Chapter 5 - Celeste Was Never Just an Affair
Adrian left my mother’s house looking like someone had removed the floor beneath him.
He knew Victor Marr.
That much became clear immediately.
He just had not known Victor was Celeste’s father.
“My mother never used his last name,” Adrian said.
We sat in my car because neither of us was ready to drive.
“She called him Vic.”
“What happened?”
“He disappeared when I was seven.”
“Your biological father?”
“No.”
He stared through the windshield.
“My mother married him when I was three.”
Adrian had always told me he barely remembered that period.
Now memories were returning.
Vic teaching him to swim.
Vic bringing home expensive watches.
Vic arguing with Adrian’s mother behind closed doors.
Then suddenly Vic was gone.
Years later, Adrian’s mother married another man, whose surname Adrian eventually took.
“What did your mother say happened?”
“That he left.”
“Did he?”
“I don’t know.”
Our phones rang almost simultaneously.
Noah.
He sounded breathless.
“Celeste is at headquarters.”
Adrian sat upright.
“Why?”
“She says she wants to speak to Claire.”
I drove.
Adrian did not object when I told him to stay behind until I was ready.
For once, he listened.
Celeste waited inside the boardroom.
She looked nothing like the woman I had imagined beside Adrian at a Napa resort.
No glamorous smile.
No smugness.
She looked exhausted.
When I entered, she stood.
“I’m sorry about Daniel.”
I stopped.
Do not use my son to soften me.
The thought came quickly.
But I only said:
“Why are you here?”
“Because Martin is gone.”
“You worked with him.”
“Yes.”
“Did you help him move money?”
“No.”
“Did you sleep with my husband?”
She looked down.
“Yes.”
At least she did not lie.
“How long?”
“Three months.”
Adrian had told me nothing yet.
I felt the betrayal again.
Fresh.
Hot.
Separate from everything corporate.
Celeste continued.
“But Napa wasn’t only about us.”
I laughed coldly.
“Please don’t insult me.”
“I’m not.”
She reached into her bag.
Noah tensed.
She pulled out a recorder.
“I went because Martin told me Victor would be there.”
My anger paused.
“Your father?”
“Yes.”
“You knew he was connected to Adrian?”
“Not until two months ago.”
She placed photographs on the table.
Victor Marr.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Alive.
Standing beside Martin Hale outside the Napa resort.
Adrian entered despite my instruction.
He saw the photograph.
His face collapsed.
“That’s him.”
Celeste looked at Adrian.
“I didn’t know.”
“Know what?”
“That he raised you.”
Adrian sank into a chair.
She turned back to me.
“My father used Halcyon Public Affairs for years. It wasn’t really a communications company. It was a payment conduit.”
“For Martin?”
“For someone above Martin.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
I stared at her.
“You expect me to believe you went to Napa to investigate your father while sleeping with my husband?”
Her eyes filled.
“No. I expect you to believe I made disgusting choices and still happened to discover something important.”
That was harder to dismiss.
Bad people can tell the truth.
Good people can betray you.
Life rarely organizes itself neatly.
Celeste pushed the recorder toward me.
“I recorded Victor and Martin.”
We played it.
Martin’s voice came first.
“We need Adrian distracted until the proxy renewal.”
Victor replied:
“Celeste can manage Adrian.”
My stomach turned.
Then Martin said:
“Once Claire renews the proxy, we control another year.”
Adrian looked sick.
Victor laughed.
“She trusts him.”
Then a third voice entered.
Female.
I recognized it immediately.
Warren Pike.
No.
Warren was male.
The voice belonged to Patricia Pike.
Warren’s wife.
And my father’s younger sister.
My Aunt Patricia.
She said:
“Claire always trusted the wrong people.”
I stopped the recording.
Nobody breathed.
My own aunt had been part of it.
Then Celeste whispered:
“There’s more.”
She pressed play again.
Patricia’s voice continued.
“When the trust finally moves, Vale Meridian becomes ours.”
I looked at Adrian.
He looked back at me.
Suddenly the affair was only one piece of something much larger.
May you like
My family had not merely been betrayed.
We had been surrounded.
