Chapter 7 - What Katherine Did Not Remember
Adrian looked at his wife.
“You were with Sofia when she died?”
“I think so.”
“That isn’t the same as knowing.”
“No.”
Katherine pulled her hand away.
“But Celeste believes it is.”
Emily sat beside her.
“What do you remember?”
“A room.”
“Where?”
“Bellweather.”
Katherine closed her eyes.
“Celeste crying. Sofia on a bed. Warren shouting.”
“And you?”
“I was holding something.”
“What?”
Katherine’s hand instinctively moved toward her neck.
The silver pendant.
She opened it.
Nothing remained inside except the space where the numbered paper had been hidden.
Then she remembered.
“A key.”
Adrian looked at Emily’s necklace.
“The same kind?”
“Yes.”
Katherine stood abruptly.
“Sofia gave it to me.”
“Why?”
“She said Celeste couldn’t have it.”
Emily frowned.
“Why would Sofia hide something from her daughter?”
Katherine’s eyes filled.
“Because Celeste wanted to kill Vittorio.”
Silence.
There was the motive beneath every other motive.
Celeste had not begun by wanting Katherine gone.
She had wanted revenge against Vittorio for destroying Sofia.
Sofia had tried to stop her.
Adrian said, “Keep going.”
“Celeste found out Vittorio survived his funeral.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“She planned to expose him?”
“No.”
Katherine looked ashamed, though the memory was not hers to be ashamed of.
“She wanted to use Warren’s drugs on him.”
Adrian understood immediately.
“To make my father live with what he did to everyone else.”
“Yes.”
Emily whispered, “That’s why Lucia may have helped her.”
Katherine nodded.
“At first.”
Another reversal.
Lucia.
Celeste.
Katherine.
Three women who had all tried to stop Vittorio.
Different methods.
Different breaking points.
Then Sofia died.
And everything changed.
Adrian left Katherine at the estate despite her protests.
“You just found me.”
“That’s exactly why you’re not walking into another Bellweather property tonight.”
She looked furious.
Good.
Fury looked healthier on her than fear.
“You don’t get to decide everything because I disappeared.”
Adrian stopped.
She was right.
Six years ago, he might have argued.
Now he said, “Then decide.”
Katherine looked surprised.
“Do you want to come?”
She looked at Noah sleeping upstairs.
Then shook her head.
“No.”
“Okay.”
“But bring Celeste back alive.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“I wasn’t planning otherwise.”
“I don’t mean for answers.”
“Why, then?”
“Because Noah saw her as family.”
Adrian stared at Katherine.
“She hurt you.”
“She also brought me books when I couldn’t remember my own name.”
Katherine’s voice trembled.
“She terrified me. Controlled me. Lied to Noah. But sometimes she sat outside my room and cried.”
Emily looked at her.
“You feel sorry for her?”
“No.”
Katherine swallowed.
“I understand that broken people can still choose to break someone else.”
That was different.
At the summer house, Marcus found Daniel’s car parked outside.
No guards.
No obvious ambush.
Adrian hated that more.
Inside, Daniel stood beside a medical chair.
Celeste was there.
So was Dr. Warren.
Warren’s hands were restrained.
Celeste held no weapon.
She looked exhausted.
Her elegant gala dress had been replaced by jeans and one of Adrian’s old coats taken from the estate years ago.
Emily entered behind Adrian.
“Daniel.”
Her brother looked at her.
“I’m okay.”
“You walked out with her.”
“I had to.”
“No. You decided to.”
“Yes.”
Emily stopped.
Daniel said, “She contacted me before the gala.”
Adrian looked at him.
“How?”
“She knew I stole Lucia’s file.”
“You’ve been helping her?”
“I’ve been trying to find Katherine.”
Adrian’s voice went cold.
“You knew Katherine might be alive.”
“I suspected.”
“And said nothing.”
Daniel stood straighter.
“Because every person who said anything around your family ended up drugged, missing, or dead.”
Adrian could not argue.
Celeste finally spoke.
“He’s right.”
Adrian looked at her.
For the first time in four years, Celeste looked ordinary.
No perfect hair.
No polished smile.
No audience.
“You locked my son in a room.”
Her face tightened.
“I was trying to keep him from following Katherine through the second passage.”
“You slapped Emily.”
“I panicked.”
“You destroyed her phone.”
“Yes.”
“You lied to me for four years.”
“Yes.”
No excuse.
That unsettled him.
“Why stay with me?”
Celeste looked toward the lake.
“Because I thought Vittorio was watching you.”
Adrian froze.
“My father is alive?”
“I don’t know.”
“That isn’t good enough.”
“It’s the truth.”
She pointed toward Warren.
“He’s the only person who knows what happened after the Bellweather fire.”
Warren laughed bitterly.
“No. I’m the only one whose memory hasn’t come back.”
Celeste’s face twisted.
“You remember enough.”
“I remember what they allowed me to.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Who is ‘they’?”
Warren looked at him.
“Your mother and Katherine.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
Warren smiled tiredly.
“Nothing does until you understand the reversal treatment.”
He nodded toward Celeste.
“She didn’t bring me here to recover her memories.”
Celeste went rigid.
Adrian saw it.
“You lied to Daniel.”
Celeste looked at him.
“I needed Daniel because he had Lucia’s files.”
“For what?”
“To locate the master ledger.”
Emily said, “The one Thomas Bell took?”
“Yes.”
Adrian’s patience narrowed.
“Why?”
“Because it contains one name I need.”
“Vittorio?”
Celeste shook her head.
“Mine.”
No one spoke.
Celeste’s eyes filled.
“My mother wrote something about me before she died. Lucia removed it from every file except the original ledger.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Warren laughed again.
“Yes, you do.”
Celeste turned.
“Shut up.”
“You’ve always known.”
She crossed the room and slapped him.
The sound echoed.
Then she stopped.
The irony was immediate.
Hours earlier, she had slapped Emily to silence her.
Now she had done exactly the same thing.
Celeste lowered her hand.
Ashamed.
Emily watched her.
“People become what they hate faster than they think.”
Celeste looked at Emily.
“I’m sorry.”
Emily did not accept it.
Not yet.
Adrian said, “Warren. What did Sofia write?”
The doctor leaned back.
“That Celeste was not her biological daughter.”
Celeste went pale.
“No.”
Warren continued.
“Sofia discovered Vittorio had arranged the adoption.”
“No.”
“He chose your family.”
Celeste backed away.
“No.”
“You were placed with the Romanos when you were six months old.”
“Stop.”
“Because your birth mother was inside Bellweather.”
Celeste grabbed the table.
Adrian looked at Warren.
“Who?”
Warren smiled without humor.
“That’s what Vittorio never wanted her to know.”
Emily suddenly understood why Celeste had spent her life circling the Marchetti family.
Perhaps even Celeste’s place in their orbit had been engineered before she could walk.
Warren continued.
“Lucia found out. Sofia found out. Katherine found out.”
Celeste whispered, “Who was she?”
Warren stared at Adrian.
“Ask him.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“I was a child when Celeste was born.”
“Not you.”
Warren nodded toward a framed photograph hanging over the fireplace.
Vittorio Marchetti.
Celeste looked at Adrian.
Her horror grew.
“No.”
Warren said, “Vittorio was your father.”
Celeste sank into a chair.
Adrian stared at her.
His fiancée.
His half-sister.
The room seemed to lose sound.
Daniel whispered, “That’s why Lucia opposed the wedding.”
Adrian’s stomach turned.
Celeste shook her head violently.
“No. Lucia would have told us.”
“She tried,” Warren said.
“When?”
“The night she died.”
Adrian stepped toward him.
“My mother died in bed.”
Warren looked almost pitying.
“No.”
Adrian stopped.
“She died here.”
Marcus whispered, “At this house?”
Warren nodded.
“And Celeste was with her.”
Everyone looked at Celeste.
She stared at Warren.
“I don’t remember.”
“That was the point.”
Warren leaned forward.
“You begged me to erase that night.”
Celeste’s face crumpled.
“Why?”
Warren answered:
May you like
“Because you were the one holding Lucia’s medication when she stopped breathing.”
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