Chapter 6 - The House Built on Lies
Adrian returned to Vale Manor before dawn.
For twenty years, the estate had felt permanent.
Now every room seemed contaminated by deception.
Elias accompanied him with two trusted security officers. Detective Quinn obtained a warrant covering Celeste’s private study and financial records.
Celeste arrived minutes later with an attorney.
“You cannot search my personal belongings,” she said.
Quinn held up the warrant.
“Tonight you tried to murder your husband. Your privacy is no longer the central issue.”
Celeste turned to Adrian.
“You’re choosing a strange child over your wife.”
“He is not a strange child.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know the locket.”
“Lockets can be stolen.”
“I know Lily’s handwriting.”
“Letters can be forged.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“And I know fear when I see it.”
For the first time, Celeste’s composure cracked.
Officers searched her study.
They found burner phones, foreign account numbers, and an unsigned copy of Adrian’s revised will.
Under that version, Celeste would inherit controlling interest in his company immediately after his death.
But the ledger was not there.
Elias reviewed security logs.
A package addressed to Adrian had arrived five days earlier.
The receiving clerk signed for it.
Then Celeste’s personal assistant collected it.
The assistant, Marissa, had disappeared the same evening.
Quinn traced Marissa’s vehicle to an airport garage, but there was no record of her boarding a flight.
Adrian ordered the estate’s security footage examined.
A camera near the service entrance showed Marissa leaving with a brown package under her coat.
Then another figure emerged from the darkness and entered her car.
Celeste’s brother, Graham.
Graham had supposedly been in Europe.
His phone was now disconnected.
The search shifted from the estate to every property connected to him.
Meanwhile, Noah slept under guard at the hospital.
At 5:12 a.m., a nurse entered his room carrying juice.
The officer outside checked her identification.
It looked valid.
But when the woman approached the bed, Noah opened his eyes and saw the same gold bracelet Celeste had worn in an old photograph his mother kept hidden.
The woman was not a nurse.
She was Celeste’s sister.
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And the syringe in her hand was already uncapped.
👉 While Adrian searched for the ledger, another member of Celeste’s family had entered Noah’s room to make sure Lily’s last witness never spoke again.
