Chapter 19 - THE FINAL TRAP
The sender was Celeste’s former assistant.
Tara Quinn.
Twenty-four.
Quiet.
Invisible during the original party.
She had access to everything.
Schedules.
Passwords.
Clothes.
The gold dress.
Police found her apartment empty.
Then Blackthorn’s alarm went off.
Margaret called Adrian.
Someone was inside the estate.
We were told to stay away.
I went anyway.
Bad decision.
I know.
Dad came too.
Worse decision.
Security nearly lost their minds.
Police surrounded Blackthorn.
Tara was inside the ballroom.
She had poured gasoline across the floor.
The original gold dress hung from the chandelier.
Not the one mailed to me.
A duplicate.
Celeste had ordered two.
Of course she had.
Tara held a lighter.
Adrian stood twenty feet away.
He had arrived before police.
“Tara.”
“Don’t.”
Her hand shook.
“You all ruined her.”
Adrian said.
“She ruined herself.”
Tara cried.
“You don’t know what she did for me.”
“What?”
“She paid my mother’s surgery.”
That stopped everyone.
Celeste had helped her.
Really helped.
No trick.
People are inconvenient like that.
Cruel people can do kind things.
Kindness can create loyalty.
Loyalty can become blindness.
Tara whispered.
“She was the only person who cared.”
I stepped forward.
“Tara.”
Police shouted for me to stop.
I did not.
“She cared about you.”
Tara looked at me.
“That doesn’t mean she gets to own what you do next.”
Her face broke.
The lighter lowered.
Then a phone rang.
Tara’s.
Speaker automatically connected.
Celeste’s voice.
From prison.
“Do it.”
Everyone froze.
Tara stared at the phone.
Celeste screamed.
“BURN IT!”
Tara began crying harder.
“Celeste…”
“Do what I told you!”
Something changed in Tara’s face.
Not courage exactly.
Exhaustion.
She dropped the lighter.
Police rushed her.
The gasoline never caught.
The call was recorded.
Celeste had just ordered arson from prison.
Again, she could not stop.
Again, someone finally refused.
As officers led Tara out, she looked at me.
“She said you were evil.”
I nodded.
“She says a lot.”
Then she laughed through tears.
It was ugly.
Human.
The next morning, prosecutors added more years to Celeste’s sentence.
This time she took the plea.
---
(To be continued)
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