Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN WHO WATCHED FROM THE SHADOWS
Charles’s security team moved instantly.
Lights shut off throughout the first floor.
Steel shutters descended over the windows.
Elias pulled Rosa behind a stone column while another guard rushed Nora toward the interior hallway.
Lucy was upstairs with two security officers.
“Get my daughter,” Nora said.
“She is secure,” Elias answered.
“I need to see her.”
A second shot struck the exterior wall.
Charles grabbed Nora’s uninjured arm.
“Stay inside.”
“You expect me to hide while Lucy is upstairs?”
“I expect you to stay alive long enough to reach her.”
The estate grounds were searched with thermal cameras and dogs.
The shooter escaped through the woods, abandoning a stolen motorcycle near a service road.
Police recovered two shell casings.
The bullets were not intended to kill Rosa.
The first passed several feet above her.
The second struck reinforced stone.
Detective Ramirez called them warning shots.
Rosa disagreed.
“Daniel never warns twice.”
Nora looked at her.
“You think Daniel sent the shooter?”
“I think he wants me silent.”
Ramirez sat across from Rosa in the secured library.
“Tell us about Marianne Arden.”
Rosa explained that Marianne was Celeste’s older half sister.
Their father, Victor Arden, founded a luxury development firm.
Seven years earlier, he died after falling from a private balcony.
Police ruled it an accident.
Marianne believed Daniel had been with him that night.
“Why?” Ramirez asked.
“Because Mr. Arden discovered Daniel was taking money.”
Charles leaned forward.
“From Arden Developments?”
Rosa nodded.
“Daniel was Celeste’s fiancé then.”
Nora froze.
“Fiancé?”
Rosa looked at her sadly.
“Yes.”
Daniel had not merely dated Celeste before marrying Nora.
He had planned to marry her.
Victor Arden opposed the relationship after uncovering financial irregularities.
Two weeks after Victor died, Daniel ended his engagement to Celeste and began publicly dating Nora.
Yet Celeste never truly left his life.
“Why would she help him after believing he caused her father’s death?” Nora asked.
“Celeste did not believe it,” Rosa said. “Marianne did.”
Celeste inherited a significant portion of her father’s company.
Daniel convinced her that Marianne wanted control.
The sisters became enemies.
Marianne disappeared from New York society and spent years collecting evidence.
“She contacted me after Daniel fired me,” Rosa said. “She already knew he was drugging Lucy.”
Ramirez’s expression sharpened.
“How?”
“She had cameras.”
“Inside the Hale house?”
“Not cameras she installed.”
Rosa explained that Daniel had hidden cameras throughout the home to record Nora.
Marianne hacked into the system.
She began saving footage Daniel intended to delete.
“That is where the photographs came from,” Charles said.
Rosa nodded.
“Marianne wanted Nora to know the truth.”
“Why not send the videos to police?” Ramirez asked.
“She does not trust them.”
“Why?”
“Because the detective who investigated Victor Arden’s death now works for Daniel.”
Ramirez glanced at Reed.
“Name?”
“Patrick Sloan.”
Reed recognized it.
Sloan had retired from the department and become head of security at Hale Strategic Services, a company Daniel created three years earlier.
Charles had seen the name in the audit.
Millions had been transferred through Hale Strategic Services.
“We need to find Marianne,” Ramirez said.
Rosa removed a key from her necklace.
“She left something for Nora.”
The key opened a storage locker at Grand Central Terminal.
Ramirez insisted police retrieve it.
Inside was a backpack containing three encrypted drives, financial ledgers and Victor Arden’s missing phone.
There was also a handwritten letter addressed to Nora.
Nora opened it in the presence of police.
Mrs. Hale,
You do not know me, but we were both selected by the same man for what our families could give him.
My sister still believes Daniel loves her.
He does not.
He loves access, obedience and fear.
Your daughter was never meant to be hurt at the gala.
The plan was for Celeste to spill the drink on herself, accuse Lucy and provoke you.
Daniel promised Celeste he would intervene before she touched the child.
He lied to her as he has lied to everyone.
When Celeste struck Lucy, Daniel saw an opportunity.
He allowed it because a visibly injured child made you easier to portray as hysterical.
Do not believe Celeste is innocent.
But understand that Daniel will sacrifice her next.
He has already prepared evidence blaming her for the thefts.
If you are reading this, I may not be safe.
The password to the first drive is the date my father died.
The second requires Celeste’s fingerprint.
The third requires Daniel’s voice.
Do not let either of them know all three drives exist.
Nora lowered the letter.
Ramirez looked at the drives.
“Marianne designed this so no single person could access everything.”
“She expected betrayal,” Charles said.
The first drive contained Victor Arden’s financial investigation.
It documented payments connected to Daniel.
It also contained a recording from the night Victor died.
The audio was incomplete.
Victor’s voice could be heard arguing with Daniel.
“You will not marry my daughter.”
Then Daniel.
“You think this is about Celeste?”
A struggle followed.
Victor shouted.
The recording ended with a crash.
Not enough to prove murder.
Enough to reopen the case.
The second drive required Celeste.
But Celeste was missing.
The third required Daniel to speak a phrase used as a voice key.
The phrase appeared on the screen.
I choose the empire.
Charles read it twice.
“Why that sentence?”
Nora knew.
Daniel had once said it during their wedding toast.
He told the guests that marrying Nora meant choosing “an empire of love over an empire of wealth.”
The phrase had become a private joke between them.
Now it sounded like a confession.
The police could not force Daniel to unlock the drive without a warrant.
They could, however, obtain a court order if they demonstrated probable cause.
Before Ramirez could begin the process, her phone rang.
She listened in silence.
Then she looked at Nora.
“Celeste has been found.”
“Where?”
“In an abandoned Arden warehouse.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
Ramirez’s next words chilled the room.
“She is tied to a chair.”
“And someone carved the word LIAR into the table in front of her.”
May you like
Celeste had survived.
But Daniel had already begun erasing his partners.
