Chapter 15 - The Morning They Called Us Liars

The next morning, a video of me shouting in the ballroom appeared online. It had been cut to remove Celeste's accusations and the moments when Gideon recognized the brooch. The caption claimed I was blackmailing a prominent family with a fake antique.

By lunchtime strangers had found my photograph and our building. Somebody taped an ugly note to Mrs. Delgado's door. I turned off the comments and kept the messages for the police.

"I can have our public relations team issue a statement," Gideon offered.

"Not just about me," I said. "About every housekeeper who was told to keep quiet. About the employees whose pension money was taken."

He nodded. "Then we tell the whole story."

Helen's records allowed the workers' union attorney to request an emergency court order preserving the trust assets. Gideon's team provided the current contracts. Chen brought evidence of witness intimidation. The judge froze the disputed transfers and prohibited destruction of the hotel records until a hearing.

Outside the courthouse Celeste waited under a black umbrella, perfectly dressed, surrounded by reporters.

"Your behavior is tearing apart innocent families," she told Gideon.

"Which family?" he asked. "The one that worked here, or the one that owned it?"

She stepped closer. "Dad will ruin your company."

"It's worth less than my mother's name."

"You used to say I was your future."

"And you knew what your father did to my past."

She slapped him. Camera shutters clicked. Gideon didn't move. He took the engagement ring from his pocket and set it on the courthouse steps between them.

"We are done," he said.

It should have felt like a victory. Instead, I saw Celeste look over his shoulder toward a parked car. The window slid down just enough to reveal Conrad, watching with cold patience.

He lifted his phone to his ear.

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A moment later my screen filled with a message from an unknown number. It was a photograph of my apartment building taken less than a minute earlier.

Underneath were six words: THE FIRE STARTS AGAIN AT SIX.