Chapter 5
Celeste asked to speak with Rocco.
He refused to meet privately.
They sat in Rachel’s Boston office with lawyers present.
Celeste wore no engagement ring.
Rocco noticed.
She noticed him noticing.
“I gave it to my attorney.”
“Keep it there.”
Her eyes tightened.
“Are we really finished?”
Rocco placed Mia’s crushed glasses on the table inside an evidence bag.
“Yes.”
Celeste looked away.
Rocco asked about the midnight visits.
“At first I didn’t know what Adrian was doing.”
“At first?”
She hesitated.
“He said he needed your phone to confirm foundation payments.”
“And you thought that was normal?”
“You trusted him.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Celeste rubbed her bracelet.
“He said you were overwhelmed.”
It was plausible because Rocco had been.
Since Mia’s mother died two years earlier after a sudden aneurysm, Rocco had struggled to balance fatherhood with businesses he once ran almost entirely through instinct.
Adrian stepped into the gaps.
Celeste stepped into the household.
Rocco allowed both.
“Why take Mia’s glasses?”
Celeste's face changed.
“She kept wandering into the hall.”
“So?”
“She would stare at him.”
“At what?”
Celeste remained silent.
Rachel leaned forward.
“Celeste.”
“He was using Rocco’s phone.”
“That’s already established.”
“There were papers too.”
“What papers?”
“I don’t know.”
Rocco stared at her.
“You hit my daughter because you don’t know?”
Celeste’s voice rose.
“I hit her because everything was collapsing!”
Her attorney touched her arm.
Too late.
Rocco waited.
Celeste looked ashamed.
“She kept saying she was going to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“I thought she only saw Adrian.”
Rocco caught the wording.
“Only?”
Celeste stopped.
Rachel noticed too.
“What else was there to see?”
Celeste refused to answer.
Her attorney ended the meeting.
As she stood, Rocco said, “Did Adrian pay you?”
She turned.
“No.”
“Did he threaten you?”
Another pause.
“No.”
“Then why?”
Celeste looked at him.
“Because I thought what he was doing would make you finally step away.”
“From what?”
“The business.”
Rocco stared.
She left without explaining.
That afternoon, the forensic team found Celeste’s connection.
She had no transfers from Adrian.
She did have nearly $700,000 in personal debt Rocco knew nothing about.
Luxury purchases.
A failed boutique investment.
Two private loans.
Her wedding to Rocco would not automatically erase them.
But her future access to his lifestyle made them manageable.
May you like
The deeper question remained.
Why would stripping Rocco of business control help both Adrian and Celeste?
