Chapter 19 - THE LAST SECRET BEFORE COURT
Reed was waiting outside.
I did not bother with politeness.
“Were you helping my mother?”
His silence answered first.
“Yes.”
I stared at him.
“You told me she contacted you three days before she died.”
“She did.”
“That wasn’t the first contact.”
“No.”
“How long?”
“Seven months.”
Anger surged.
“You lied again.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother asked me to.”
“She’s dead.”
“I know.”
“Then stop protecting secrets.”
Reed looked older than I had ever seen him.
“I was a lieutenant commander when Eleanor contacted me.”
He said.
“She had discovered that Navy procurement officers were burying defect reports.”
“Caldwell.”
“Caldwell and others.”
“You helped her?”
“Yes.”
“What were you supposed to do?”
“Get the records to Naval Criminal Investigative Service.”
“What happened?”
“The officer I trusted turned out to be compromised.”
My stomach tightened.
“The evidence disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“And Mom?”
“She realized the conspiracy reached farther than we thought.”
“So she confronted Arthur.”
“She believed he might cooperate if she showed him Caldwell was using him.”
I laughed bitterly.
“She misjudged him.”
“So did I.”
Reed removed something from his briefcase.
A letter.
My name was written on the envelope.
Again, my mother’s handwriting.
“She gave me this the afternoon before she died.”
“Why didn’t you give it to me?”
“She told me only to give it to you after Arthur told the truth voluntarily.”
My hands shook as I opened it.
Celeste.
If your father has finally admitted what he did, then perhaps the cycle has ended.
I swallowed.
Do not build your life around destroying him.
Justice is necessary.
Revenge is endless.
Save what can still be saved.
Especially yourself.
I closed my eyes.
For weeks, I had believed dismantling Arthur’s empire would honor her.
But my mother had never wanted the empire.
She wanted the truth.
Reed watched me.
“There’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“The prosecutors want you to testify tomorrow.”
“I know.”
“Arthur has changed his plea.”
I looked up.
“To guilty?”
“No.”
Reed’s expression was grim.
“He’s pleading guilty to the financial crimes.”
“And Mom?”
“He refuses to plead on the charge connected to her death.”
“Why?”
“Because his attorneys are arguing the fall was accidental and the delay does not legally prove intent.”
My jaw tightened.
“So we go to trial.”
“Yes.”
I folded my mother’s letter.
“Then I testify.”
“Celeste.”
“What?”
“There’s another witness.”
“Who?”
Reed hesitated.
“The medical examiner who signed the false report.”
“He’s alive?”
“Yes.”
“And what is he going to say?”
Reed looked toward the courthouse doors.
“That Arthur threatened his family.”
I felt a small flicker of relief.
Then Reed added.
“But he also says someone else ordered him to change the cause of death.”
“Caldwell?”
“No.”
“Mercer?”
Reed shook his head.
“Julian.”
The world stopped.
My brother had been twenty-four when Mom died.
Old enough.
Afraid enough.
Desperate enough.
May you like
And suddenly the final trial was no longer simply Celeste against Arthur.
It was all of us against the truth.
