Chapter 9
Inside the ballroom, Adrian knew something was coming.
He just did not know what form it would take.
Celeste wore the wine-red dress she had chosen months earlier.
The same color as the shoes she wore when Lena was injured.
Adrian noticed.
He wondered whether Celeste did.
Grant arrived thirty minutes late.
He seemed too cheerful.
Adrian watched him greet trustees.
Donors.
Attorneys.
He kept touching his phone.
At 7:21, Grant approached Adrian near the champagne tower.
“The disbursements are delayed.”
“So I heard.”
“Administrative problem.”
“Then administration can fix it.”
Grant studied him.
“You sound unconcerned.”
“I am.”
“You could call the trust office.”
“I could.”
Grant’s eyes narrowed.
Adrian took a drink he did not want.
“You seem worried.”
“These projects matter.”
“To the charities?”
“Obviously.”
Adrian held his gaze.
“Then transparency should help.”
Grant smiled without humor.
“You’ve been talking to someone.”
“Many people.”
Before Grant could respond, Celeste arrived.
She slipped her arm through Adrian’s.
“Enough business.”
Adrian looked at her engagement ring.
He had almost removed it six days earlier.
He had not.
Some part of him still wanted evidence to save him from choosing.
That ashamed him now.
Celeste leaned toward him.
“After tonight, we stop letting staff interfere in our life.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Staff?”
She smiled.
“Lena.”
He did not answer.
Celeste mistook silence for agreement.
“She never knew her place.”
That sentence completed something in Adrian.
Not an investigation.
A decision.
He gently removed Celeste’s arm from his.
Her smile faded.
“Adrian?”
Then the ballroom doors opened.
Every conversation stopped.
Lena entered.
Black suit.
White wrist brace.
Miriam beside her.
Police behind them.
For the first time since the assault, Adrian saw Lena’s face.
She did not look at him first.
She looked at Grant.
Then Celeste.
The champagne flute slipped from Celeste’s hand.
Glass exploded across the marble.
Lena reached the center of the ballroom.
Opened the leather folder.
Placed the three invoices on a table.
“Freeze all twenty-two million dollars.”
Grant moved backward.
That movement told Adrian almost as much as the documents.
Then Lena played the grandfather-clock footage.
Celeste’s heel crushed Lena’s hand.
Grant watched.
No one spoke.
Lena looked directly at Celeste.
“Did you really think disabling the cameras erased the evidence?”
Grant turned toward the exit.
An officer blocked him.
Adrian stared at Lena.
Then at Miriam.
Then at the invoices.
May you like
One question remained.
How did Lena have the authority to freeze his family trust?
