Chapter 11 - The Woman Who Saw Everything
The private investigator was named Daniel Cross.
He denied everything.
For six hours.
Then police showed him the recovered messages.
He asked for a lawyer.
By midnight, he asked for a deal.
Daniel admitted Celestine hired him years earlier to gather information on Maren.
At first, it was legal.
Photos.
Public records.
Travel.
Then Celestine began asking for more.
Passwords.
Medical records.
Financial data.
Daniel refused some requests.
Accepted others.
When Elias began investigating, Celestine panicked.
“She wanted him scared,” Daniel told prosecutors.
“Scared how?”
“She asked me to make his house feel unsafe.”
“Did you push Elias Vale?”
“No.”
“Did Celestine?”
Daniel looked at his attorney.
Then at the prosecutor.
“I saw her do it.”
The room went silent.
Daniel had been outside Elias’s townhouse that night.
Celestine told him to wait in the car.
Through the glass door, he saw an argument on the landing.
Elias pointed toward the exit.
Celestine grabbed his arm.
He pulled away.
She shoved him.
Elias fell backward.
Daniel panicked and drove away.
“Why didn’t you report it?”
“Because I had already committed crimes for her.”
“And you let everyone think an old man died accidentally?”
Daniel lowered his head.
“Yes.”
The prosecution now had a cooperating witness.
Vehicle records.
Elias’s audio memo.
Celestine’s lie.
And messages implying intent.
By afternoon, Celestine Vale was formally charged in connection with Elias’s death, along with attempted murder, kidnapping, evidence tampering, fraud, and conspiracy offenses arising from Elodie’s case.
Adrian heard the charges in silence.
Then he walked outside and vomited behind a hedge.
Maren found him there.
“My sister killed him.”
“She may have.”
“I defended her.”
“You didn’t know that.”
“I knew enough to question her three years ago. I chose not to.”
Maren did not comfort him with a lie.
“Yes.”
Adrian wiped his mouth.
“I keep thinking about all the times Grandfather tried to talk to me.”
“What did he say?”
“That fear makes stupid people dangerous and smart people cruel.”
Maren looked toward the house.
“He knew her.”
“He knew all of us.”
That afternoon, Elodie came outside carrying two juice boxes.
She handed one to Adrian.
He stared at it.
“For me?”
She nodded.
“Mommy says you’re sad.”
Adrian looked at Maren.
Maren hadn’t sent her.
Elodie sat on the step.
“Did that bad lady hurt your grandpa too?”
Adrian struggled to answer.
“Yes.”
Elodie thought for a moment.
Then she said something only a child could say.
“Then you can miss him with us.”
Adrian broke.
He covered his face and cried.
Elodie leaned against his arm.
She did not call him Daddy.
Not yet.
But she stayed.
And for Adrian, that was more than he deserved.
Meanwhile, Celestine’s attorney filed an emergency motion challenging Elodie’s inheritance.
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Even from a hospital bed, Celestine was still fighting.
And this time she was trying to take the child’s future through the courts.
