Chapter 6
Celeste laughed first.
Again.
Always laughter when fear reached her throat.
“So now we're doing romance too?”
I looked at Marcus.
He didn't deny it.
That interested me more.
“How long?”
Celeste's smile faded.
“Don't.”
I looked at her.
“How long?”
She stared back.
“Before Elena died?”
Nothing.
“Before I proposed?”
Nothing.
Marcus finally spoke.
“It doesn't matter.”
I turned toward him.
“It matters to me.”
He smiled coldly.
“That has always been your problem.”
“What?”
“Thinking everything personal matters.”
I almost admired how quickly he returned to arrogance.
“Your wife.”
He shrugged.
“Your daughter.”
Another shrug.
“Your feelings.”
He laughed.
“You run a family, Dante. Not a nursery.”
There it was.
The contempt.
The same thing Celeste had shown Lily.
Need.
Pain.
Fear.
To them, all weaknesses.
I looked at Marcus's capo pin.
“You wanted my position.”
“I wanted a leader who could make decisions without asking how a toddler feels.”
Celeste added:
“Lily cries and the entire house stops.”
I stared at her.
“She is three.”
“And already knows tears control you.”
My hands curled.
She saw it.
Smiled.
“See?”
Marcus leaned against the table.
“Elena did the same thing.”
I went still.
“What did you say?”
“She weaponized fear.”
Marcus tilted his head.
“She found one strange meeting, one unlocked gate, and suddenly everyone was supposed to panic because Elena had a feeling.”
I stepped closer.
“And then she died.”
He stared back.
“She got into the wrong car.”
Not grief.
Not regret.
Blame.
As if Elena had inconvenienced him by dying incorrectly.
I looked at Celeste.
“You knew the car was compromised.”
She said nothing.
“Did you know?”
Her eyes hardened.
“Marcus told me there was a plan.”
“What plan?”
“To make you step aside.”
“By killing me?”
“You wouldn't step aside.”
She said it like that explained everything.
I nodded slowly.
“And after?”
Celeste looked at Marcus.
There.
A conversation without words.
I understood.
“You were going to stand beside him.”
She rolled her eyes.
“You think I wanted to spend my life watching Elena play frightened wife while you treated every concern like sacred scripture?”
I stared.
Celeste continued.
“Marcus understood ambition.”
Marcus smiled.
Small.
Ugly.
“And you?”
She looked at me.
“You understood guilt.”
That was why she came close after Elena died.
Not love.
Position.
Observation.
Control.
She had comforted me so she could see what I knew.
She had helped raise Lily so she could watch what Elena may have left behind.
She had agreed to marry me because being beside me was safer than being outside my sight.
I looked at the recorder.
“You were searching my study because you knew Elena hid this.”
Celeste finally stopped pretending.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She told me.”
That surprised me.
“When?”
“The day she died.”
I went still.
Celeste smiled.
“She said she'd finally found something you would believe.”
Marcus muttered:
“Enough.”
Celeste ignored him.
“She looked so proud.”
My throat tightened.
“What did you say?”
Celeste's smile sharpened.
“I told her to enjoy being right.”
Silence.
“Because it wouldn't matter by morning.”
Marcus turned toward her.
“You idiot.”
She realized.
Too late.
I stared at Celeste.
Elena had confronted her.
Celeste knew Elena intended to expose them.
And hours later, my wife was dead.
Celeste lifted her chin.
“You wanted the truth.”
“No.”
I looked at her engagement ring.
“I wanted to know how much of you was a lie.”
Then Adrian appeared in the doorway.
His face was pale.
He had heard enough.
But what he said next made Marcus stop smiling.
“Uncle Dante…”
I turned.
May you like
Adrian looked at Marcus.
“He was in Lily's room this afternoon.”
