Chapter 11 - The Dead Colonel Walked Into the Room
Chaos exploded.
Celeste screamed.
Grant tried to leave.
Agents blocked him.
Senator Kessler demanded an attorney.
I remained seated.
Daniel placed Dad's evidence on the table.
One document after another.
Shell companies.
Bank transfers.
Fake charities.
Payments to Grant.
Payments to Celeste.
Payments to the psychiatrist.
Then Henry played the recording from dinner.
Celeste's own voice filled the room.
“Once she signs, we're done.”
Grant stared at me.
“You recorded us?”
I looked at him.
“No.”
I touched my necklace.
“Dad did teach me to accessorize, though.”
For the first time, Daniel laughed.
But Celeste wasn't finished.
She pointed at me.
“You think you've won?”
“No.”
I stood.
“I think you've started talking.”
Her face tightened.
Exactly what Dad predicted.
Angry people reveal emotion.
Frightened people reveal information.
Celeste did both.
“You have no idea what Marcus did!”
Daniel's expression changed.
“What did he do?”
“He threatened all of us!”
Senator Kessler shouted, “Shut up!”
Everyone went silent.
Celeste looked at him.
And in that instant, she realized she had exposed the hierarchy.
Grant wasn't the mastermind.
Neither was she.
Kessler was.
But before agents could separate them, Grant said something that shocked even Celeste.
“I'll cooperate.”
She turned.
“What?”
Grant looked at me.
“I'll tell them everything.”
My husband had betrayed his partner as quickly as he had betrayed me.
And I finally understood the kind of man I had married.
He belonged to nobody.
May you like
Not even himself.
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