Chapter 9 - The Woman Wearing Celeste's FaceThe next morning, Vanessa called from jail.
“I can prove Adrian lied about the crash.”
“Why?”
“Because he killed someone I loved.”
“Who?”
“My mother.”
I frowned.
“Celeste is alive.”
“No, Ethan.”
The call ended.
We went to the hospital.
Celeste was gone.
The discharge order had been signed by Judge Cole—even though she was already under arrest.
Security footage showed a wheelchair leaving the hospital.
The man pushing it was Adrian.
But Adrian was supposed to be in custody.
Marcus froze a photograph.
“There’s something wrong with her face.”
A crescent-shaped scar appeared near Celeste's eye in old photographs.
The woman from the fire did not have it.
DNA testing was ordered.
The truth was even stranger.
The woman rescued from the fire was not Celeste.
She was Eleanor Cross.
Celeste's younger sister.
Olivia's aunt.
Vanessa's aunt.
Eleanor had impersonated Celeste for months.
Why?
Because the real Celeste had discovered Richard's conspiracy.
She had tried to gather evidence.
Richard ordered Adrian to silence her.
And Adrian had succeeded.
Or so everyone believed.
Eleanor led police to a private burial site.
Celeste was there.
Dead.
But Eleanor had saved the evidence.
Then Adrian appeared at our house.
He had escaped custody.
He held Eleanor at gunpoint.
“Bring Sophie.”
I stepped outside.
“No.”
“You don't understand.”
“You are not taking my daughter.”
“She has forty-eight million reasons to disappear.”
Olivia stood behind me.
“She is not money.”
Adrian laughed.
“You always were sentimental.”
He fired into the air.
Sophie screamed.
I kept walking.
“Adrian, look at me.”
His gun shifted.
Marcus moved behind the garden wall.
I kept talking.
“You never wanted to hurt Olivia.”
Adrian's eyes changed.
“You wanted Father to love you.”
Silence.
“You spent your whole life believing he chose me.”
“He did.”
“No. He used both of us.”
For one second, Adrian looked like the boy I remembered.
Then Marcus attacked.
The gun flew across the driveway.
Police tackled Adrian.
He screamed my name.
But this time I didn't chase him.
I ran to Sophie.
She buried herself in my arms.
May you like
Olivia wrapped both of us together.
The family that had been hunted for three years finally stood together.
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