Chapter 10 - WHAT MARA CARRIED
Celeste nearly hung up.
Not because she didn’t want to hear.
Because she wanted it too badly.
Julian had always known how to find the loose thread.
“What proof?” she asked.
“Meet me.”
“No.”
“Then spend the rest of your life wondering.”
Brooks wrote two words on a pad.
KEEP CALM.
Celeste stared at them.
“If you have something to say, say it.”
A long pause.
Then Julian changed tactics.
“Your father didn’t arrange that attack.”
“I never said he did.”
“He cut corners. Everybody cuts corners.”
“People died.”
“People die in war.”
Celeste’s voice went flat.
“Not everybody sends an invoice afterward.”
For the first time, Julian had nothing ready.
She heard a door close near him.
When he spoke again, his voice was lower.
“Mara copied the original delivery records. She knew which equipment never arrived. She was going to ruin all of us.”
“Us?”
He went quiet.
Then the line disconnected.
Brooks took the phone with Celeste’s permission and preserved the call details and messages.
Celeste walked to the bathroom.
She locked the door.
For a moment, she stood with both hands on the sink.
Then she slid to the floor.
Mara had two children.
A husband who sent terrible jokes.
A habit of leaving the last good coffee packet for whoever had pulled the overnight watch.
Celeste had spent eleven years remembering the moment she let go of her wrist.
The smoke.
The heat.
Mara telling her Ben was still alive.
Go.
One word.
Celeste had obeyed.
A soft knock came.
Ben.
“I’m not coming in.”
She wiped her face.
“Good.”
He sat down on the other side of the door. She heard his knee tap the wood.
“I used to think you regretted saving me.”
Celeste lifted her head.
“What?”
“Dad said you wouldn’t answer. I thought maybe every time you saw my name, you thought about hers.”
“No.”
The word came hard.
“No, Ben.”
“Then tell yourself what you just told me.”
She pressed her forehead against the door.
Outside, he waited.
Later, when she emerged, Brooks had news.
The original review file contained a signed statement claiming Celeste had ordered the station’s alarm system disconnected.
The witness signature belonged to Julian.
And attached was a supporting declaration from Arthur.
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Her father hadn’t just hidden the truth.
He had helped put the blame on her.
