Chapter 4 - The Heiress Who Refused the Ring
Celeste Kane arrived without diamonds.
Dante noticed because Roland had always described her as though she came attached to a jewelry display and a shipping contract.
The woman standing in the hospital conference room wore a raincoat and carried a canvas bag.
Her first question was about June.
“How is she?”
“Being treated,” Dante said.
Celeste nodded.
Then she looked at Detective Ruiz.
“I want an attorney before I give a formal statement. But I brought something you should see.”
From the bag, she removed a phone.
“Roland used this to contact me. He insisted it was more secure.”
Ruiz did not touch it immediately.
“Why bring it now?”
“Because he called this morning and told me to leave the country.”
“Did he explain why?”
“He said Dante had become unpredictable. That a staff problem had turned into a police matter.”
Dante’s face hardened.
Celeste saw it.
“Then I saw the report about the shooting.”
She set the phone down.
“He never intended to let me refuse the marriage either.”
Dante looked up.
“You refused?”
“Three times.”
Roland had told him Celeste was enthusiastic.
Her father had supposedly approved every detail.
Celeste gave a humorless smile.
“Apparently neither of us attended the engagement everyone else was planning.”
Ruiz asked whether there were threats on the phone.
“Yes.”
“Against you?”
“And my brother.”
Celeste’s younger brother, Owen, had left the family business two years earlier after a drug arrest that had filled local headlines.
“He’s sober now,” she said. “Roland kept suggesting that could change if I became difficult.”
Dante looked away.
There were so many forms of captivity he had mistaken for family obligation.
Celeste continued.
“My father believed the alliance would solve a financing problem. Roland was the person explaining the numbers.”
“The missing accountant,” Dante said. “Eli Mercer.”
Celeste went still.
“You know about Eli?”
“I know he resigned.”
“No,” she said. “He was pushed out.”
Ruiz leaned forward.
“Tell me.”
Eli had worked on a joint audit involving Kane Freight and Voss Holdings.
He had flagged unusual vendor payments.
Two weeks later, documents appeared suggesting he had stolen company funds.
He denied everything.
His access was revoked.
His reputation collapsed.
Celeste had paid for an initial legal consultation without her father’s knowledge.
Then Eli stopped returning calls.
“Where is he now?” Ruiz asked.
“I don’t know.”
Dante did.
Or he knew who might.
He called the former human resources director, a woman Roland had insisted was too sentimental for the company.
She answered on the fourth ring.
“Mr. Voss.”
“I need to find Eli Mercer.”
Silence.
“Why?”
The question was deserved.
“Because I think we helped destroy his life.”
Another silence.
Then she gave him the name of a repair shop in Lowell.
By evening, investigators had located Eli.
He agreed to speak after his attorney was contacted.
He had kept copies.
Not everything.
Enough.
When Dante returned to June’s room, she was awake with Wren beside her.
He told her what Celeste had brought.
June listened without interrupting.
Then she asked, “Did you believe Eli when he denied taking the money?”
Dante sat slowly.
“I didn’t speak to him.”
“Why not?”
“Roland said the evidence was clear.”
June looked down.
It was worse than anger.
It was recognition.
“How many people did he explain away for you?”
Dante’s mouth went dry.
“I don’t know.”
“You need to find out.”
“Yes.”
“No, Dante. Not because it helps me. Because they were people before I was in this bed.”
He looked at her for a long moment.
Then he nodded.
That night, he gave investigators authorization to preserve his company records and provided the names of independent lawyers to arrange the lawful process.
His own attorney called within minutes.
“This could expose you.”
“I understand.”
“Your personal involvement in prior activities, your approvals, the financial arrangements—”
“I said I understand.”
Across the hall, June was asking a nurse when she might feel the baby move.
Dante listened to the gentle answer through the open doorway.
Then he told his attorney to stop protecting him from the truth.
At eleven, Ruiz returned.
Eli’s records matched June’s notebook.
The diverted money exceeded anything they had expected.
And one payment had gone to a company owned by the hospital’s outside security contractor.
Dante looked toward June’s room.
A man in a gray maintenance shirt was standing at her door.
He was holding a bouquet.
June hated cut flowers.
May you like
She had told Dante once.
This time, he remembered.
