Chapter 6 - THE SIGNATUREThe signature was perfect.
Victor stared at it for thirty seconds.
Then he said, “I signed a blank authorization packet in Dubai.”
Marcus looked sick.
Celeste had inserted the custody document.
Haven had legal infrastructure.
Doctors prepared to declare Victor mentally unstable.
Witnesses ready to testify he was violent.
Photos.
Financial records.
Manufactured evidence.
Serena had not simply planned to kidnap Ethan.
She planned to make the world believe Victor had lost him legally.
Evelyn was insurance.
Celeste demanded Annalise at an abandoned children's hospital.
Victor said no.
I said yes.
We compromised by lying to each other.
Victor planned to follow me.
I planned to lose his surveillance.
Marcus knew both plans.
He looked exhausted.
At the hospital, Celeste waited.
Evelyn was alive.
Celeste told me the truth.
She had known my father.
Loved him, in her own twisted way.
Daniel rejected her.
Chose Ava.
Celeste's obsession with my family had begun long before Haven.
“You think this is about an archive?” she asked.
“It isn't?”
“I could have opened it years ago.”
She touched my cheek.
I recoiled.
“I wanted Ava to watch her daughter become me.”
My stomach turned.
The threats.
The silence.
The fear.
Celeste had wanted to train me.
To teach me truth was useless.
But Ethan ruined it.
Because I chose to protect him.
Celeste hated that.
“You crawled over that baby like love makes people strong.”
“It does.”
“No. Love makes people predictable.”
A gunshot exploded.
Victor's men entered.
Chaos followed.
I freed Evelyn.
Celeste escaped deeper into the hospital.
I followed.
Bad decision.
Predictable decision.
She waited in an operating theater.
She had a knife.
I had nothing.
“You always follow crying children,” she said.
Then I heard Ethan crying through a speaker.
Recorded.
I knew it.
My body reacted anyway.
Celeste smiled.
“Predictable.”
She attacked.
We crashed against a surgical table.
The knife cut my shoulder.
I grabbed her wrist.
She was stronger than she looked.
Then Victor appeared.
He aimed his gun.
Celeste pulled me against her.
“Shoot.”
Victor did not.
Celeste laughed.
“See?”
I looked at Victor.
His eyes met mine.
And I understood.
I dropped.
Victor fired.
The bullet struck Celeste's knife hand.
Marcus arrested her.
For the first time in fifteen years, Celeste Vane was in chains.
But as they dragged her away, she smiled at me.
“You think I'm Haven?”
My blood went cold.
May you like
She laughed.
“I'm just the woman at the door.”
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