Part 7
“Both can be true.”
“Did he know you could get dragged into it?”
“He said he didn’t know me.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
She did not answer.
At noon, Adrian returned to Denver in a company vehicle equipped for his chair. He entered Vale Meridian’s headquarters through the underground garage, avoiding the cameras gathered at the main entrance.
Avoiding them made the footage look worse.
Within an hour, a business network aired video of the vehicle entering the garage under the headline VALE HEIR HIDES AFTER ENGAGEMENT SCANDAL.
Adrian watched from the thirty-second-floor office he had not used since the accident.
Nothing had been moved. His books remained in precise rows. A framed photograph of him and Celeste at a museum benefit stood beside the window. In it, she looked up at him while he laughed at something outside the frame.
He turned the photograph facedown.
His assistant, Daniel Price, entered carrying two phones and a legal pad.
“You have seventeen media requests, four calls from investors, three from employees, and one from a woman claiming she is the banquet assistant’s aunt.”
“Is she?”
“She refused to give the assistant’s name.”
“Promising.”
Daniel set down the phones. He had worked with Adrian for eight years and dressed as if every day might unexpectedly require a court appearance.
“Human resources recommends an internal message.”
“Saying?”
“That leadership is aware of the video, the matter is personal, and the company remains focused on operations.”
“Which communicates the opposite.”
“Correct.”
“What are employees saying?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Say it.”
“Some think the video proves Celeste is cruel. Some think it proves you’re manipulative. Several have asked whether disability accommodations are performative here. One employee posted that she was denied remote work after surgery while the chief executive position was being held open indefinitely for you.”
Adrian looked toward the city.
“That’s fair.”
“Not entirely.”
“Enough of it is.”
Daniel opened the legal pad. “Peter is meeting with directors individually.”
“Of course he is.”
“He says it’s routine preparation.”
“Peter has never done anything routinely.”
“There’s more.”
Daniel placed a tablet on the desk.
A second video had surfaced.
This one began earlier and came from a closer angle. It showed Celeste speaking to a friend before she approached Adrian.
The audio was faint but clear enough after enhancement.
If he insists on making tonight about his recovery, I’m ending it myself.
The friend asked what that meant.
Celeste answered, I am not marrying a man who needs applause for moving a toe.
The clip then showed her walking to Adrian, taking the blanket, and dropping it.
Adrian replayed the sentence.
Not because it surprised him.
Because some part of him had expected proof to feel better than suspicion.
Daniel watched him.
“Where did this come from?”
“An anonymous account. Communications believes it was recorded by another guest.”
“Which guest?”
“We’re reviewing the seating map.”
“Don’t.”
Daniel paused. “Don’t what?”
“Don’t investigate privately recorded footage from my engagement dinner using company resources.”
“The footage is affecting the company.”
“So is my face. That doesn’t make it a company asset.”
Daniel closed the tablet.
“Celeste’s attorney is claiming the second video was altered.”
“Was it?”
“Our digital team thinks no.”
“I said not to use company resources.”
“That review was completed before you arrived.”
Adrian turned his chair toward him.
“Stop all internal work on the videos. Send anything already collected to Evelyn. Preserve it. Do not distribute it.”
Daniel wrote the instruction down.
“And call the resort,” Adrian said. “Tell them I will not be involved in their employee review.”
“You called them this morning.”
“I was involved this morning.”
“What changed?”
“I realized Naomi was right.”
Daniel waited.
Adrian looked at him.
“You can record that as a historic event.”
“I’ll notify the press.”
After Daniel left, Adrian stared at the facedown photograph.
He and Celeste had met four years earlier at a hospital foundation dinner. She had been seated beside a donor who interrupted everyone and chewed ice from his water glass. Halfway through the meal, Celeste slid Adrian a note beneath the table.
If he asks me one more question about European boarding schools, I’m going to claim I was raised by wolves.
Adrian wrote back, Were they old-money wolves?
She laughed so suddenly that the donor stopped speaking.
For the first year, being with Celeste felt like finding someone who understood the exhaustion of curated lives. She could identify insincerity across a room. She knew which invitations concealed obligations and which compliments were requests. She disliked sentimentality but remembered birthdays. She sent food to friends after breakups and never asked them to discuss their feelings.
When Adrian’s car went through the guardrail outside Aspen, she reached the hospital before his parents.
He woke after surgery and found her asleep in a chair with one hand closed around the edge of his sheet.
That memory had protected her longer than either of them deserved.
At two, Catherine entered the office without knocking.
She wore a camel-colored coat and carried a paper cup from the café downstairs.
“You look terrible,” she said.
“I didn’t sleep.”
“Neither did I, but I own concealer.”
She placed the coffee on his desk, saw the facedown photograph, and sat in the chair opposite him.
“Your father thinks he should have stopped the dinner.”
“He tried.”
“He thinks he should have stopped it before it happened.”
“That would require time travel.”
“He is exploring the option.”
Adrian picked up the coffee.
Catherine studied his face. “Did you know Celeste was unhappy?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know she was ashamed of you?”
The cup stopped halfway to his mouth.
“No.”
“Neither did I.”
“I don’t think she was at first.”
“No. At first, she was brave in a way everyone could see.”
Adrian lowered the cup.
Catherine looked toward the windows. “Private bravery is harder. It doesn’t get flowers.”
“You don’t have to explain her.”
“I’m not.”
May you like
“You sound like you are.”
“I’m trying to understand why a woman I welcomed into my family pulled a blanket off my son.”
