Chapter 14 - THE WOMAN IN THE GREEN DRESS
Celeste agreed to give a complete statement.
Her cooperation did not make her innocent.
It made her useful.
She revealed that Julian had approached her eighteen months earlier during the opening of Aurelia Milan.
Celeste worked as a luxury-brand consultant.
She believed Julian was preparing to divorce me.
He showed her forged separation papers.
He claimed I had abandoned the marriage.
Then he invited her into the financial scheme.
At first, she received legitimate consulting payments.
Later, Julian asked her to hold money temporarily.
He told her it was part of a confidential acquisition.
By the time she understood the truth, she had already signed enough documents to implicate herself.
“Why did you stay?” I asked.
Celeste stared at the table.
“Because I liked the life.”
It was the first completely honest thing she had said.
She liked the suites.
The private aircraft.
The clothes.
The attention.
Julian made her feel as though she had won a competition I never knew I was participating in.
“And the pendant?” I asked.
“He told me it belonged to his mother.”
“You heard the recording of him saying I cried when it disappeared.”
“That conversation happened later.”
“Yet you continued wearing it.”
Her eyes lowered.
“Yes.”
I did not need an apology.
I needed the truth.
Celeste provided passwords to the shell-company accounts.
She identified the physician who created the false psychiatric report.
She explained Harold Vance’s role.
She also revealed a fourth participant.
Julian’s younger brother, Adrian Cross, managed one of Aurelia’s European development companies.
Adrian had approved inflated land purchases.
The excess money returned through Julian’s shell companies.
My father immediately ordered a global review.
Within an hour, Adrian was stopped at a private airport outside Paris.
He carried two passports and a hard drive filled with internal files.
The conspiracy was larger than we knew.
Celeste’s statement ended at 4:10 a.m.
Before leaving, she placed my cashmere coat on the chair.
“I am sorry,” she said.
I looked at the coat.
It smelled like her perfume.
“You were not tricked into humiliating me.”
“No.”
“You enjoyed it.”
She flinched.
“Yes.”
“That is the part you will have to live with.”
She nodded slowly.
“What will happen to me?”
“That depends on the law.”
“And the money?”
“It will be returned.”
“All of it?”
“It was never yours.”
She gave a small, bitter laugh.
“I suppose nothing was.”
I understood what she meant.
Julian had promised her a place inside an empire he did not own.
He had built both their futures on borrowed keys.
Before she left, Celeste paused at the door.
“He did love you once.”
I did not turn around.
“Love without respect is only possession.”
The door closed behind her.
I picked up my coat and placed it into an evidence bag.
May you like
Some things could be cleaned.
Others had to be left behind.
