Chapter 6 - Secrets Behind the Conservatory Glass
Celeste raised both hands.
“I didn't come to fight.”
Victor moved in front of Valentina.
“That's a first.”
Celeste ignored him.
“Give me the ledger.”
“No,” Valentina said.
Celeste smiled faintly.
“Good.”
Victor looked at his sister.
“What game are you playing?”
“The same one you've been playing badly for years.”
Celeste stepped closer.
“You think yesterday was about your promotion?”
“It was.”
“No.”
Her gaze shifted toward Valentina.
“It was about hers.”
Valentina held the ledger tighter.
“I don't want anything from this family.”
Celeste's expression became unexpectedly serious.
“That's why Salvatore chose you.”
Valentina laughed once.
“He doesn't get to choose my life.”
“No. But other people can make refusing expensive.”
Victor snapped, “Stop talking in riddles.”
Celeste looked at him.
“You really don't know, do you?”
“Know what?”
“Why Father died.”
Victor went still.
Their father had died twelve years earlier.
Officially, a heart attack.
Celeste continued.
“He tried to leave.”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
“He discovered what Salvatore was building.”
“Shut up.”
“He wanted us out.”
Victor grabbed her.
Celeste didn't resist.
“He planned to take Mother, you and me away. Three days later, he died.”
“You're lying.”
“Ask Mother.”
Victor released her.
Valentina watched them.
This family had lived so long inside secrets that truth itself had become a weapon.
“Why push Owen?” Valentina asked.
Celeste looked at her.
“Because I needed you to react.”
“You nearly killed him.”
“I knew you would reach him.”
“You couldn't know.”
“No.”
Celeste's confidence cracked.
“I couldn't.”
For the first time, she looked ashamed.
“I made a terrible choice.”
Valentina stepped forward.
“A terrible choice is taking the wrong exit. You pushed my three-year-old into deep water.”
Celeste lowered her eyes.
“I know.”
“Why?”
“Because the official test was rigged.”
Valentina frowned.
“Rigged how?”
“To make you fail.”
“By whom?”
Celeste looked toward Victor.
“Someone who needs him in charge.”
Victor stared at her.
“Who?”
Celeste answered with one name.
“Evelyn.”
Their mother.
Victor laughed.
“No.”
“She designed the alternate instructions.”
“But she told Valentina—”
“I know what she told her.”
Celeste reached into her handbag.
Victor tensed.
She slowly removed a folded letter.
“Our mother has been controlling both of us since Father died.”
Victor didn't take it.
Valentina did.
The letter was handwritten.
It instructed Celeste to alter the test.
Not to frighten Owen.
To endanger him.
The signature at the bottom belonged to Evelyn.
Valentina felt sick.
“Why would she want me to pass?”
Celeste shook her head.
“She didn't.”
Valentina looked at the instructions again.
Then understood.
If Owen had been seriously hurt, Valentina would never accept any role inside the family.
She would take her son and disappear.
Evelyn wanted her gone.
Victor whispered, “Why?”
Celeste's answer came quietly.
“Because Mom doesn't want either of us to inherit Salvatore's chair.”
“Then who?”
Celeste looked at Valentina.
“Her.”
Silence.
Victor stepped backward.
Their mother wasn't protecting the family.
She was positioning herself to control it.
And Valentina had accidentally become her greatest obstacle.
A phone rang.
Celeste checked hers.
Her face drained.
“What?”
She answered.
Listened.
Then looked at Valentina.
“Owen isn't at the hospital.”
Valentina stopped breathing.
“What?”
“The nurse says his room is empty.”
Valentina grabbed Celeste.
“What did you say?”
“He's gone.”
Everything inside Valentina turned cold.
Daniel was already dialing.
Victor reached for his phone.
Valentina didn't scream.
Didn't collapse.
Didn't panic.
She looked at Victor.
“Find him.”
Then at Celeste.
“You too.”
Finally, she looked down at Evelyn's letter.
Because now she understood what the real test had become.
May you like
Someone had taken Owen.
And this time there would be no pond, no audience, and no guarantee Valentina could reach him in seven seconds.
