Chapter 6 - BLOOD DOES NOT STAY BURIED
Emily called the number from a prepaid phone Lucas provided.
Vanessa answered after one ring.
“Are you alone?” she asked.
“No.”
“Then hang up.”
“You planted a necklace in my bag, struck me, and tried to have me arrested.”
Emily kept her voice level.
“You do not get to set the rules.”
Vanessa breathed quietly on the other end.
“I did not steal the ledger from the library.”
“You left the rose.”
“I left the paper rose in the hidden room two days ago.”
“How did you know the room existed?”
“My father showed it to me.”
Emily looked at Lucas, who was tracing the call through a separate device.
“Where is Victor?”
“Watching everything.”
“Is Celeste alive?”
“Yes.”
The answer came without hesitation.
“Where?”
“I do not know anymore.”
“You wrote that your father would kill her.”
“Because he will if you force him to choose between her life and his freedom.”
Emily’s hand tightened around the phone.
“You knew who I was before you framed me.”
“I knew you might be Celeste’s daughter.”
“How long?”
“Four months.”
“Why me?”
“Because your thirtieth birthday activates the trust amendment.”
“You could have warned me.”
Vanessa laughed once, but there was no amusement in it.
“You think warnings protect people in this family?”
“They protect them better than false felony charges.”
A pause followed.
“I was supposed to place the necklace in your locker and call the police after you left the property,” Vanessa said.
“You were supposed to be arrested with it in your possession.”
“Then why did you accuse me in front of everyone?”
“Because Owen changed the timing.”
Emily glanced toward the tape recorder in the hidden room.
“What did he do?”
“He told Daniel the necklace was missing before I was ready.”
“Why?”
“To force the bag open while the guests and cameras were present.”
Emily understood.
Owen had made the frame-up public because a public accusation created public scrutiny.
He had known the camera footage would clear her.
He had used Vanessa’s plan to expose Vanessa and bring the necklace to Emily.
It was ruthless.
It was also the first move anyone had made that placed evidence in her hands.
“Where is Owen now?”
“I do not know.”
“Are you working with him?”
“No.”
Vanessa’s voice sharpened.
“He used me.”
“You used me.”
“Yes.”
The blunt admission silenced Emily for a second.
Vanessa continued.
“My father showed me the trust amendment last winter.”
“He said if you were recognized as Celeste’s daughter, the Sterling accounts would be investigated, our loans would collapse, and Daniel would learn that my family financed half our lifestyle with stolen Ashford money.”
“So you destroyed me to preserve your engagement.”
“I tried to remove you before anyone knew who you were.”
“You say that as if it sounds better.”
“It does not.”
Emily heard movement in the background.
A door closed.
Vanessa lowered her voice.
“My father believes the real ledger was hidden in the west archive.”
“Someone already took it.”
“I know.”
“Who?”
“That is why I called you.”
Vanessa inhaled.
“I think Margaret took it.”
Emily looked across the room.
Margaret stood beside the portrait, unable to hear Vanessa’s words.
“Why would she?”
“To keep Daniel from learning how much she knew.”
“She already admitted signing transfers.”
“She did not admit what happened after Celeste escaped St. Catherine’s.”
Emily’s pulse quickened.
“What happened?”
“Ask Margaret about the Harbor Hotel in 1999.”
The call disconnected.
Lucas shook his head.
“The signal bounced through three towers.”
“Did you get a location?”
“Only a general area near the financial district.”
Emily faced Margaret.
“What happened at the Harbor Hotel in 1999?”
Margaret’s expression told her Vanessa had not lied about the date.
Daniel stepped toward his mother.
“What happened?”
Margaret sat slowly.
“In 1999, I received a call from Celeste.”
The hidden room seemed to become smaller.
“She asked to meet at the Harbor Hotel,” Margaret said.
“She was alive, frightened, and living under another name.”
“You met her,” Emily said.
“Yes.”
“Did she tell you about me?”
“She told me she had a daughter.”
Grace closed her eyes.
Emily felt the betrayal before Margaret finished speaking.
“You knew I existed.”
“I knew a child existed.”
“You knew Celeste had survived, and you knew she had a daughter.”
“I did not know where the child was.”
“Did you try to find me?”
Margaret’s silence answered.
Daniel turned away from her.
“Why?” he asked.
Margaret looked at her son.
“Richard was facing a federal investigation.”
“Of course this is about the company.”
“It was about you too.”
“Do not use me.”
Daniel’s voice cracked.
Margaret gathered herself.
“Richard said Celeste had stolen confidential records and threatened to sell them.”
“She had evidence of theft,” Emily said.
“I know that now.”
“You knew enough then.”
Margaret did not deny it.
Celeste had asked Margaret for money, passports, and help leaving the country with Grace and Emily.
Margaret agreed at first.
Then Richard arrived unexpectedly.
He offered Celeste a deal.
If she signed away her trust claim and disappeared permanently, he would leave her daughter alone.
If she refused, he would have Grace arrested for kidnapping and place the baby in state custody under a false identity.
“What did Celeste do?” Emily asked.
“She signed.”
Grace began crying again.
“She gave up the money to protect Emily.”
Margaret nodded.
“Richard took the papers.”
“And you let him,” Daniel said.
“Yes.”
“What happened to Celeste?”
“She left through the hotel kitchen.”
“Did you ever see her again?”
“No.”
Emily walked toward the door.
Margaret called her name.
Emily stopped but did not turn.
“You stood in my apartment and acted shocked that I might be Celeste’s daughter,” she said.
“You let me believe last night was the first time you knew I existed.”
“I was ashamed.”
“No.”
Emily turned then.
“You were deciding how much truth I could survive without threatening you.”
Margaret’s face crumpled.
Emily felt no triumph.
She left the hidden room and crossed the library.
Daniel followed her to the foyer.
“Emily.”
“I need space.”
“I understand.”
“No, you understand that your mother lied.”
She faced him beneath the chandelier where Vanessa had struck her.
“You do not understand what it is like to discover that everyone who knew your name treated it as a problem to manage.”
Daniel looked toward the brown handbag, still sealed inside a police container near the entry table.
“You are right.”
Emily expected another apology.
Instead, he removed the Ashford signet ring from his hand.
He placed it on the marble ledge.
“What are you doing?”
“I am calling an emergency board meeting.”
“To protect the company?”
“To disclose the trust, freeze every account linked to Riverstone, and remove Victor Sterling from all positions.”
Emily studied him.
“That could destroy Ashford Holdings.”
“If the company depends on stolen money, then it is already destroyed.”
The answer sounded brave.
Emily wondered whether he would still believe it when thousands of employees, investors, and reporters turned on him.
Lucas entered the foyer with his phone raised.
“Daniel, Victor Sterling is at the front gate.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“Do not let him in.”
“He has a court order.”
“For what?”
Lucas read from the document.
“A temporary injunction preventing the release of private Ashford trust records.”
“That is impossible,” Daniel said.
“The court is closed.”
“An emergency judge signed it twenty minutes ago.”
Victor’s convoy rolled through the gates before security could legally stop it.
Three black cars approached the mansion.
Victor Sterling stepped from the center vehicle wearing a navy overcoat and the calm expression of a man arriving at a meeting he had scheduled.
Two attorneys followed him.
So did a woman carrying a medical file.
Victor entered the foyer without waiting to be invited.
He looked older than his photographs, but his pale eyes were alert and cold.
He greeted Margaret first.
Then Daniel.
Finally, he turned to Emily.
“So,” he said, “this is the woman claiming to be Celeste’s daughter.”
“I have not claimed anything.”
“Not yet.”
Victor smiled.
“You should know that Celeste Ashford was diagnosed with severe delusional illness before her disappearance.”
Grace stepped forward.
“The diagnosis was false.”
Victor ignored her.
He handed Daniel the medical file.
“The same hereditary condition was documented in Celeste’s infant daughter.”
Emily stared at him.
“I was six months old.”
“Symptoms can appear early.”
“That is nonsense,” Tessa said.
Victor’s smile did not move.
“The court will decide what is nonsense.”
Daniel threw the file onto the entry table.
“You are finished here.”
“On the contrary.”
Victor nodded toward one of the attorneys.
The attorney produced another order.
“This requires Emily Carter to submit to independent genetic testing before any trust claim can proceed.”
Emily laughed in disbelief.
“You want my DNA.”
“I want the truth.”
“No,” Emily said.
“You want control of the sample.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed slightly.
For the first time, she saw uncertainty.
Then a ringtone sounded from his coat.
Not his phone.
A second device.
Victor answered without taking his eyes from Emily.
He listened for three seconds.
His expression changed.
“What do you mean she is gone?” he said.
The caller spoke rapidly.
Victor turned away.
“Find her before she reaches the coast.”
Emily looked at Lucas.
The coast meant Maine.
Victor ended the call and regained his composure, but it was too late.
Emily had heard the fear beneath his words.
“Celeste escaped you,” she said.
Victor looked back at her.
“You should be careful which stories you believe.”
“You should be careful which calls you take in front of witnesses.”
Victor smiled again.
“This is not your world, Ms. Carter.”
Emily closed her hand around the locket.
“It became my world the moment your daughter put that necklace in my bag.”
Victor’s gaze dropped to the locket.
The confidence vanished from his face.
He knew what it could open.
He knew she had opened it.
Before he could speak, Lucas’s phone received an encrypted message.
He read it and passed the screen to Emily.
The sender was unknown.
The message contained a photograph taken less than a minute earlier.
Celeste stood beside a bus beneath a highway sign pointing north.
She held a handwritten card against the glass.
May you like
DO NOT COME TO MAINE.
OWEN IS THE TRAP.
