Chapter 6 - Evelyn's Last Warning.
Celeste disappeared from the mansion before officers could secure every exit.
Her car was still in the circular drive.
Her coat remained in the cloakroom.
Her purse was found beneath a chair in the ballroom.
But Celeste herself was gone.
Detective Ortiz ordered patrol units to search the property and nearby roads.
Jonathan stood in the hospital corridor listening to the radio traffic with his arms folded tightly across his chest.
Maya watched him from a few feet away.
“You really didn't know?” she asked.
Jonathan looked at her.
“I knew Noah was struggling.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
His eyes dropped.
“No.”
Maya wanted to believe him.
She also remembered Noah saying his father already knew.
“Why did Evelyn warn me?”
Jonathan's head lifted.
“What warning?”
Maya hesitated.
The words had belonged to a dying woman, and for three years Maya had kept them private.
Now privacy felt like another kind of betrayal.
“She told me that if Noah ever said he was afraid, I should believe him before I believed anyone else.”
Jonathan went completely still.
“When?”
“Three nights before she died.”
He leaned back against the wall.
“She never said that to me.”
“Maybe she tried.”
Jonathan looked wounded by the suggestion.
Maya did not soften it.
Evelyn had spent the last months of her life increasingly suspicious of people around the family foundation.
At the time, everyone blamed medication, exhaustion, and fear.
Maya remembered Evelyn asking why certain documents had disappeared from her study.
She remembered Celeste, then the foundation's executive director, telling staff that Evelyn was becoming forgetful.
She remembered Jonathan repeating that explanation.
A nurse approached them.
“Noah is asking for Miss Bennett.”
Maya entered the room.
Noah lay beneath a white blanket with monitors attached to his chest.
He looked frightened by the machines but more alert than before.
Maya sat beside him.
“I'm right here.”
Noah studied her face.
“Did she leave?”
“Police are looking for her.”
He looked toward the closed door.
“She has Mom's key.”
Maya frowned.
“What key?”
“The little brass one.”
“Where did you see it?”
“In her room.”
“What does it open?”
Noah shook his head.
“Mom hid things.”
Maya's pulse quickened.
“Did your mother tell you that?”
“No.”
Noah stared at his blanket.
“I heard Celeste yelling at Dad once.”
“When?”
“Before she locked me up.”
“What did she say?”
He closed his eyes, trying to remember.
“She said Mom didn't trust either of them.”
Maya felt a chill.
“Either of whom?”
Noah looked at her.
“Celeste and Dad.”
The door behind Maya opened.
Jonathan stood there.
He had heard the last sentence.
Noah saw him and immediately stopped talking.
Jonathan's face tightened.
“Son, I need you to tell me what you heard.”
Noah pulled the blanket higher.
Maya put a hand on his shoulder.
Jonathan took one careful step into the room.
Then his phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
His face changed.
May you like
The caller ID showed one word.
CELESTE.
