Chapter 18 - The Second Screen
The guests expected a wedding.
They got a trial without a judge.
Luca stood at the front of St. Matthew's beneath white flowers and candlelight while hundreds of people whispered behind him.
The leaked video had reached every phone in the room.
Some guests watched Luca.
Others watched the doors.
Several were already leaving.
Reporters shouted from behind the police barriers outside.
Then the organ began.
Everyone turned.
Celeste Beaumont entered alone.
She wore the simple white dress from the annex.
There was no veil.
No bouquet.
No father beside her.
The bruise near her lip was visible under the cathedral lights.
Nora stood behind a side column with Elena, Daniel, Marco, and federal agents.
"This is insane," Nora whispered.
Elena nodded.
"Completely."
"You sound pleased."
"I am old."
"We enjoy spectacle when we survive it."
Celeste reached Luca.
The officiant did not begin traditional vows.
Instead, Luca turned toward the guests.
"There will be no wedding today."
The cathedral erupted in murmurs.
Cameras flashed.
Celeste closed her eyes briefly.
Luca continued.
"There was never going to be a legal wedding after what happened to my mother."
"The ceremony remained scheduled because people involved in a criminal conspiracy believed marriage would give them access to my family's companies."
Several guests stood.
One politician headed for the exit.
Luca looked at the screens mounted along the side aisles.
"You have all seen a video released less than thirty minutes ago."
"Parts of that video are real."
"I did pretend to leave New York."
"I did authorize cameras in common rooms of my home after my mother told me she feared someone was manipulating her."
"I did watch those cameras."
Nora glanced at Elena.
Luca was not trying to deny the uncomfortable parts.
That gave the truth weight.
"I also failed to act as quickly as I should have," Luca said.
"For that, I owe my mother an apology that no public statement can replace."
Elena's eyes filled.
Nora looked away to give her privacy.
Luca continued.
"But the video you received was edited to hide what those cameras captured."
He nodded toward Marco.
A second feed appeared.
This one began with the complete sitting-room recording.
Celeste held Elena's silver pill case.
Her voice filled the cathedral.
"Elena needs to learn that stubbornness has consequences."
A shock moved through the guests.
The video showed Nora entering.
It showed the confrontation.
It showed Celeste shoving Nora.
It showed the continuity amendment falling from the portfolio.
Then the footage changed to the blue-room evidence photographs.
The forged date appeared beside hospital records proving Elena had been sedated at Mount Sinai.
Daniel's voice narrated the document trail.
Next came the audio recovered from Luis Ortega's body camera.
"The bracelet goes in the second drawer," Celeste said.
"What about the medicine?" Warren asked.
"Leave that to me."
Celeste stood beside Luca and did not look away from the screen.
The audience watched the rehearsal-dinner service video next.
Warren handed Victor Ames the packet.
Ames emptied it into the marked glass.
Then Charles's call to Celeste played.
"Did he drink the marked glass?"
"Yes."
"Then follow the protocol."
Someone in the audience gasped loudly.
Celeste's voice from the call shook through the speakers.
"Dad, you said it would only make him dizzy."
Charles replied, "Do not use names."
Then came Gabriel's penthouse confession.
"I changed a route."
"Antonio was meeting investigators."
"Charles wanted Antonio frightened."
The cathedral became completely silent.
Elena bowed her head.
Luca did not look at the screen during that section.
He looked at his mother.
Finally, the annex recording played from less than an hour earlier.
Charles's voice filled the cathedral.
"Antonio would still be alive if you had followed instructions."
Gabriel answered, "You paid the truck."
Charles said, "I paid for a warning."
Nora felt gooseflesh rise along her arms.
The truth sounded different when hundreds of people heard it at once.
It could no longer be hidden in family rooms or private offices.
When the recording ended, Luca faced the guests again.
"The people you heard are now in federal custody."
"The documents shown today have been preserved with verified chain of custody."
"My mother is safe."
"Nora Hayes, whose image was circulated as a suspected kidnapper, did not abduct anyone."
Nora froze.
She had not known he would say her name.
Luca looked toward the side aisle where she stood.
Every camera in the cathedral followed his gaze.
Nora hated him for three seconds.
Then he said, "She protected my mother when people with more power chose not to."
Elena took Nora's hand.
Luca turned toward Celeste.
"And now Celeste Beaumont has asked to speak."
The reaction was immediate.
Some guests shouted questions.
The officiant stepped away from the altar.
Celeste faced the room.
Her hands trembled visibly.
"Everything you saw me do to Elena is real," she said.
Nora watched her carefully.
"No one forced me to hold her medication."
"No one forced me to hit her."
"No one forced me to frame Nora because I was afraid she would expose me."
A tear ran down Celeste's cheek.
"My father manipulated me."
"Gabriel manipulated me."
"Edmund Vale lied to me."
"But none of that changes what I chose once I had the chance to be cruel without consequences."
Elena's grip tightened around Nora's fingers.
Celeste looked at her across the cathedral.
"I am sorry."
Elena did not nod.
She did not smile.
She did not grant forgiveness because a crowd was watching.
She only said, "You should be."
The microphone carried it through the cathedral.
Celeste lowered her eyes.
Then she continued.
"There is one thing Luca does not know."
Luca's expression changed.
Nora felt the room tighten again.
Celeste reached slowly into a pocket sewn into her dress.
Federal agents moved.
She stopped.
"It's a flash drive."
Sloan approached and took it.
"What is on it?"
Celeste looked at Luca.
"My father's private archive."
"I copied it three months ago because I stopped trusting him."
Charles's attorneys, seated under supervision near the annex exit, began objecting loudly.
Sloan ignored them.
Celeste continued.
"It contains the original Beaumont option agreements."
"Payments to Vale."
"Payments connected to Harlan."
"And audio files my father recorded because he recorded everyone."
Luca's eyes narrowed.
"Including Gabriel?"
"Yes."
"Including me?"
"Yes."
"Including you?"
Celeste swallowed.
"Yes."
Nora understood why she had waited.
The drive might save her from being blamed for crimes Charles designed.
It might also prove every crime she committed herself.
Handing it over was not innocence.
It was surrender.
Sloan passed the drive to a technician.
"We verify before anything plays."
Celeste nodded.
Then the cathedral sound system crackled.
A different video appeared on every screen.
Not the federal feed.
A live image.
Charles Beaumont sat in the annex interview room between two agents.
Somehow, he was speaking into a microphone connected to the cathedral system.
"Luca," he said.
Sloan's face changed.
"Kill that feed."
Technicians tried.
It stayed live.
Charles smiled.
"You forgot something."
Luca stared at the screen.
"What?"
"Your empire does not belong only to you."
A document appeared beside Charles's face.
It was an ownership certificate dated fourteen years earlier.
Antonio Ventresca's signature appeared at the bottom.
Charles continued.
"Your father pledged twelve percent of Ventresca Family Holdings to Beaumont interests before he died."
Daniel shook his head.
"Impossible."
Charles heard him through the feed.
"Check Schedule K, Daniel."
"The original is in the archive you never found."
Luca looked at Elena.
Her face had gone pale.
Charles smiled wider.
"Ask your mother."
Every camera turned toward Elena.
Luca walked down the aisle to her.
"Mother?"
Elena looked at the ownership certificate on the screen.
Then at her son.
"The signature is real," she said.
The cathedral erupted again.
Luca stared at her.
"You knew?"
Elena's eyes filled.
"I knew Antonio signed something."
"I never knew why."
Charles's voice came through the speakers.
"I do."
He leaned toward the camera.
"Your father did not pledge those shares to save my company."
"He pledged them to save you."
Luca went still.
May you like
Charles smiled.
"Now ask your mother what happened seventeen years ago."
