Chapter 11 - Celeste's Secret.
Elena turned toward Celeste so quickly that the broom struck the side of the potting bench.
The sound cracked through the greenhouse.
Celeste did not deny it.
That frightened Elena more than denial would have.
Gabriel moved between them.
"Tell me she's wrong."
Celeste looked at him.
"She isn't."
Gabriel's expression hardened.
"You put someone in Elena's uniform and sent her through the west corridor?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"To see who would react."
Elena stared at her.
"You used my face as bait."
"I used a wig, makeup, and a copied uniform."
"That is not better."
"I wasn't trying to fool you."
"You fooled Gabriel."
"For twenty minutes."
Gabriel stepped closer.
"You copied my security footage."
"I controlled what one camera recorded."
"Without permission."
"Because I believed somebody with higher access was watching everyone who searched the west wing."
Mara folded her arms.
"She was right."
Elena looked at her sister.
"You knew?"
"I asked her to do it."
That answer hit harder than the first.
"You two have been working together."
Mara nodded.
"For six months."
Elena laughed in disbelief.
"So while I was getting threatened, followed, and run off the road, you were inside this house playing spy games?"
Celeste's face changed.
"The crash wasn't part of anything we planned."
"That's supposed to comfort me?"
"No."
Mara stepped forward.
"Elena, I didn't know you had found Bell's deposition until after the first threat."
"You knew Hale was watching us for years."
"Yes."
"You knew Mom died without hearing from you."
Mara looked down.
"Yes."
"And you still stayed hidden."
"Because every time I tried to come home, somebody connected to Hale appeared near the family."
Elena's anger shook her voice.
"You could have told me."
"I wanted to."
"That's not the same thing."
Gabriel interrupted softly.
"We can tear each other apart after we're not standing in a glass building with somebody searching the tunnels."
Mara nodded.
"He's right."
Elena glared at both of them.
"I hate when he says something useful."
"I've noticed," Gabriel said.
Celeste crossed to the greenhouse control panel and shut off the interior lights.
"We have a vehicle hidden beyond the south garden."
Gabriel looked at her.
"We?"
"Mara and I."
"Of course."
They left through a side door and moved between tall hedges toward a service road.
Bell walked slowly, breathing hard.
Mara supported him with one arm.
Elena noticed how naturally they moved together.
Eight years of secrets had created relationships she knew nothing about.
That hurt in a way fear did not.
The hidden vehicle was an old white utility van with gardening logos on the sides.
Gabriel stared at it.
"You hid an undercover van on my property."
Celeste opened the driver's door.
"You have twenty-three acres."
"That is not an answer."
"It is the reason it worked."
They drove to a small caretaker's cottage on the northern edge of the estate.
The cottage had been empty for years.
Inside, Mara had built a temporary command center from folding tables, paper files, and two disconnected laptops.
No wireless network.
No smart devices.
No cameras.
Gabriel held up the flash drive Mara had given him.
"Show me Meridian."
Mara inserted it into an old laptop.
Spreadsheet after spreadsheet appeared.
Emergency housing contracts.
Medical supply purchases.
Transportation invoices.
All seemed legitimate until Mara highlighted the vendors.
Several shared the same mailing addresses.
Others had been incorporated days before receiving multimillion-dollar contracts.
One listed a storage building that Elena recognized.
"That's where my document company keeps old legal archives."
Mara looked at her.
"Exactly."
"Why would Meridian pay them?"
"It didn't."
Mara opened another file.
The money was routed through a company with nearly the same name.
One letter different.
Enough to fool casual review.
Gabriel leaned closer.
"Who approved this?"
Mara opened the authorization log.
Gabriel Reyes.
Again.
His face went cold.
"My signature."
"Digitally cloned," Mara said.
"How?"
Celeste answered.
"Your legal office has access to the corporate signing certificate."
All eyes turned toward Gabriel.
"Hale."
Mara nodded.
"Maybe."
"Maybe?"
"There's one more person with access."
Gabriel frowned.
"Who?"
Celeste hesitated.
"Me."
Elena looked at her.
"You really know how to improve your own situation."
Celeste ignored the comment.
"I manage emergency estate transfers when Mr. Reyes is traveling."
Gabriel stared at her.
"Could you have signed these?"
"Technically."
"Did you?"
"No."
Mara opened another document.
"There's a reason I haven't cleared Celeste."
Celeste's head snapped toward her.
"You told me you had."
"I told you I believed you."
"That's not the same thing."
"No."
Elena almost smiled despite the tension.
Apparently her sister also had a talent for making allies angry.
Mara brought up a transfer from three weeks earlier.
Five million dollars had moved from Meridian Relief to a numbered account overseas.
The authorization originated from the Reyes estate network.
The device identifier belonged to Celeste's tablet.
Celeste looked genuinely stunned.
"That wasn't me."
Gabriel's voice became cold.
"Then somebody has copied your credentials twice."
"Yes."
"Or you're lying twice."
Before Celeste could answer, Bell spoke from the corner.
"Hale never copies a key when he can convince someone to hand it to him."
Everyone turned.
Bell was staring at the authorization record.
"That device code isn't Celeste's current tablet."
Celeste frowned.
"How would you know?"
"Because I saw the old one in Hale's office last year."
She went pale.
"My old tablet was destroyed in a car accident."
Bell looked at Elena.
"So was yours."
Elena's stomach dropped.
The crash that bruised her face had happened three days before she started work.
Her bag had vanished from the wreck before police arrived.
Inside it had been her phone, identification, house key, and onboarding papers for the Reyes estate.
Mara closed the laptop slowly.
"The crash wasn't just a warning."
Elena understood before anyone said it.
"They were stealing my access."
Gabriel looked toward the dark cottage windows.
"Which means the person wearing Elena's face may not have been the only copy in this house."
A knock sounded at the cottage door.
Three slow taps.
Then two fast ones.
Mara's face drained of color.
"That's my emergency code."
Elena whispered.
"Who else knows it?"
Mara answered without taking her eyes off the door.
"Only one person."
The knock came again.
And this time, a woman's voice called from outside.
"Mara, open the door."
Elena knew the voice.
May you like
It belonged to their mother.
Their mother had been dead for four years.
