Chapter 9 - What Celestine Really Wanted
“Look at me, Elodie.”
Maren forced every word through a throat that felt closed.
“Don’t look down.”
Elodie sobbed.
“I want you.”
“I know, sweetheart.”
Celestine’s fingers tightened around the child.
“Stop talking to her.”
Maren ignored her.
“You’re doing so good, baby.”
Deputy Morris stood thirty feet behind Maren.
Grant and Judge Hart had reached the path.
Victor stood farther back.
Nobody dared move.
Maren focused on Celestine.
“You wanted the envelope.”
Celestine stared at her.
“Yes.”
“I’ll give it to you.”
“Slide it over.”
“You know I can’t.”
“Then burn it.”
Maren slowly glanced toward Grant.
“Adrian made copies.”
Celestine’s face twisted.
“He always thought he was smarter than me.”
“He was trying to protect his daughter.”
“He was trying to destroy me!”
The words exploded out of her.
Grant looked devastated.
“What did Adrian find?”
Celestine laughed bitterly.
“You really want to do this now, Dad?”
“Yes.”
Celestine’s eyes filled with rage.
“All my life, Adrian got everything.”
“Celestine—”
“The company. The trust. Your respect.”
“That isn’t true.”
“It is!”
Elodie cried harder.
Maren kept her voice steady.
“You stole from the family.”
Celestine looked at her.
“Victor stole first.”
Victor flinched.
Everyone heard it.
Celestine continued.
“He lost money. I covered him. Adrian found out.”
Victor spoke sharply.
“Stop talking.”
She laughed.
“Now you care?”
Maren realized the pressure was making Celestine unravel.
So she kept her talking.
“What happened on Adrian’s boat?”
Celestine stared at her.
Victor said:
“Don’t answer.”
That was nearly an answer itself.
Celestine looked at him with disgust.
“You took the radio.”
Victor’s face went blank.
Maren’s heart slammed.
Celestine continued.
“You said without it he couldn’t call anyone after the engine failed.”
Grant staggered backward.
“No.”
Victor stepped forward.
“Celestine, shut up.”
Deputy Morris raised a hand.
“Stay where you are.”
Maren could barely process what she was hearing.
“You knew the engine would fail?”
Celestine smiled through tears.
“Victor loosened the fuel fitting.”
Victor shouted:
“She’s lying!”
But Celestine had stopped protecting him.
“He said Adrian would drift. He’d panic. Maybe he’d learn to stop threatening us.”
Maren’s voice shook.
“He drowned.”
“I didn’t push him!”
“You stranded him in the ocean.”
“He was supposed to survive!”
The world went silent.
Even the waves seemed far away.
Maren stared at the woman holding her child.
Adrian’s death wasn’t an accident.
It hadn’t been planned as murder, perhaps.
But Celestine and Victor had sabotaged his boat to frighten him into silence.
Then when Adrian died, they covered it up.
And Maren had become the next problem.
“My car,” Maren whispered.
Celestine’s gaze shifted.
Maren saw the answer before she spoke.
Victor suddenly ran.
Deputy Morris turned.
“STOP!”
The distraction lasted less than two seconds.
But Celestine looked away.
Maren saw Elodie’s body shift against her arms.
A second deputy appeared from the garden path and tackled Victor before he got ten yards.
Celestine startled.
Her grip changed.
Elodie screamed.
Maren’s heart stopped.
“CELESTINE!”
Celestine steadied herself.
Then Maren saw something new in her face.
Fear.
Because Celestine finally understood.
She had confessed in front of a deputy.
Her father.
A retired judge.
Dozens of wedding guests.
And several wedding cameras.
There would be no version of this story she could rewrite later.
Maren lowered her hands.
“It’s over.”
Celestine shook her head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No!”
“Elodie doesn’t have to pay for what you did.”
For one second, Celestine looked at the little girl.
Something flickered.
Not love.
But hesitation.
Maren seized it.
“You wanted Adrian to be afraid.”
Celestine’s lips trembled.
“You didn’t mean for him to die.”
“No.”
“You wanted me gone.”
“I wanted you to stop!”
“And now everyone knows.”
Celestine started crying.
Maren spoke even more softly.
“You can still decide what happens next.”
Celestine stared at her.
“Put Elodie on the grass.”
A long silence.
Then Celestine slowly began lowering the child.
Maren didn’t move.
Not yet.
Not until both of Elodie’s shoes touched solid ground.
Then Celestine’s hand slipped toward the child again.
May you like
And Maren ran.
👉 For eighteen months Maren had been forced to wait for permission to protect her daughter—but the moment Elodie’s feet touched the ground, she stopped waiting.
