Chapter 9 - Celina’s Version of Love
Celina did not confess.
Not immediately.
People like Celina rarely believed they had done anything wrong.
She explained.
Justified.
Reframed.
She told prosecutors I was disrespectful.
Difficult.
Cold.
Career-obsessed.
She said modern marriages failed because women refused to compromise.
She said Erin had poisoned Luke against trust.
She said Barron was weak.
She said Luke only wanted stability.
Then Detective Hale played the recording.
If she can’t drive for a few weeks, that’s enough.
And if it’s worse?
Then disability pays.
Celina’s face changed.
Her attorney asked for privacy.
The interview resumed forty-five minutes later.
This time she talked differently.
Luke had designed the financial documents.
Luke had found Dr. Reed.
Luke created Northgate.
Luke forged my signature.
Luke tracked my work schedule.
Luke suggested the disability angle.
She had only wanted me “humbled.”
The rolling pin, she claimed, was not meant to break anything.
She was sorry.
Not for hitting me.
For the result.
Rebecca told me afterward.
I laughed.
“What?”
“She wishes the bone had cooperated with her intentions?”
“Essentially.”
“What did she say about Barron’s medication?”
Rebecca’s expression darkened.
“She blamed Luke.”
“Of course.”
“But pharmacy records say she collected some prescriptions.”
“Then she’s lying.”
“Probably partially.”
That became the central problem.
Celina knew enough to destroy Luke.
But she also knew how to mix lies with truth.
We needed independent proof.
I found it by accident.
After surgery, my employer allowed me to work remotely on reduced hours.
One afternoon, I was reviewing old financial compliance files when I noticed a vendor name.
Northgate Advisory Group.
My heart stopped.
It was not a vendor for my company.
It appeared in a personal spreadsheet I had opened by mistake.
A file named Household 2025.
Luke and I used it for shared expenses.
I had not opened it in months.
There was an old hidden worksheet.
I clicked it.
A password prompt appeared.
I tried Luke’s usual passwords.
Nothing.
Then one phrase came to me.
He used to call Celina the queen of the house.
I typed:
QueenCelina
The sheet opened.
Rows of numbers filled the screen.
Dates.
Transfers.
Initials.
Properties.
Insurance.
Doctors.
At first, I couldn’t understand it.
Then I saw my own initials.
CH.
Beside them:
WCR – 480
Willow Creek Road.
Four hundred eighty thousand.
My borrowed equity.
Above my name was:
EK – 212
Erin Keene.
Two hundred twelve thousand.
Below mine:
BM – 390
Barron Mercer.
Three hundred ninety thousand.
This wasn’t a household spreadsheet.
It was a ledger.
I called Rebecca.
Then Hale.
Nobody touched my laptop until a digital forensic officer arrived.
The worksheet contained twelve initials.
Not three.
Twelve.
Some were businesses.
Some properties.
Some individuals.
Police began matching names.
One belonged to Luke’s uncle, who had died years earlier.
Another belonged to an elderly family friend whose finances Celina once managed.
Two belonged to former clients from Luke’s old consulting business.
The amounts totaled more than $2.3 million.
This was bigger than Erin.
Bigger than me.
Luke and Celina had built a pattern of financial exploitation around people who trusted them.
Not every case involved violence.
Most didn’t need it.
Passwords.
Forged documents.
Manipulated signatures.
Confusion.
Family pressure.
Isolation.
The injury was simply what happened when paperwork wasn’t enough.
The hidden worksheet also contained letters.
A.
M.
F.
T.
Rebecca asked the forensic accountant what they meant.
His answer chilled me.
“Asset.”
“Medical.”
“Financial.”
“Transfer.”
My row had all four.
Erin’s had three.
Barron’s had four.
Luke had categorized people like projects.
That was when something in me changed.
Until then, I had been reacting.
Escaping.
Answering questions.
Defending my own sanity.
Waiting for investigators to uncover Luke’s next secret.
I was tired of waiting.
I knew financial systems.
I knew spreadsheets.
I knew how money moved when someone wanted it hidden.
I spent three nights reconstructing the ledger with law enforcement approval.
I noticed payments recurring every ninety days.
Different companies.
Same rounded amounts.
I traced public registration records.
Rebecca obtained subpoenas.
The companies converged on one accountant.
Walter Pike.
Same surname as Luke’s attorney.
Graham Pike.
Brothers.
Rebecca stared at the discovery.
“Now that is interesting.”
Walter Pike had prepared tax filings for Northgate.
Graham Pike was defending Luke.
That wasn’t automatically illegal.
But it created questions.
Police searched Walter’s office under warrant.
They found backup records.
Emails.
Drafts.
One email from Luke stood out.
Clover is becoming resistant. Reed thinks we can establish temporary incapacity after an injury, but timing matters.
Another:
If Mom handles the discipline, I stay clean.
I read it once.
Then again.
Mom handles the discipline.
I stay clean.
Luke had never planned to protect Celina.
He had planned to use her.
And Celina, who believed she ruled the family, had actually been one more tool in her son’s system.
The prosecutor visited her with the email.
According to Rebecca, Celina stared at it for almost five minutes.
Then she asked for a new deal.
May you like
This time, she was ready to give them everything.
Including the location of a storage unit Luke believed nobody else knew existed.
