Chapter 14 - Nora's Last Message
Nora appeared on the screen in the blue sweater she wore on quiet Sundays. She looked tired but calm, as if she had recorded the message after everyone else in the house had gone to bed.
"Adrian, if you're watching this, I wasn't able to tell you in person. Celeste has been stealing from the foundation for years. At first, I thought it was sloppy bookkeeping. Then I found payments to companies that don't exist and signatures I never gave. When I confronted her, she said she had people in every office that mattered."
"I am afraid of what she'll do if she thinks I'm going to the police. Elena knows where I keep the original records. I trust her because she never asks me to be less afraid than I am. Please listen to her."
The video ended, but another file began automatically. It showed Celeste in the library, arguing with the alarm technician. The image was grainy, but the audio was clear.
The technician's voice came through the recording: "It won't reset without the master code. I told you that."
"Celeste, open the door!"
"She was alive," he said. "She was alive, and I wasn't there."
Elena reached for him, then stopped before touching his shoulder. He noticed and took her hand himself.
"I should have found another way in."
"You were a young woman carrying a child through a burning house. You did more than anyone had the right to ask."
Grace entered with a call from the district attorney. The evidence was strong enough to issue a warrant for Celeste, but the prosecutor wanted the technician's sworn statement and the full financial records before taking the case to trial. Celeste had already contacted a high-powered defense firm and was claiming the recordings were fabricated.
"She'll try to make this about you," Grace warned Adrian. "She'll say you were angry, that you planted evidence to hide your own role."
Adrian straightened. "Then I'll tell the truth. All of it."
May you like
The next morning, he called a press conference and admitted that he had ignored warning signs, trusted the wrong person, and allowed Elena to be blamed. He publicly cleared her name before a single reporter asked him to.
Then the district attorney called. "Mr. Vale, Celeste has turned herself in. She says she'll confess to everything - if Elena Reyes is kept away from the courtroom."
