Chapter 6
Celeste received a subpoena from Vivienne’s civil attorneys.
They wanted communications about the fertility clinic.
Her texts with Dorian.
Her messages with doctors.
Her conversation with Vivienne.
Katherine fought the scope.
Some records were protected.
Some were relevant.
The process became invasive quickly.
Celeste sat at the dining table surrounded by lawyers and said:
“I feel like the person who got pushed is being investigated.”
Katherine answered:
“You are.”
Celeste stared at her.
“That’s supposed to help?”
“No.”
Katherine’s tone softened.
“But when someone claims you concealed paternity and Dorian assaulted her in reaction to a false family situation, your decisions become part of the facts.”
Celeste nodded.
She hated it.
She complied.
Her texts showed something useful.
Four days before the staircase incident, after the clinic gave preliminary reassurance, Celeste wrote to Vivienne:
They said chain-of-custody appears intact. I’m telling Dorian when he lands.
Vivienne replied:
If you tell him before the trust paperwork is frozen, you’re making a mistake you don’t understand.
Celeste:
This is not about the trust.
Vivienne:
Everything in this family is about the trust eventually.
There.
A direct link.
Another exchange:
Vivienne:
Sign the acknowledgment. Let the birth settle paternity. No one needs another Vale scandal while you’re pregnant.
Celeste:
You’re asking me to sign something I don’t believe.
Vivienne:
I’m asking you to protect your marriage.
Celeste:
By lying to my husband?
No reply.
Dorian read the exchange alone.
He was angry with Vivienne.
But one sentence hurt differently.
I’m telling Dorian when he lands.
Celeste had written that four days before he returned.
She had intended to tell him.
Then did not.
When he asked why, she answered without excuses.
“I got scared.”
“Of me?”
“Of what you would do to her.”
Dorian looked away.
That landed harder than the paternity question.
“You thought I would hurt Vivienne.”
“I thought you might confront her.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No.”
Celeste looked at him.
“But then you slapped her.”
Silence.
Dorian had no defense.
The fear was not invented.
Vivienne had understood him.
Celeste had too.
That forced another uncomfortable truth into the case.
Vivienne could be manipulative.
Celeste could have made a serious mistake by withholding information.
And Dorian could still be responsible for proving that people around him had reason to fear what happened when he lost control.
None of those truths canceled the others.
Then Katherine received Thomas Creed’s full mailbox.
One Bellweather email contained an attachment list.
The fourth file was named:
V.M. Personal Settlement Ledger.
The file itself was missing.
But the email body referenced:
Reserve reimbursement — 2.1M bridge pending divorce allocation.
Dorian read the line.
“What bridge?”
Katherine looked at him.
“We need the bank trail.”
They got it.
Two days later.
$2.1 million had left the Family Support Reserve in three transfers.
Bellweather received it.
Within forty-eight hours, $1.7 million moved into an account used to settle debt from Vivienne’s art business during the final year of the marriage.
She had used family-support money as a private bridge loan.
No trust authorization showed approval.
No repayment had occurred.
May you like
The five-year lookback would expose it immediately.
Now Vivienne had a seven-figure reason to keep that audit from starting.
