Chapter 17 - Celeste Tells the Truth BadlyCeleste Vale lasted four days in custody before she discovered silence was less comfortable without champagne.
Her attorneys fought. Her father pressured. Her mother cried on television. Influencers posted old photos of Celeste at charity events and called her misunderstood.
Then prosecutors showed her the tapes from Glasshouse.
The next morning, Celeste requested a meeting.
Lena did not have to attend.
Everyone told her that.
Adrian especially.
Which was why she went.
Celeste entered the interview room in a beige detention uniform that made her look younger and meaner. Without couture, without diamonds, without a room trained to admire her, she seemed almost ordinary.
That made Lena angrier.
How many ordinary cruel people survived by standing near extraordinary power?
Celeste sat across from her, Adrian, Detective Bell, and two attorneys.
Her eyes went to Lena first.
“You look different,” Celeste said.
Lena did not answer.
Celeste’s mouth twitched. “No trembling today?”
Adrian leaned forward, but Lena lifted one finger.
He stopped.
Celeste noticed.
It bothered her.
Good.
Detective Bell began. “You said you have information.”
Celeste looked at her attorney, then at the recording device.
“My father ordered the Moonfall patterns removed from Ward & Blackwood.”
Lena’s heart pounded, but her face stayed still.
“Say who took them,” Detective Bell said.
Celeste swallowed.
“I did.”
Mabel closed her eyes.
Celeste rushed on. “I was eighteen. I thought it was business. My father said Evelyn was unstable and Vivian wanted out. He said the collection needed to be protected.”
“You entered the vault at 11:46 p.m.,” Detective Bell said.
“Yes.”
“And transferred the designs to Vale property?”
“Yes.”
Lena finally spoke.
“Did you know they would blame my mother?”
Celeste looked at her.
For a moment, something almost human flickered.
Then it vanished.
“I knew afterward.”
“And you stayed quiet.”
Celeste’s eyes hardened. “I was eighteen.”
“I was twelve.”
The room went silent.
Celeste looked away first.
Adrian’s gaze moved to Lena, but she kept her attention on Celeste.
“Did you know my mother died because of it?”
Celeste’s jaw tightened.
“My father said she was weak.”
Lena almost stood.
Adrian’s hand moved slightly toward her, then stopped himself again.
Celeste’s voice cracked, not with remorse but with self-pity.
“You don’t understand what it’s like to be born into a family where love is conditional on usefulness.”
Lena stared at her.
“No,” she said. “I understand being a child. I don’t understand becoming this.”
Celeste flinched.
Detective Bell continued.
“What happened at the gala?”
Celeste breathed in shakily.
“I saw Lena touch the Sapphira gown. I recognized her.”
Lena’s blood went cold.
“You knew who I was before Adrian said my name?”
Celeste nodded.
“How?”
“My father had your file.”
The folder in Glasshouse.
Do not touch unless she remembers.
Celeste looked at the table. “He told me if Evelyn’s daughter ever came near Blackwood, we had to discredit her immediately.”
“So you pushed me.”
“I wanted you removed.”
“You pushed me.”
Celeste’s mouth tightened.
“Yes.”
The word was small.
Ugly.
True.
Detective Bell asked, “And the gun at the studio?”
Celeste looked at her attorney again.
“The men were my father’s. The gun was mine.”
Her attorney closed his eyes.
Celeste’s voice shook now.
“I didn’t plan to shoot anyone. I wanted the ledger.”
“Why?” Lena asked.
Celeste looked at her.
“Because my father said whoever controlled the ledger controlled the future.”
Lena leaned back slowly.
For years, Lena had thought people like Celeste wanted gowns, jewels, attention.
But it was simpler.
They wanted tomorrow to belong only to them.
Detective Bell ended the interview after another hour.
As Celeste stood to leave, she looked at Lena.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
Lena studied her.
Maybe Celeste meant it.
Maybe she meant she was sorry she had failed.
Maybe she meant she was sorry the world had watched.
Lena would never know.
So she gave the only answer that felt honest.
“You’re not sorry enough to matter.”
Celeste’s face twisted.
Then she was taken away.
Outside the room, Adrian stood beside Lena in the hallway.
“You were stronger than I would have been.”
Lena exhaled. “I’m tired of being strong.”
“I know.”
She looked at him.
“Do you?”
He nodded slowly.
“Yes.”
For once, she believed him without hating herself for it.
Then Detective Bell stepped out, phone in hand.
“Richard Vale is missing.”
Lena closed her eyes.
May you like
Of course he was.
The devil always ran before the house finished burning.
