Chapter 11: The Night Adrian Wasn't Supposed to Remember

I replayed the recovered footage one more time.

Adrian handed Celeste the envelope.

Celeste opened it.

Then she whispered, “If Graham finds out what happened that night, we're all finished.”

The words had been captured clearly enough that no one could dismiss them as speculation.

Graham stood beside me, staring at the screen.

“What night?” he asked.

Neither Tessa nor Evelyn answered.

I looked at Adrian's face in the frozen frame.

He wasn't surprised by Celeste's reaction.

He was afraid.

That meant whatever happened thirty-two years ago wasn't simply Celeste's secret.

Adrian knew about it.

Officer Brooks called again.

“We recovered the original file from the livestream server. There are also deleted messages between Adrian and the person who created the fake report.”

My pulse quickened.

“Can you recover them?”

“Some already have.”

She sent the files to Hart.

Hart opened the first message.

It was from Adrian.

‘The report must say the child isn't mine. Nothing else.’

The recipient replied:

‘And if she asks for a real test?’

Adrian's response came seconds later.

‘She won't get that far. She'll sign the agreement first.’

Tessa covered her mouth.

“He planned this.”

Graham's expression hardened.

“My son planned to destroy his own wife and grandson?”

I didn't answer.

Hart opened another recovered conversation.

This one was older.

Much older.

It had been sent between Adrian and Celeste eight years earlier.

The message contained only one sentence.

‘Marcus is dead. The documents are safe.’

Graham went completely still.

“Eight years ago?”

Hart nodded.

“That's when Marcus died.”

I looked at Tessa.

She was staring at the screen as though she couldn't breathe.

Then another message appeared.

‘Tessa must never learn who her father was.’

Tessa's eyes filled with tears.

“My brother knew.”

Graham sat down heavily.

“And Celeste knew.”

Evelyn quietly added, “They both knew.”

For several moments, the room was silent.

Then I noticed something strange in the message history.

There was a gap.

Eight years of conversations were missing.

Hart noticed it too.

“Someone deleted the middle section.”

Officer Brooks confirmed it a few minutes later.

“The deletion wasn't random. Someone accessed the account remotely this morning.”

I looked at Adrian's last message to me.

Stop digging into my mother's past, Nora, or you'll regret what happens to Owen.

He wasn't simply threatening me.

He knew we were getting close.

And someone was still trying to erase the evidence.

Graham suddenly stood.

“I'm going home.”

Hart immediately stopped him.

“Don't.”

He looked at her.

“Why?”

“Because if someone is deleting evidence remotely, they may also be inside your house.”

Graham's face hardened.

“Then what do you suggest?”

“We go there with Officer Brooks and search for anything connected to the trust documents, the old financial records, and Marcus's departure.”

I looked at Owen's photograph on my phone.

Every secret we uncovered seemed to lead back to the same people.

Celeste.

Adrian.

And the Bellamy family trust.

We reached the old Bellamy house just before midnight.

The front door was locked.

Nothing looked disturbed.

But when Officer Brooks entered the study, she stopped immediately.

One of the filing cabinets was open.

The lock had been broken.

Inside, the folder containing the original Bellamy trust agreement was gone.

Graham whispered, “Someone got here before us.”

I looked at the empty drawer.

Then I noticed a single white envelope lying beneath the desk.

My name was written across the front.

Nora Bennett.

I picked it up carefully.

Inside was a photograph of Adrian standing beside Marcus Vale.

On the back, someone had written five words.

‘Ask Adrian what happened that night.’