman near the fireplace covered her mouth.
Someone whispered, “My God.”
The footage showed Celeste returning the apron to the drawer.
Later, she called Elena into the kitchen and ordered her to wear it while serving cake.
The plan was impossible to misunderstand.
Celeste stared at the screen.
Her face had lost all color.
“That isn’t what it looks like.”
Adrian turned toward her.
“Tell me what it looks like.”
“She must have moved the watch first.”
“The video shows you taking it.”
“I was testing her.”
Elena stared at her.
“Testing me?”
Celeste seized the explanation as soon as it came.
“Yes. I wanted to know whether you would return it.”
“You hid it in my pocket.”
“Because you’ve been manipulating Ruby for months!”
Ruby stepped in front of Elena.
“She didn’t do anything!”
Celeste pointed at the child.
“You see? That is exactly what I mean.”
Adrian moved between them again.
“Do not point at my daughter.”
Celeste’s eyes filled with furious tears.
“You’re taking their side?”
“There should not be sides. There is the truth, and there is what you did.”
“I am your wife.”
“And she is an innocent woman you assaulted.”
Celeste looked at the guests.
She seemed to remember that forty people were witnessing her humiliation.
Her expression changed.
The anger disappeared.
Her voice broke.
“I made a mistake.”
Elena could hardly believe what she was hearing.
“A mistake?”
“I have been under pressure.”
“You slapped me.”
“I panicked.”
“You shoved me to the floor.”
“I said I panicked!”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“You planned this before the party.”
“No.”
“The recording proves you did.”
Celeste grabbed his arm.
“Please. We can discuss this privately.”
“You wanted Elena arrested publicly.”
“I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“You wanted every person in this room to see her dragged away.”
Celeste lowered her voice.
“Adrian, do not do this to me.”
He removed her hand from his arm.
“You did this to yourself.”
One of the guests, a silver-haired woman named Margaret Hall, stepped forward.
“I think we should leave.”
Adrian shook his head.
“Not yet.”
Celeste’s head snapped toward him.
“What else do you want?”
“The truth.”
“You already have it.”
“No. I want to know why.”
Celeste looked at Elena with open hatred.
“She was taking my place.”
Elena blinked.
“I never wanted your place.”
“Ruby asks for you when she is sick. She draws you beside my husband. The staff listen to you. Even Adrian looks at you as if you are the only honest person in this house.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“So you tried to send her to jail?”
“I wanted her gone.”
“You could have fired me,” Elena said.
Celeste laughed bitterly.
“Ruby would have hated me. Adrian would have asked questions. I needed everyone to believe you had betrayed us.”
Elena’s stomach turned.
This had not been a moment of jealousy.
It had been a calculated attack.
Adrian looked toward the head of security.
“Marcus, call the police.”
Celeste stumbled back.
“You wouldn’t.”
“You assaulted Elena and planted stolen property on her.”
“It is my watch.”
“It belongs to the Vale family trust.”
Her fear sharpened.
“Adrian, listen to me.”
He turned to Elena.
“Do you want to press charges?”
Every eye in the room settled on her.
Elena’s first instinct was to say no.
She had spent most of her life avoiding trouble.
Her mother cleaned hotel rooms in East Los Angeles. Her younger brother needed help with college tuition. Elena could not afford lawyers, scandals, or enemies with limitless money.
Then Ruby touched the red mark on Elena’s cheek.
“Does it hurt?”
Elena looked into the child’s frightened eyes.
She remembered the torn drawing.
She remembered Ruby saying Celeste only spoke cruelly when Adrian was gone.
If Elena stayed silent, Celeste would learn that fear worked.
“Yes,” Elena said.
Adrian waited.
Elena faced Celeste.
“I want to press charges.”
Celeste’s expression became vicious.
“You’ll regret that.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Was that a threat?”
“It was a warning.”
“To whom?”
Celeste did not answer.
Sirens sounded beyond the gates.
Several guests pulled out their phones.
Adrian turned toward them.
“No photographs of Ruby.”
His voice carried the authority of a man used to being obeyed.
The phones lowered.
Two Beverly Hills police officers entered the library.
Marcus met them at the door and explained the situation.
The officers watched the footage.
Then one approached Elena.
“Would you like medical attention?”
“Yes.”
Celeste shook her head.
“This is absurd. She fell.”
“You pushed her,” Margaret said.
Celeste glared at her.
Margaret did not look away.
“I saw it,” she continued. “So did everyone here.”
Another guest raised his hand.
“I saw the slap.”
“So did I,” someone else said.
Celeste turned slowly, realizing the same people who once begged for invitations to her parties were now volunteering as witnesses.
The first officer approached her.
“Mrs. Vale, turn around and place your hands behind your back.”
Celeste looked at Adrian.
“Don’t let them do this.”
Adrian’s eyes were cold.
“You asked me to call the police.”
“Not for me!”
“That is usually how lies work. They return to the person who created them.”
The officer took Celeste’s wrist.
She pulled away.
“My husband owns half the technology used by this department.”
Adrian’s face darkened.
“Do not use my name to threaten them.”
Celeste looked around desperately.
Then her gaze settled on Ruby.
For the first time, she smiled.
“Ruby, tell your father this was a game.”
Ruby hid behind Elena.
Celeste’s smile disappeared.
“Tell him.”
Adrian stepped directly in front of her.
“You will never order my daughter to lie for you again.”
The handcuffs closed.
Celeste gasped as though the metal had finally made the situation real.
As the officers led her toward the door, she twisted back.
“You have no idea what you’re doing, Adrian!”
“I know exactly what I’m doing.”
“If I go down, your whole family goes with me.”
Adrian froze.
Celeste saw it.
Her terrified expression changed into a smile.
“That’s right,” she whispered. “Ask your brother what we did.”
Then the officers took her outside.
The front door closed.
No one spoke.
Adrian stared at the empty doorway.
His younger brother, Grant, was the chief financial officer of Vale Systems.
He was also standing near the bar.
Every guest turned toward him.
Grant’s glass slipped from his hand.
It struck the carpet without breaking.
Adrian’s voice was dangerously quiet.
“What did she mean?”
Grant swallowed.
“She was trying to scare you.”
“Then why are you shaking?”
“I’ve had too much to drink.”
Adrian crossed the room.
“Look at me.”
Grant reluctantly raised his eyes.
“What did you and Celeste do?”
“Nothing.”
Adrian held up the phone still displaying the security footage.
“You just watched a lie destroy itself.”
Grant’s face went pale.
“Do not make the same mistake.”
Grant looked toward the guests.
“We should talk privately.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
That answer told him enough.
He instructed Marcus to escort everyone out.
Margaret hugged Elena before leaving.
“You were brave.”
Elena did not feel brave.
Her wrist throbbed.
Her cheek burned.
And Celeste’s final words echoed through the room.
If I go down, your whole family goes with me.
When the last guest left, Adrian locked the library doors.
Ruby sat beside Elena on the sofa.
Grant remained near the fireplace.
Adrian placed his phone on the table between them.
“Start talking.”
Grant stared at the floor.
“It began six months ago.”
“What began?”
“The transfers.”
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
“What transfers?”
Grant looked at Ruby.
“Not in front of her.”
Elena stood.
“I’ll take her upstairs.”
Ruby grabbed her hand.
“No. I want Daddy.”
Adrian knelt before his daughter.
“I need ten minutes.”
“You said meetings could wait.”
“This one can’t.”
Ruby looked at Grant.
“Is Uncle Grant in trouble?”
Grant closed his eyes.
Adrian kissed Ruby’s forehead.
“Go with Elena. I’ll come to your room soon.”
Elena led Ruby toward the door.
As she opened it, Grant finally spoke.
“Celeste moved forty-eight million dollars out of the family foundation.”
Elena stopped.
Adrian did not move.
“That’s impossible.”
“I helped her.”
Ruby tightened her grip on Elena’s hand.
May you like
Grant’s next words were barely audible.
“And if the federal auditors find out, your name is on every document.”
