Chapter 198: What Lilian Knows

Erwin's POV

We divided the tasks in the car.

"Celeste left the Luminary Council before she married Thomas." My mother flipped through her contacts with the focus of a military commander. "Half these philanthropists hide their sins under charity dinner receipts, and I've worked alongside every single one of them for thirty years. Give me a week, and I'll have every dirty ledger she ever touched."

"You handle the paper trail. I'll handle the witnesses." I pulled up outside the estate gates. "Dad and Natalie stay in the dark."

"Go." She squeezed my wrist and got out. "Bring me something useful."

Cole's men were keeping Lilian in a warehouse outside the city. By the time I arrived, the lawyers had already confirmed what I needed confirmed.

Everything she said would be recorded, witnessed, and entered as evidence. The police would take her away that same night. I never overstepped. I let the law come with prepared paperwork to do its job.

They'd locked her in an empty room—just a table, a chair, and a camera in the corner.

I barely recognized her.

Lilian Lewis used to enter a room like a peacock strolling into a garden. Now, the woman chained to the table had choppy hair and a half-healed split on her lip.

Her clothes reeked of cheap cigarettes. Bruised hickeys mottled her neck. She'd clearly fallen far.

"Erwin Davis." She smiled with those cracked lips. "Did Natalie send you? Tell her I think about her every single day."

I sat across from her, set my phone on the table screen-up, and started recording.

"Lilian, you're going to prison. That's a given. Kidnapping, poisoning, conspiracy, attempted murder by the pond—all of it's locked in. The only question now is whether you go alone, or whether the woman who pulled you out of that police van goes with you."

Her smile flickered. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Celeste." I let the name hang heavy. "Lilian, you're not her niece. You're something she bought."

I was deliberately stirring her emotions. I could feel her starting to waver.

"You trusted her so completely, and she handed you over to those men in the truck as payment. I'll say this once. Either you tell me everything about her involvement, or this whole thing was your solo operation and you're the only one going down. Your choice."

I knew someone as unhinged as Lilian would choose to drag others down with her.

Sure enough, after I finished, she didn't hesitate.

She talked for two hours. How Celeste had found her through Susan Lewis. How the so-called rescue came with conditions.

How Celeste's people moved money, erased evidence, and silenced a hotel maid who saw something she shouldn't have.

"You know, she's done this before." Lilian leaned across the table, lowering her voice. She was enjoying this now. "Murder. You think I'm scary? She killed her current husband's wife. She's more ruthless than I'll ever be."

My mind went blank. I pretended ignorance. "What wife?"

"The first Mrs. Hartwell." Lilian bared her teeth in a grin. "That car accident twenty-six years ago was bought and paid for. She tampered with the brakes. She was the mistress, pregnant, married to a rich man who wouldn't leave his wife—so the wife had an accident."

The camera in the corner kept rolling. My brain was racing.

So Lauren Hartwell's death wasn't an accident after all.

"I understand why Celeste did it. But why did you go along with her?" I kept my voice steady. "You had money, attention from men—why waste your life destroying one woman?"

The question seemed to flip a switch inside Lilian. She threw her head back and laughed. When the laughter stopped, she screamed at me.

"Because she deserved it! She had everything I wanted without ever fighting for it! Levi chose her, and every time he looked at her, I wanted to rip her face off! So yes, she deserved it—anyone who stood in the way of what I wanted deserved it!"

Her chest heaved. Her eyes gleamed with something terrifying. "You know what the best day of my life was? The day their divorce was finalized. I celebrated. I drank champagne alone in the bathtub and toasted to her destruction."

I let her finish. Then I stood, looking down at her.

"That divorce didn't destroy her. She walked out of a cage and into the arms of a better man. I'm going to marry her. And I want you to know—that glass of champagne was the closest you'll ever get to victory in your entire life."

"No! Why?! You won't—you can't—"

Her screams followed me like an animal's howl until the door shut and cut them off.

Outside, I handed the recording and signed statements to Cole.

"Everything goes to the police tonight. Evidence chain is airtight. The prosecutor will get Celeste's file separately through the lawyers."

"Got it, boss."

My mother was waiting in the study, untouched coffee in front of her.

I told her everything. When I finished, she held the cold cup in both hands, staring into it.

"…The brakes failed," she finally said. "At the funeral, I told people Lauren was reckless. I stood by her casket and said she always drove too fast."

She gripped the cup until her knuckles went white. "Celeste ate at my charity tables. I shook her hand. By the end of the month, the Luminary Council will throw her to the wolves to save their own ledgers. She'll fall."

"I know."

I stood by the window, watching the garden lights flicker on below.

Natalie was probably still at her desk right now, chewing on a pen cap.

"Mom, I need to say this clearly so there's no misunderstanding later. I love her. I'm going to marry her. And I'm telling you first, before I tell anyone else."

My mother stood and walked over to me.

"Look at me." She cupped my face in both hands. "I need you to hear every word I'm about to say."

"I'm listening."

"I like Natalie. Not because she has Lauren's face. Not because I see her as some kind of reincarnation of my dead friend."

Her thumbs pressed gently against my cheekbones.

"She saved my life. And I sat across from her, watching her be brave and funny and kind, completely unaware that someone was testing her. I genuinely liked her—realized it at my own dinner table."

She let go and smiled at me. "You have my full support."

Looking at her smile, I felt a weight lift. See? That's the kind of magnetism Natalie has. She makes people fall for her without even trying.

After that, a wild, sweet idea took shape.

"Listen, I have a great idea."

"What?"

I leaned in and whispered my plan in her ear.