Chapter 12 - THE DEAD WOMAN'S FACE
The woman was not Grace.
Her name was Celeste Ward, a former actress who had undergone cosmetic procedures to resemble her. Vale's files showed months of voice coaching, facial mapping, and forged identity records.
Isabella planned to use “Grace” to claim that she had survived the boating accident, suffered memory loss, and now wished to regain control of Ethan's trust.
It was outrageous.
It was also supported by doctors, lawyers, and documents prepared over two years.
Celeste was arrested at a private airport before she could leave the country. Under questioning, she admitted Isabella paid her five million dollars.
“She said no child would be harmed,” Celeste cried.
Emma stared at her. “You wore a dead mother's face to steal from her son.”
Celeste looked away.
She gave police the address of an old medical records warehouse where Isabella had taken June Bell.
The warehouse burned before officers arrived.
Firefighters found June alive in a locked office, but the files were gone. She had recorded Isabella's confession on a pocket recorder hidden inside her coat.
On the recording, Isabella admitted Grace crawled from the harbor and reached the private dock.
Daniel found her there.
Vale gave her another injection.
Isabella watched while Grace stopped breathing.
William listened once.
Then he turned off the sound and sat alone for a long time.
Emma found him near the hospital chapel.
“I ignored every warning,” he said.
“You were lied to.”
“I chose the lies that made my life easier.”
Emma did not excuse him.
“No one can change what you missed. You can change what Ethan sees you do next.”
William nodded.
The district attorney prepared murder charges against Isabella, but she remained missing.
Then she appeared live on every major news channel.
She stood in the Sterling ballroom beneath the same chandeliers from the gala.
Behind her, flames climbed the curtains.
“I am releasing proof that William Sterling's fortune was built through theft,” she announced. “If I fall, his empire falls with me.”
She held up Grace's original property ledger.
William rushed toward the television.
That ledger could help return hundreds of stolen homes and buildings.
Isabella dropped it into a metal container filled with burning papers.
Emma noticed something behind her.
The baroque painting had been moved.
The hidden basement door stood open.
Inside the darkness, a child was crying.
May you like
But Ethan was beside Emma.
William whispered, “Who did she put down there now?”
