Chapter 8 - CELESTE’S VERSION
Celeste’s defense team demanded retesting of the clinic ledger.
They argued the skipped number could reflect a canceled admission, clerical error, or unrelated infant.
They were correct that a missing number proved nothing by itself.
Camille’s original obstetric records described a single pregnancy.
Ultrasound images showed one fetus.
The notation might not concern a second child.
Investigators resisted speculation.
The public did not.
Headlines declared Lucie had a hidden twin.
Adrian issued no comment.
Camille became furious.
“They already stole one child’s privacy,” she said. “Now strangers want another.”
The court sealed neonatal records.
Celeste’s pretrial hearing focused on evidence admissibility.
Her attorneys argued Henri’s recorded statements were hearsay from a vindictive, cognitively impaired man.
Prosecutors did not rely on every accusation for its truth. Some recordings explained investigative steps, state of mind, and contemporaneous plans. Documents, payments, and witnesses established independent facts.
The judge admitted portions and excluded others.
Legal proceedings did not consume the entire dramatic archive merely because it existed.
Celeste appeared in court without wine, pearls, or emerald satin.
She wore a gray suit.
Her face looked softer without the mansion behind her.
She pleaded not guilty.
Through counsel, she offered a new narrative.
Camille had threatened the Morels with public scandal.
Henri became emotionally attached to Lucie and fabricated paternity evidence.
Julian handled succession documents without Celeste’s understanding.
Lucie entered Morel House because Celeste believed the child had been abandoned and needed structure.
The bracelet note had been coached.
Adrian, embarrassed by his past, converted a private mistake into a conspiracy to save his reputation.
The defense also exposed Adrian’s old messages.
One, sent after learning Camille was pregnant, read:
I cannot have this child become the center of the family battle.
Another:
Celeste says she can solve the legal side. I need it solved before the engagement announcement.
Adrian read them with Lucie’s attorney present before deciding whether he would testify.
He remembered the fear.
Not of the child.
Of conflict.
His language had reduced a pregnancy to a problem.
Celeste’s lawyers would use it fairly.
The prosecutor asked whether he still wished to cooperate.
“Yes.”
“Your testimony may damage you.”
“It should.”
At a family-court review, Camille requested primary placement earlier than planned.
Her treatment team supported a transition but recommended caution.
Adrian agreed to four nights with Camille, three with him, gradually moving toward Camille as primary residence if Lucie remained stable.
Genevieve objected through counsel, then withdrew the objection after her therapist challenged her need to preserve family appearance.
Lucie spent her first night with Camille in a small apartment near the treatment center.
Camille cooked lentil soup.
It burned.
Lucie laughed.
The sound made Camille cry.
“Why are you sad?”
“I missed hearing you laugh.”
“Adrian burns food too.”
“Good.”
They slept in the same room with separate beds.
Lucie woke and checked Camille’s breathing six times.
Camille stayed still enough for her to see.
Adrian struggled with the transition.
He told no one.
Then Lucie returned to his townhouse and found him standing in her empty bedroom.
“Were you crying?”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“Yes.”
“Because I left?”
“Because I am happy you have your mother and sad I missed your life.”
“Can both happen?”
“Yes.”
She placed the rabbit on the bed.
“He can stay here when I’m with Mommy.”
Adrian understood the gift.
The rabbit represented return.
Genevieve’s second supervised visit went better.
She brought a photograph of Henri at twenty-five, not a gift for Lucie to keep unless she wanted it.
Lucie recognized his eyebrows.
“Why didn’t Grandpa tell Adrian sooner?”
“He wanted proof.”
“Did he like proof too much?”
Genevieve smiled sadly.
“Every Morel thinks one more document will make courage easier.”
Lucie placed the photograph beside the rabbit.
“Did Grandpa lie?”
“Sometimes.”
“About me?”
“I do not know.”
Genevieve’s honesty disturbed Adrian.
He asked what she meant.
She disclosed a conversation from the year Lucie was born.
Henri told Genevieve that Camille’s child “could not be acknowledged until the trust was secure.”
Genevieve assumed he meant the baby had died and he was discussing legal cleanup.
“What if Henri knew she lived earlier?” Adrian asked.
“I do not know.”
The protector might also have delayed truth.
Henri’s bank statements showed payments to Camille beginning only eighteen months earlier, not after Lucie’s birth.
No evidence proved earlier knowledge.
The family’s desire for a pure rescuer had to yield to uncertainty.
Celeste violated the no-contact order by sending a birthday card to Lucie through a foundation employee.
The card read:
ONE DAY YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THAT I SAVED YOU FROM BEING RAISED BY A WOMAN WHO COULD GIVE YOU NOTHING.
Lucie’s therapist did not show it to her.
Police charged the violation.
Celeste’s bail conditions tightened to home detention with electronic monitoring.
She accused Adrian of censoring her apology.
The court found the card manipulative, not apologetic.
At the same hearing, prosecutors revealed that Celeste’s home-monitoring device had registered an unauthorized visitor.
Julian Morel.
He had entered through a service gate under another employee’s name.
The two were recorded arguing.
“You said the second file was destroyed,” Celeste told him.
Julian answered, “Henri moved it.”
“Where?”
“Ask Genevieve.”
Genevieve denied knowledge.
Then she remembered the gold bracelet.
May you like
It had not disappeared at Saint Aurelia.
She had given it to Celeste on her wedding day.
