Chapter 11 - THE COST OF BELIEVING HER
I had met Celia Arden twice.
She lived out of state.
Elise described her as difficult, proud, and anxious about money.
I had paid for her travel to the wedding.
Now Leah called the number Gerald supplied.
Celia answered in a clipped voice.
When she heard my name, she stopped speaking.
“I’m not calling to threaten you,” I said.
“I need to know why you contacted my trustee.”
“Elise asked me to confirm an appointment.”
“What did she tell you it was for?”
“A wedding gift.”
I almost laughed.
Nothing about it was funny.
“She said she was arranging something from your father’s estate.”
“Did you know Owen Mercer?”
Celia hesitated.
“He helped her find work.”
“How long?”
“Several years.”
A relationship built on introductions I had never known about.
When the call ended, I sat quietly.
Grace didn’t fill the silence.
That was one reason I trusted her.
She could let pain exist without trying to make it useful.
“I thought she wanted a life with me,” I said.
“She may have wanted parts of it.”
“The house.
The money.”
“I don’t know,” Grace said.
“You shouldn’t have to guess.”
That evening, Elise’s attorney sent a proposal.
She would provide information about Owen and Calder if I agreed not to pursue civil claims against her and publicly described the fall as unresolved.
Leah rejected the condition.
“Cooperation goes through investigators.
You don’t purchase it with a public lie.”
I read the proposal again.
Even now, Elise wanted control over the story.
I drafted one message.
Tell your client the wedding is canceled.
I didn’t send anything else.
Grace watched me set down the phone.
“Does that help?”
“No.”
“Maybe it will later.”
Her own phone rang.
Her mother wanted to know why a reporter had called about Grace and a millionaire.
Grace stepped into the bathroom to answer.
I could still hear her reassuring voice through the door.
When she returned, her eyes were red.
“I need some air.”
“I’ll ask hotel security—”
“I need ten minutes where nobody is managing me.”
I let her go.
Nine minutes later, she called.
A man had approached her outside.
May you like
He knew her mother’s address.
And he had handed her a photograph of herself kneeling beside my body.
