The Footage Celeste Tried to Erase
Chapter 03 - The Footage Celeste Tried to Erase
Michael ran back to the monitoring room while the guards remained with Celeste and her attorney. The nursery archive had been remotely scheduled for deletion. Twelve minutes of footage remained.
He disconnected the system from the internet and opened recordings from the week before Hannah’s fatal car crash, seven years earlier. Celeste had been Hannah’s financial adviser then, not Michael’s wife.
The first clips seemed ordinary. Then one showed Celeste photographing trust documents from Hannah’s desk and discussing a clause that kept anyone except the twins’ surviving parent from controlling their inheritance.
A second clip was recorded the night before the crash.
Hannah confronted Celeste in the nursery. She had discovered unauthorized transfers and planned to report them. Celeste begged for time, claiming someone else had forced her to move the money. Hannah refused and placed copies of the evidence inside Ava’s stuffed rabbit.
Michael stopped breathing.
The original rabbit had remained with Ava all these years.
The final clip had no clear view of the women, only audio. Celeste warned Hannah that if the investigation continued, Michael would learn “what really happened to the company accounts.” Hannah answered, “He deserves the truth.” Then Celeste said, “You will not make it to the meeting tomorrow.”
The footage did not prove Celeste caused the crash, but it established motive, fraud, and why she wanted Ava’s rabbit.
Michael copied the archive. Upstairs, Celeste had locked herself in the study with Ava, pretending to comfort her while demanding the rabbit.
Rosa stood outside the door with Lily, terrified.
Michael spoke calmly through the wood. “The footage is safe. Let Ava come out.”
Celeste said the child had chosen to stay with her. Ava’s trembling voice answered from inside.
“No, Daddy.”
Michael used the security override. Celeste released Ava when the guards entered, then accused Michael of turning the children against her. He showed her the image of Hannah hiding documents in the rabbit.
For the first time, Celeste looked afraid rather than angry.
Inside a second seam beneath the recorder, Michael found a memory card containing Hannah’s original bank records and a letter addressed to him.
Before he could read it, police sirens approached the estate.
Celeste smiled faintly.
May you like
“You think they are coming for me,” she said. “I called them before you locked the doors. I told them an unstable husband was holding his family hostage.”
The front entrance shook as officers demanded to be let inside.
