Chapter 6 - Grant Holloway
Ethan did not open the door.
He spoke through the security system.
“My daughter stole nothing.”
Grant looked at Celeste.
Celeste stepped toward the camera.
“Ethan, please. We have to stop treating each other like enemies.”
“You threw Leah’s phone into a fire.”
“I panicked.”
“Because she had evidence.”
“Because she recorded a private conversation and misunderstood it.”
Grant leaned toward the camera.
“Mr. Mercer, the recording contains confidential business information belonging to clients. Distributing it could create significant liability.”
Evelyn laughed from the kitchen.
“He hasn’t changed.”
Grant’s eyes sharpened.
“Is Evelyn inside?”
Ethan didn’t answer.
Grant looked toward the upstairs windows.
“I strongly suggest everyone avoid making allegations based on twenty-year-old family disputes.”
Ethan disconnected.
Celeste knocked.
“Please.”
Leah said, “Don’t let her in.”
Ethan looked at his daughter.
“This is her home too.”
The words hurt, but Leah understood the legal reality.
Evelyn did as well.
“If she resides here, locking her out indefinitely creates its own problems.”
Ethan opened the door but left the chain engaged.
“Grant leaves.”
Celeste stared.
“He’s here as my adviser.”
“He leaves.”
Grant’s smile disappeared.
“I’ll wait in the car.”
As he turned, Leah noticed a thin scar below his left ear.
She had seen it before.
Not in person.
In one of Mara’s photographs.
A younger Grant standing beside Charles Vale outside a bank.
Same scar.
Same posture.
Celeste entered.
Her gaze went immediately to the blue box.
Everything changed.
Not dramatically.
A tiny widening of her eyes.
A pause between breaths.
Ethan saw it.
“You recognize this.”
“No.”
“Mara kept it.”
Celeste took off her coat carefully.
“I don’t know what Mara kept.”
Ethan held up the letter.
“She knew your father was moving money through my company.”
“My father has been dead for twenty-one years.”
“She wrote that you called her.”
Celeste’s face closed.
“Did you?”
“I may have.”
Leah stepped forward.
“You told Dad you never knew my mother.”
“I said we weren’t friends.”
“You acted like you’d never met.”
Celeste turned to Ethan.
“Mara contacted me once because she was investigating my father. She was obsessive.”
Ethan’s voice dropped.
“She was thorough.”
“She was sick.”
“She wasn’t sick yet.”
Celeste stopped.
Too late.
Ethan stared at her.
“How did you know when the call happened?”
Celeste’s lips parted.
Leah felt the shift in the room.
Evelyn said quietly, “Because she remembers it.”
Celeste looked at her mother with hatred.
“You enjoy this.”
“No.”
“You have waited years to make me the villain.”
“I waited years hoping I was wrong.”
Celeste slapped one hand onto the countertop.
“Dad used us both! You knew that!”
“Yes.”
“You gave statements to investigators.”
“Yes.”
“You destroyed him.”
“Charles destroyed himself.”
“He died believing you betrayed him.”
“He died because his heart failed while his lawyers were negotiating restitution.”
Celeste’s eyes filled with tears.
For the first time, Leah saw something other than calculation.
Old fury.
Old grief.
Ethan noticed too.
“Celeste, what did Charles make you do?”
She laughed brokenly.
“Now you care?”
“I’m asking.”
“He put papers in front of me. Said they were temporary accounts. Said rich people moved money all the time. Grant taught me how to create the transfers.”
Grant.
Leah looked toward the driveway.
“Then why are you still working with him?”
Celeste did not answer.
Ethan repeated the question.
Celeste wiped her cheek.
“Because some relationships don’t disappear because you want them to.”
Evelyn looked alarmed.
“Is he threatening you?”
Celeste’s hesitation was convincing.
Leah almost believed they had found the real explanation.
Then Celeste said, “Yes.”
Ethan softened.
It happened immediately.
Celeste saw it.
Leah saw her see it.
“He came back six months ago,” Celeste continued. “He said Mara’s files still existed. He wanted access to Ethan’s company records.”
“Why the will?” Ethan asked.
Celeste lowered her eyes.
“He wanted leverage.”
“And you said Leah gets nothing.”
“I was telling him what he wanted to hear.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“And ‘make sure he never changes his mind’?”
Celeste’s tears fell.
“He wanted me to keep you from interfering.”
It was possible.
Painfully possible.
Then Leah’s laptop chimed.
A new cloud file had finished uploading.
The recording had included another segment.
A section the damaged phone had transmitted only now.
Leah pressed play.
Celeste’s voice came through.
Not frightened.
Amused.
“Grant, relax. Ethan has believed every tear I’ve cried for three years.”
May you like
No one looked at Celeste.
They didn’t need to.
