Chapter 6 - THE BRIDE WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Celeste Vanderpool expected Rafferty Cain to apologize.
That was what she'd told her friends.
The engagement party had been embarrassing.
The waitress had created a scene.
And Rafferty had humiliated Celeste by demanding she apologize in front of nearly three hundred guests.
In Celeste's world, men with power corrected mistakes by buying expensive gifts.
She expected a diamond bracelet.
Perhaps a vacation.
Instead, Rafferty summoned her to his office and placed a photograph on the desk.
Marguerite Delacroix.
Celeste's face changed.
“Who is that?”
“You know.”
She folded her arms.
“Some nurse?”
Rafferty studied her.
“Your father knew her.”
“My father knows thousands of people.”
“He helped prevent my mother from visiting me.”
Celeste's smile disappeared.
“That's ridiculous.”
Rafferty placed another document beside the photograph.
A copy of the St. Augustine's visitor log.
Charles Vanderpool's signature appeared beside twenty-three denied visits.
Celeste stared.
Then she laughed nervously.
“Darling, surely there's an explanation.”
“There will be.”
He leaned back.
“But our engagement is over.”
The room went silent.
Celeste blinked.
“What?”
“I'm not marrying you.”
Her expression hardened.
“Because of a maid?”
“Because you deliberately humiliated someone who couldn't afford to lose her job.”
She stepped forward.
“Rafferty, you can't do this.”
“I can.”
“Our families have an agreement.”
“Business agreements don't require me to marry someone who enjoys cruelty.”
Celeste's face flushed.
“My father will destroy your investments.”
Rafferty remained calm.
“Then he'll have to explain his financial dealings to people who can examine them independently.”
For the first time, fear entered her eyes.
She looked toward the door.
Then whispered, “You have no idea what you're doing.”
Rafferty watched her carefully.
“Explain.”
Celeste hesitated.
Then said something surprising.
“Fay Delacroix isn't who she says she is.”
Rafferty's jaw tightened.
“What does that mean?”
Celeste smiled bitterly.
“Ask her who Josie's father is.”
Rafferty went still.
“Leave the child out of this.”
Celeste laughed.
“Oh, the child is the reason this entire arrangement matters.”
Rafferty stared.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Celeste reached into her handbag.
She removed an old photograph.
Fay stood outside a hospital holding newborn Josie.
Beside her was a young man with blond hair and a charming smile.
Celeste's brother.
Nathan Vanderpool.
Rafferty recognized him immediately.
Nathan had supposedly died in a boating accident five years earlier.
Celeste placed the photograph on the desk.
Then whispered:
May you like
“Your precious maid had a child with my brother.”
And for the first time, Rafferty understood why the Vanderpools had been so determined to keep Fay powerless.
