Chapter 8 - The Price of an Engagement

Celeste waited at the head table with her father and an open laptop. Someone had restarted the chandeliers, giving the deserted ballroom the cheer of a party after the guests had gone.

"You're making a terrible mistake," she told Gideon.

"Where is Ruth Ellis?" he asked.

Conrad leaned back. "Safe, provided we stop treating every disagreement as a crime."

Detective Chen, standing behind us, lifted her badge. "Is that a statement that you know where she is?"

Conrad's smile faltered. "It's a manner of speaking."

Celeste clicked the laptop. A bank transfer agreement appeared: thirty-two pages and a signature Gideon had entered electronically. He had granted the Arden group a conditional option to purchase the land beneath the Bellwether if a proposed charitable merger closed.

"The announcement triggers the next step," Celeste said. "No wedding announcement, no merger. No merger, and my father calls the loan. Your hotels go into receivership."

"You planned this," Gideon said.

"Our lawyers planned it. I trusted you to be practical."

"You trusted me not to read what I signed."

A nerve moved in Conrad's cheek. "You built an empire with our credit. That has obligations."

"Not this one."

I had never watched someone discover the bars of a cage he thought was a beautiful house. Gideon stared at the screen, then closed it.

"You can take the hotels," he said. "You don't get another hour of that woman's life."

Conrad rose so suddenly his chair scraped across the floor. "You have no idea what your father did to secure this place."

"Then tell me."

"Not in front of the help."

I stepped forward. "The help knows there were locks on the east stairwell. The help knows who lost a pension. The help spent twenty-four years burying people you called a clerical error."

Celeste lifted her glass as if to throw it. Instead she set it down with terrifying care.

"You think he'll choose you?" she asked. "He doesn't even know what happened to his own mother."

Conrad lunged for her wrist. Too late.

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Gideon spoke softly. "What does that mean?"

Celeste looked from her father to him. "It means Evelyn Vale didn't die in the fire."