The Woman in White
Chapter 02 - The Woman in White
By sunrise, a ten-second video of the fall had spread across Bellhaven. It showed Chloe rolling down the staircase, Ethan kneeling beside her, and Celeste standing above them in white. The clip did not show what happened before the fall, but that did not matter to the thousands of people who had already decided they knew the truth. Headlines called Celeste jealous, calculating, and dangerous. Strangers filled her social pages with accusations. Sponsors threatened to abandon the foundation unless the Vale family removed her from every official role.
At St. Catherine's Hospital, doctors placed Chloe in a medically induced sleep while they treated a head injury and a fractured wrist. Ethan refused to leave the hallway outside intensive care. His stepmother, Vivian Vale, sat beside him in a black silk suit, speaking softly to reporters and telling them the family needed privacy. In private, however, her voice was sharper.
“You must end the engagement,” Vivian said. “The board will not tolerate scandal, and Chloe may never forgive you if you protect that woman.”
Ethan stared through the glass at his sister. He remembered Celeste's outstretched hand, the shocked expression on her face, and the note he had found crushed near the landing. He had not read it. Vivian had taken it from him, saying the police would need it.
Celeste waited in an interview room downstairs. Detective Lena Ortiz asked the same question three different ways. Celeste gave the same answer every time: Chloe had lost her balance. Celeste had tried to catch her. She had not pushed her.
“Why were you meeting in secret?” Ortiz asked.
Celeste hesitated. The audit was confidential, and revealing it too soon could alert whoever had stolen the money. But silence now looked like guilt.
Before she could decide, Ethan entered. His face was exhausted, and the engagement ring he had given her was clenched in his fist.
“I need the truth,” he said.
“I am telling you the truth.”
“Then tell me why Chloe was afraid of you.”
“She wasn't afraid of me.” Celeste stood slowly. “She was afraid of someone in your family.”
Vivian appeared in the doorway just in time to hear those words. Her expression broke into perfect, wounded disbelief.
May you like
Ethan placed the ring on the table between them. “Until Chloe wakes up, stay away from us.”
Celeste looked at the man she loved, then at the ring catching the fluorescent light. She did not beg. She simply picked up her coat and walked out, knowing the real enemy had just won the first battle.
