Chapter 7 - Celeste's Sister.
Nora Arden had never appeared in a Beaumont family photograph.
Rainier had never heard Celeste mention her.
According to Celeste, she had grown up as an only child in a quiet Connecticut suburb with parents who died within a year of each other.
Rainier had never questioned that story.
He had met no relatives because Celeste said there were none worth meeting.
Now Evelyn was telling him Celeste had a younger sister who had worked at the same recovery facility where Evelyn had been hidden under another woman's name.
Detective Brooks placed the badge on the library table.
"Tell me everything you know about Nora."
Evelyn stared at the photograph on the badge.
The woman was younger than Celeste, with darker blonde hair and a guarded expression.
"She wasn't my nurse at first."
"What was her role?"
"Night supervisor."
"Did she use the name Arden?"
"No."
Evelyn looked at the badge again.
"She called herself Nora Lane."
Rainier's jaw tightened.
"Another false name."
"Maybe not."
Brooks tapped on her phone.
"Lane could be a married name, middle name, or legal change."
Evelyn continued.
"She started checking on me after Rosa Diaz left."
"Did she know who you were?"
"Eventually."
"How did you know she was Celeste's sister?"
Evelyn looked at Rainier.
"She told me the night she helped me leave."
"Why would she help you?"
"Because she was afraid."
Rainier leaned against the desk.
"Of Celeste?"
Rainier realized he knew almost nothing about Celeste's childhood beyond the version she had chosen to tell him.
He knew the name of a Connecticut town.
He knew she said her mother loved old movies.
He knew she claimed her father had lost his business during a recession.
He knew she said being alone made her independent.
Nora's existence turned each fact into a question.
"Why did she erase you?"
Rainier asked.
Nora looked at the concrete floor.
"Because I remembered the years she wanted rewritten."
"What years?"
"Our father after Valmere."
Rainier's attention sharpened.
"What did Valmere have to do with him?"
Nora hesitated.
"More than Celeste ever told you."
She explained that Daniel Arden had owned a mid-sized logistics contractor that worked on one section of the Valmere development.
After the project failed, his company collapsed under lawsuits and canceled contracts.
Celeste became convinced the Beaumont family had used him as a scapegoat.
Nora had never been as certain.
"Dad kept saying there were things we didn't understand."
Nora said.
"Celeste thought that meant he was afraid to blame the Beaumonts."
"And you?"
"I thought it meant he knew more people were involved."
Evelyn looked at her.
"Did Conrad know your father?"
Nora nodded.
"He came to the funeral."
Rainier stared.
"Conrad attended Daniel Arden's funeral?"
"Yes."
"Did Celeste know him then?"
"She met him that week."
Rainier's jaw tightened.
The connection went back years earlier than the accident.
Nora continued.
"Conrad told Celeste that Everett Beaumont had abandoned Dad when things went wrong."
"My father?"
"Yes."
"Was that true?"
Nora looked at him.
"I don't know."
Evelyn watched Rainier's face.
"But Celeste believed it."
"Completely."
Nora's voice became bitter.
"Conrad gave her someone to hate at exactly the moment she needed one."
Rainier thought about how Celeste had reacted whenever Everett's portrait appeared at family events.
She had never insulted his father directly.
She simply found reasons to leave the room.
Rainier had assumed grief over her own father made family memorials difficult.
That explanation had been true and incomplete.
Nora looked at Evelyn.
"None of this excuses what she did to you."
Evelyn nodded.
"No."
"But if you want to understand why Conrad chose her, start there."
Rainier did.
He began to see Celeste not as a stranger who wandered into the Beaumont family after tragedy, but as someone Conrad had been shaping long before Rainier knew she was watching.
Evelyn shook her head.
"Of Conrad."
The name filled the room again.
Detective Brooks asked, "What exactly did Nora say?"
Evelyn closed her eyes, rebuilding the memory.
"She came into my room after midnight."
"When?"
"Nine months ago."
"That recently?"
Rainier stared at her.
"You got out nine months ago?"
Evelyn looked at him.
"I left the facility nine months ago."
"And you waited until today to come home?"
Pain entered his voice despite his attempt to hide it.
Evelyn did not flinch.
"I was afraid the first story might be true."
"That I didn't want you?"
"Not anymore."
She shook her head.
"I was afraid the people around you were still controlling what you saw."
Rainier looked away.
She was right.
Celeste had been living in his house.
Conrad was still vice chairman of his company.
Owen remained family counsel.
If Evelyn had simply appeared at the gate nine months earlier, every person involved would have known before Rainier reached the front door.
Evelyn continued.
"Nora brought me cash, an old driver's license she had recovered, and a bus ticket."
"Where did she get your license?"
"She said it had been in a file marked archive property."
Detective Brooks wrote it down.
"Then what?"
"She told me Celeste was her sister."
Rainier shook his head.
"Why hide that for years?"
"Because Celeste told everyone Nora was unstable and dangerous."
Brooks's expression remained neutral.
"Was she?"
"Not with me."
Evelyn thought for a moment.
"She was terrified and angry, but not unstable."
Rainier asked, "Did she admit helping Celeste?"
"Yes."
He straightened.
"With what?"
"At the beginning, she believed she was helping keep me safe during a family dispute."
"That's convenient."
Evelyn looked at him.
"Maybe."
Rainier exhaled.
"I'm sorry."
"You don't have to be."
"I do if I'm turning every person in your story into someone I want to blame before I know what happened."
Evelyn's eyes softened for half a second.
"That's at least honest."
Detective Brooks looked between them, then continued.
"What changed for Nora?"
"She found payment records."
"From Conrad?"
"From Beaumont Strategic Holdings."
"To whom?"
"The recovery facility."
Rainier's face tightened.
"My family's company paid to keep you there."
"A subsidiary did."
"That distinction means nothing to me right now."
Evelyn continued.
"Nora also found copies of emails between Celeste and someone using the initials C.B."
Rainier looked at the blue strip of paper.
CONRAD - NORTH ACCOUNT - 4172.
"Did she keep the emails?"
"She said she did."
"Where?"
"She never told me."
Detective Brooks held up the event badge.
"And tonight she was inside your house."
Evelyn shook her head slowly.
"Maybe."
"The badge is hers."
"That doesn't mean she took the photograph."
Rainier looked at Evelyn.
"You trust her?"
"She saved me."
"Or she moved you where Conrad couldn't find you."
"Both could be true."
The detective's phone rang.
She stepped into the hall to answer.
Rainier looked at the library clock.
10:46 p.m.
Melusine had fallen asleep against her grandmother's side.
The little girl's face looked younger in sleep.
Rainier felt a wave of anger so sharp he had to look away.
Evelyn noticed.
"She is safe right now."
"I know."
"Then stay in right now."
Rainier looked at her.
"You learned that somewhere?"
"Rehabilitation."
"Does it work?"
"Sometimes."
Rainier glanced at the cane.
"How bad is your leg?"
Evelyn was quiet for a moment.
"Better than it was."
"That's not what I asked."
"I know."
She shifted in the chair.
"There was nerve damage."
"Permanent?"
"Maybe."
Rainier's expression tightened.
Evelyn looked at him carefully.
"Do not turn this into another reason to hate yourself."
He gave a bitter smile.
"You're asking a lot tonight."
"I'm asking you to leave one thing where it belongs."
"Where does it belong?"
"With the people who chose this."
Rainier looked toward the hallway.
"Celeste. Conrad. Owen."
Evelyn did not answer.
Detective Brooks returned.
"We found Nora."
Evelyn stood too quickly and grabbed the table for balance.
Rainier stepped forward but stopped before touching her.
"Where?"
Brooks looked at Evelyn.
"At St. Matthew's parking garage downtown."
"Is she okay?"
"She's alive and talking."
Rainier noticed the wording.
"But?"
"She's frightened."
"Of Conrad?"
"She says she has proof that Conrad planned to force the trust appointment tonight."
Rainier's eyes narrowed.
"How?"
Brooks looked at him.
"By making it appear that Evelyn had voluntarily abandoned the family again."
Evelyn went pale.
Rainier's voice hardened.
"Explain."
"Nora says Celeste was supposed to provoke Evelyn publicly."
Rainier stared toward the dark hallway.
"The dress."
"Possibly."
Brooks nodded.
"The goal was to make Evelyn appear unstable, disruptive, and interested in sabotaging your wedding."
Evelyn looked at Rainier.
"So if I arrived without the phone evidence—"
"You would look like a woman returning after three years to create a scene."
Rainier's face changed.
"And Celeste tearing Melusine's dress?"
Brooks shook her head.
"Nora says that was not part of the plan."
Evelyn's expression sharpened.
"Celeste lost control."
"According to Nora, yes."
Rainier remembered Celeste's furious face when Melusine wore her mother's old dress.
Take it off.
The cruelty had not been strategic.
It had been personal.
That somehow made it worse.
Brooks continued.
"Nora also says she was the person who sent Evelyn the wedding invitation."
Rainier looked at Evelyn.
"You didn't get it from the venue?"
"No."
"Who did you think sent it?"
"I didn't know."
Brooks held up her phone.
"Nora says she sent it because she knew this was the last day to stop Conrad from controlling the trust process."
Evelyn whispered, "Why didn't she just go to the police?"
"She tried."
"What happened?"
Brooks's expression became grim.
"Someone had already filed reports describing her as a disgruntled former employee with a history of fabricating allegations."
Rainier did not need to ask who.
"Celeste."
"Nora says Celeste signed one of them."
Rainier looked at the sleeping child.
"I brought that woman into my house."
Evelyn's voice was quiet.
"Yes."
There was no comfort in it.
Rainier appreciated that.
Detective Brooks continued.
"Nora wants to speak to Evelyn before she gives us the location of the emails."
Rainier immediately said, "No."
Evelyn looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because someone already tracked you here."
"Which means staying here isn't automatically safer."
"I am not letting you walk into another trap."
Evelyn's eyes hardened.
"You are not letting me?"
Rainier realized the mistake instantly.
"That's not what I meant."
"It is exactly what you said."
"Evelyn."
"For three years, other people decided where I could go because they claimed it was for my protection."
Rainier lowered his voice.
"You're right."
She paused.
He continued.
"I don't get to make that decision for you."
Evelyn studied him.
"Thank you."
Detective Brooks looked at the clock.
10:53 p.m.
"If we go, we go together, with officers."
Rainier looked at Melusine.
Margaret nodded before he spoke.
"I will stay with her."
Rainier crouched beside his daughter and kissed her forehead.
Melusine opened her eyes just enough to recognize him.
"Are you going?"
"For a little while."
"Mommy too?"
Evelyn knelt carefully.
"Just for a little while."
Melusine reached out and took both their hands.
"Come back together."
Rainier and Evelyn looked at each other.
Neither promised more than they could give.
"We'll come back."
They said it at the same time.
Melusine closed her eyes again.
Rainier stood.
The clock moved to 10:55.
Somewhere in the city, Celeste's hidden sister was waiting with evidence.
Somewhere else, Conrad Beaumont was missing.
And in sixty-five minutes, an eighteen-percent block of Beaumont Holdings would shift into a trust controlled by two people.
May you like
One trustee was a lawyer who had disappeared.
The other was a woman everyone had believed was dead.
