An Accusation Before Midnight
Chapter 03 - An Accusation Before Midnight
Celeste returned to her apartment to find two reporters outside and the lock scratched by someone who had tried to force it. Inside, nothing valuable was missing, but every drawer had been opened. Her desk was empty. The flash drive containing six months of foundation records was gone.
She called Chloe's private number, hoping for access to a backup account. A man answered instead. “This is Daniel Mercer,” he said. “Mrs. Vale's driver.”
Daniel explained that Chloe had given him instructions before the gala. If anything happened to her, he was to contact Celeste and deliver a sealed envelope. They met in the underground garage of a closed hotel, where cameras were scarce and echoes made every footstep sound close.
The envelope contained a key, a handwritten list of shell companies, and one sentence: The person stealing from the foundation also changed Mother's will.
Celeste felt the ground shift beneath her. Ethan and Chloe's mother, Eleanor, had died eight years earlier after a brief illness. Her will had placed Hawthorne House and controlling authority over the foundation in a trust shared by Ethan and Chloe. Vivian, Eleanor's closest friend at the time, had married their father two years later and became chair of the board after his death. If Eleanor's will had been altered, the theft was not recent. It had shaped the entire family.
At the hospital, Chloe briefly regained consciousness shortly before midnight. Ethan leaned close as her eyes fluttered open. Her voice was weak, barely more than air.
“She wanted me gone,” Chloe whispered.
“Who?” Ethan asked. “Celeste?”
Chloe's gaze drifted toward Vivian, who stood at the end of the bed. Fear tightened her expression. Before she could answer, a monitor sounded and nurses rushed Ethan into the hall.
Vivian followed him and pressed a comforting hand to his shoulder. “You heard her,” she said. “She meant Celeste.”
Ethan wanted to believe certainty could ease the pain. He gave a statement to the police confirming that Chloe had appeared frightened of Celeste during the gala. By morning, investigators announced they were considering formal charges.
Celeste watched the news alone. Then Daniel called again. The security director at Hawthorne House had disappeared, and the staircase camera had been erased eleven minutes before the fall.
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Celeste closed her laptop. Someone had searched her home, stolen her evidence, and removed the only recording that could clear her name. Yet Chloe had planned for danger. The key in the envelope had to open something.
For the first time since the staircase, Celeste stopped defending herself and began preparing to fight back.
