Chapter Two: The Secret Beneath the Gold
Celeste ended the gala immediately.
Julian urged her to let the police handle everything, but Celeste locked herself in her father’s study with the invitation. Her hands trembled as she tore open the envelope’s gold silk lining.
A tiny memory card fell onto the desk.
She inserted it into her laptop.
The first video showed Rosalie sitting in a small room with barred windows. She looked pale and frightened, but unmistakably alive.
“Celeste,” Rosalie said into the camera, “if you’re watching this, Vivianne found a way to reach you. Trust her. Do not trust Julian.”
Celeste stopped breathing.
Rosalie explained that she had discovered Julian transferring foundation money into offshore accounts. Before she could expose him, he used private medical records from her past anxiety treatment to have her declared unstable. With the help of a corrupt physician, he confined her to an isolated clinic under another name.
The email, bank records, and airport footage had all been manufactured.
The final video had been recorded only three days earlier.
“Julian plans to marry you, gain signing authority over the Armand trust, and move the remaining money before the end of the month,” Rosalie said. “Vivianne worked at the clinic. She helped me copy the records, but she couldn’t get me out without being caught.”
The study door opened behind Celeste.
Julian stood there.
“You should have listened to me,” he said.
Celeste slowly closed the laptop. “Where is my sister?”
Julian’s polished smile disappeared.
“She was always the weak one. Your father knew it. I simply used what everyone already believed.”
He stepped closer and held out his hand for the memory card.
Celeste backed toward the fireplace. “You stole from sick children. You imprisoned Rosalie.”
“I protected our future.”
“There is no ‘our’ anymore.”
Julian lunged for the laptop.
Celeste threw the gold clutch at his face and ran. He caught her near the ballroom doors, gripping her arm hard enough to bruise.
Then one of the security guards struck him from behind and pulled him away.
The head guard, Marcus Hale, had returned after taking Vivianne to the police station. Vivianne had told officers everything, and they had already contacted the state investigators named in the files.
Police flooded the mansion minutes later.
Julian was arrested for fraud, kidnapping, unlawful confinement, and assault. The corrupt doctor was taken into custody before dawn. Investigators located Rosalie at the clinic and brought her to a hospital under police protection.
Celeste arrived just after sunrise.
Rosalie looked smaller than Celeste remembered. For several seconds, neither sister moved.
Then Rosalie whispered, “I knew you’d come.”
Celeste crossed the room and held her.
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I believed him.”
“You believed the evidence he built.”
“I should have believed you.”
Rosalie pulled back and looked toward the doorway.
Vivianne stood there in borrowed clothes, exhausted and uncertain. She had been released without charges after the police confirmed her story.
Celeste walked toward her.
Vivianne lowered her eyes. “I know forging the invitation was wrong.”
“It was,” Celeste said.
Vivianne nodded.
May you like
Then Celeste embraced her.
“But it brought my sister home.”
