Chapter 14 - Someone in the Ballroom
The guests who remained stopped whispering.
Vanessa looked across familiar faces—family friends, foundation donors, old employees, bridesmaids, groomsmen.
“Who?” Daniel asked.
Renee didn’t answer immediately.
Her gaze settled on Brooke.
Brooke laughed in disbelief. “You cannot be serious. I was twenty-two nine years ago.”
“Not you.”
Renee looked past her.
At Celeste.
Celeste went still.
Margaret said, “You?”
Celeste shook her head. “I was seventeen.”
Renee’s gaze dropped to Celeste’s jeweled bracelet.
“Your father.”
Celeste’s face collapsed.
Edward Rowan had died three years earlier.
Renee continued. “He came to me two days after Emily’s funeral. He said Richard would destroy Aaron if I didn’t keep him hidden. Then he gave me three hundred thousand dollars and told me never to mention Emily’s files.”
Celeste’s voice cracked. “My father was protecting her work.”
“Maybe. Or protecting himself.”
Celeste stepped back. “What are you saying?”
Renee opened the cedar box and removed the old recorder.
“Emily recorded a meeting.”
Daniel pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then Richard Whitmore’s voice.
“You move the designs. I’ll move the accounts. Nobody connects one to the other.”
A second man answered.
Edward Rowan.
“And if Emily finds out?”
Richard laughed.
“She already did.”
Celeste covered her mouth.
The recording continued.
Edward said, “Then we shut it down.”
Richard replied, “No. We shut her down.”
Margaret staggered backward.
Vanessa grabbed her arm.
The recorder clicked.
Then a third voice entered the conversation.
A woman.
Soft. Controlled. Familiar.
“I can handle Emily.”
Daniel frowned.
Margaret whispered, “I know that voice.”
So did Vanessa.
Every head slowly turned toward the ballroom stage.
May you like
The venue’s elegant master of ceremonies, Helen Price, was standing beside the microphone.
And she was already reaching inside her jacket.
