Chapter 12 - The First Frame
Mara could not move.
Julian pressed play.
The video had no sound.
A wide security angle showed the studio dressing room.
Mara appeared first, changed shoes, then left.
Thirty seconds later, Celeste entered.
She checked the hall.
Opened Mara’s bag.
Dropped the diamond bracelet inside.
Rachel whispered, “Jesus.”
Mara felt no victory.
Only rage arriving eleven years late.
The video continued.
A man stepped into frame.
Richard Ashford.
Older, heavier, unmistakable.
He said something to Celeste.
She nodded.
Then another man appeared.
Edmund Vale.
Julian’s father.
Julian stepped closer to the screen.
“No.”
The three spoke for almost a minute.
Then Edmund handed Richard a folder.
Richard passed Celeste an envelope.
Celeste tucked it into her purse.
The video ended.
Mara looked at Julian.
He seemed carved out of stone.
“My father was there.”
“Yes.”
“He watched them frame you.”
“Yes.”
The truth hurt more when someone else said it.
Julian stood and walked away from the desk.
Rachel followed him with her eyes.
“Julian.”
He hit the wall with the flat of his hand.
Not hard enough to injure himself.
Hard enough to break the silence.
“My father spent his life telling me reputation was everything.”
Mara’s voice was quiet.
“To people like him, maybe it was.”
Julian turned.
“And what was yours worth?”
She stared at him.
He looked ashamed before she even answered.
“Apparently less than six million dollars.”
No one spoke for several seconds.
Then Rachel noticed something on the file list.
“There’s another video.”
Julian returned to the computer.
The second file was dated one day after the studio theft.
It showed a parking garage.
Richard Ashford stood beside a black sedan.
A younger Brent Cole handed him a folder.
Mara looked toward the security chief, who had been escorted to a separate room upstairs.
“He knew them back then.”
Julian paused the video.
Brent had not been a random employee Celeste bribed tonight.
He had been part of the machinery eleven years earlier.
Mara’s phone buzzed.
A text from Nora.
Sis, there’s a man outside my dorm asking for you.
Mara’s blood went cold.
May you like
Before she could type, another message arrived.
He says his name is Richard Ashford.
