Chapter 7: The Launch That Exposed Him
Harriet pressed a red switch beneath the cutting table.
The side doors released with a metallic click.
“Fire code,” she said.
“Conrad never learned the building he stole.”
Avery, Celeste, Naomi, and Thomas hurried into the loading yard.
A truck waited at the far gate.
“The driver stopped,” Naomi said.
Delia climbed down from the passenger side.
“I called him and told him the shipment was disputed.”
Conrad stormed through the side door.
“You had no authority!”
Delia held up her phone.
“Neither did you when you told me to sign Lillian’s name.”
His expression changed.
Avery looked at the screen.
“Were you recording him?”
“Every call since the restaurant.”
Delia played the latest message.
Conrad’s voice filled the yard: “Once the patterns are gone, Avery cannot prove which drawings came first.
Do what I paid you to do.”
Celeste faced him.
“You were going to destroy the archive.”
“I was protecting the launch.”
“No,” Avery said.
“You were erasing my mother.”
Conrad pointed at Celeste.
“She knew the designs were suspicious.
Ask her why she never demanded to meet AVERY.”
Avery waited.
Celeste’s lips parted, but no words came.
“Tell her,” Conrad said.
“Tell her you didn’t care who she was as long as wealthy buyers wanted the name.”
Celeste looked at Avery.
“I saw three different signatures on the approval pages.”
Naomi stared at her.
“You noticed?”
“I asked Conrad once.
He said designers used assistants.”
“And you accepted that?” Avery asked.
“I accepted the answer that protected my deadline.”
Thomas moved toward his daughter, but Avery held up one hand.
“You mocked me because I wore an apron,” she said.
“Would you have listened if I’d arrived in one of your suits?”
Celeste looked at the scattered money still pictured on a reporter’s screen nearby.
“No,” she said.
“And that is the truth I’ll have to live with.”
Avery’s eyes filled.
“My mother used to say clothes should give people dignity.
You tried to use hers to take mine.”
Celeste removed her launch badge and placed it in Avery’s hand.
“Then you decide what happens tonight.”
Conrad laughed.
“She cannot decide anything.
The venue contract is mine.”
Celeste lifted Naomi’s phone.
“The press is already waiting there.”
An hour later, Conrad walked onto the launch stage beneath the name VALE BY CELESTE.
Avery watched from behind the curtain.
“He thinks he won,” Naomi whispered.
“Let him speak,” Avery replied.
Conrad smiled at the cameras.
“Tonight represents originality, courage, and the future of fashion.”
Celeste stepped onto the stage.
“No,” she said.
“Tonight represents what happens when ambition is placed above truth.”
The room fell silent.
Harriet carried out the blue dress and turned its hem toward the main camera.
“This silver rose was sewn by Lillian Ward,” she said.
“The date beside it proves the design existed years before C.
Vale Holdings.”
Delia played Conrad’s recorded message through the sound system.
Conrad rushed toward the control table.
Graham blocked him.
“You’re finished,” Conrad said to Celeste.
“Your lenders will take everything.”
“Then they take it,” she replied.
“I will not sell another woman’s name to save mine.”
Two investigators approached the stage.
“Mr.
Vale,” one said, “we have an order preserving the archive and your company servers.”
Conrad turned to Avery.
“Withdraw your complaint.
I’ll give you half the company.”
“You offered me half of what you took from me.”
“Think about your father’s debt.”
Thomas stepped forward.
“It was paid this morning.”
Conrad’s face tightened.
“With whose money?”
Celeste held his gaze.
“Mine.”
The investigator reached for Conrad’s phone.
He pulled it back.
“You’ll all regret choosing a waitress over me.”
Avery met his eyes.
“No,” she said.
“You lost because you never understood that the waitress was listening.”
As Conrad was escorted toward the exit, Thomas opened one recovered box.
A property deed lay beneath the patterns.
“Avery,” he said, “this is for our old house.”
Celeste read the purchaser’s name and went pale.
May you like
Conrad stopped at the door and smiled over his shoulder.
“Ask Celeste why her company owns the home where your mother created AVERY.”
