Chapter 8: What Celeste Said
I hadn't planned to contact Celeste.
I had told Adrian I wouldn't pursue her, and I meant it.
But three days after the meeting at the Meridian Club, she called me.
I almost didn't answer.
I stood in my kitchen with the phone in my hand and her name on the screen — a name I had only learned four days ago — and I thought about what it would mean to pick up.
I picked up.
"I wasn't sure you'd answer," she said.
Her voice was quieter than I expected.
"I wasn't sure I would either."
"Adrian told me what you said.
About Nora." A pause.
"I wanted to say thank you.
I know that's — I know that doesn't cover it."
"You don't need to thank me."
"I've known about you for years," Celeste said.
"He told me the marriage was over.
That you were together in name only.
That it had been that way for a long time."
"I know what he told you."
"I believed him.
I'm not asking you to forgive me for that.
I'm just — I wanted you to know that I wasn't trying to hurt you.
I didn't know what was real."
I leaned against the kitchen counter.
"How old was Nora when you met him?" I asked.
"She wasn't born yet.
I was three months pregnant." Her voice was careful.
"He told me he was going to leave you.
That he was waiting for the right time."
"He was waiting to see if his financial structure would complete," I said.
"The right time was when he no longer needed my family's assets."
Silence.
"I didn't know about any of that," she said.
"I believe you."
Another pause, longer this time.
"Is she all right?" I asked.
"Nora."
"She doesn't understand what's happening.
She knows her father isn't coming home the way he used to.
She keeps asking when things will go back to normal." Celeste's voice broke slightly on the last word.
"I don't know what to tell her."
"Tell her the truth," I said.
"As much of it as she can understand.
Children do better with honest than with uncertain."
"Is that what someone told you?"
"It's what I wish someone had told me nine years ago."
We were quiet for a moment.
Two women on opposite ends of the same lie, with nothing between us but the wreckage of a man who had never been honest with either of us.
"What happens to him now?" Celeste asked.
"The SFO inquiry is ongoing.
His attorney has been in contact with Daniel about a settlement on the corporate side.
He will not go back to the company in any capacity."
"And the rest?"
"That depends on what the inquiry finds."
"He won't handle it well," she said.
"Losing the status.
The position.
That's what he is.
That's all he ever was."
"I know."
"I'm sorry," Celeste said.
"I know that's not enough.
But I am."
"Take care of your daughter," I said.
"That's enough."
I ended the call and stood in the quiet kitchen for a long moment.
Then I called my brother.
He answered on the first ring.
"How are you?" I said.
"Scared," he said.
"Relieved.
Ashamed.
All three at once."
"That sounds about right."
"Vivienne." His voice was rough.
"I'm sorry.
I know that's not—"
"It's a start," I said.
"Come to dinner on Sunday.
We'll talk properly."
A pause.
"Yeah," he said.
"I'd like that."
I hung up and looked around the kitchen — the kitchen of the house that had always been mine, in the company that had always been mine, in the life I had built before Adrian Vale had walked into it and decided it belonged to him.
My phone buzzed.
A message from Daniel.
*SFO confirmed formal investigation.
Adrian's attorney has requested a meeting to discuss terms.
Also — Frances Aldgate sends her regards.*
I read it twice.
Then I put the phone down on the counter, face up this time, and made coffee for one.
Didn't think about it until the cup was already in my hand.
Sat down at the kitchen table in the quiet morning light.
And didn't mind at all.
---
Some people spend years building a life, only to discover that the person standing beside them was never really there.
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