Chapter 142 He is here.
CHAPTER 142
He is here.
SCARLETT – POINT OF VIEW
“Miles believed in helping people,” Celeste begins.
“The first time we met, he was helping an old lady cross the street. I was on the other side and watched him move with a certain fluidity. Kindness was a second nature for him. He didn’t have to think about it. His body moved without thinking. It was ingrained in him, and that drew me in. We were young. I was fifteen, and he was sixteen, but we were inseparable until the day he died. Sometime, you meet someone, and you know that they will be your whole world.” She smiles fondly.
My heart squeezes because my love story with Roman began with a contract.
“We got married quickly, spent the first few years of our marriage making love, travelling the world, helping people, and building a home. It was expensive to build a house in New York then, but we did it. We built our home. Activism didn’t pay much, so I worked in the community, tutored kids, baked cupcakes, and held classes. I loved being alive too much to be chained down at a corporation. We hated corporations and their magnates.” She shakes her head with a scrunch of her nose.
I look at my hands, because their son turned out to be a magnate, the head of thousands of corporations. Does she see the irony in her words or not?
“Two years into our marriage, a politician's wife came to us. She said her husband was beating her, and he was threatening to kill her children if she spoke up. She didn’t know what to do and came to us. She had heard of us, of how we helped old women get back their pensions, how we won custody battles, how we helped people. We knew it would be risky, but we did it anyway.” She shakes her head, “It was risky. We almost got blacklisted. Our foundation almost disappeared, but we stood strong, worked with the law, and eventually, we won.”
“It was just us, our little law firm, and we won!” A big smile cuts across her face.
“This blew us up. Everyone knew of us. Celeste and Miles. We got more cases, chose cautiously, and Miles made sure the money didn’t get to our heads. A year later, we paid off the land, furnished our house, and started trying for a baby. You see, my Miles was very calculative, he made sure everything worked for us, and R … Roman has taken that from his father, but here’s what he does not know, some things sneak past you, some things you can’t control.” She shrugs, “We read thousands of books, but none prepared us for him. He changed our lives forever.”
“Time flew past quickly, and soon, he was out of the house. We kept our firm going, but we were growing older and decided on a vacation, which is when your father came in.” She announces, and my blood runs cold.
Adeline gets up, and my stomach knots.
“Rafael Diaz, a Cartel Don, sought us out, and naturally, we were cautious. Miles didn’t want to hear him out, no matter how many times your father begged for an audience, until one day, he turned up in our home, with your mother, and you. He told us bluntly that a man twice your age wanted to marry you, a man who was also involved in trafficking.” She shakes her head.
“W .. what? I … I was never in New York.” I am stunned.
“You were. I might be old, but my memory is sharp. You have forgotten, your brain has pushed it down, all a form of self-preservation.” She explains, and goosebumps break over my skin.
“Continue, Celeste.” Adeline urges, looking over the fence. She’s tense as if she has seen something.
“This began a relationship between our families. Your parents warned us that it was dangerous. Emiliano Calderon was a dangerous man. We knew this. We should have handed it over to the police, but with every research, we found depravity, the girls he stole from their homes, the boys he picked from the streets, the women he assaulted and sold, the cops he was in bed with, the foundation he was building, the plans he had for you, a fifteen-year-old girl. It was a no-brainer, Rosaline. We decided to help.” Vehemence slips into her words.
“Your father couldn’t fly from Mexico as often, so we communicated through burner phones. He had planned to hold Emiliano off, stall him, while we accumulated all the evidence in a strong way that he couldn’t get out of it. Your father knew that Emiliano would try to drag him down for it, and he was ready; he was willing to do anything as long as you were protected.” She tells me, and I nod, cheeks burning, eyes stinging.
“Where did it all go wrong?” Adeline asks, arm folded.
“I don’t know.” Celeste shakes her head.
“We hadn’t spoken to Rafael in a while when he called us out of the blue. He had a nightmare. He felt something was wrong. He wanted us out of the country. He was going to pay for our vacation. Miles didn’t want to go; he felt like he was running away, but I convinced him. I told him we deserved to have fun. Rafael sent the money, and we started packing that night.” Her smile falls away.
“My … memory is not what it used to be, but here’s what I remember,” she inhales slowly. “We were asleep. Roman was going to drive us to the airport in the morning. Then, the smoke woke me. Miles was up in seconds. We didn’t see anyone, but the fire grew in seconds. All the doors were locked. They locked us in to die.”
Tears stream down her face.
My lungs constrict painfully.
I get up, unable to weather the emotions.
I start pacing, goosebumps on my skin.
“The fire … the smoke … the panic. We were going to die. Our phones were gone. Everything was gone. It was premeditated. Miles … he did everything to save me, he swaddled me in blankets, and pushed me out the window. I broke my ankle and arm, but I didn’t care. I rushed to the door, tried to break it down, but it was chained shut. By the time I could open it, he was gone. I … I wanted to die with him. I was ready to hug his burning body, but R … Roman pulled me away. I passed out in my son’s arms and hoped I wouldn’t wake up, but I did. I did, and Miles was gone.” She is sobbing profusely.
“And, nothing since then? No attacks? No stalkers? Nothing?” Adeline asks.
Celeste blinks away tears, “None.”
“Does that sound like Emiliano? He killed your husband, killed my father, my husband’s father, burned Scarlett’s parents to death, and for some reason, you’re alive, why?” She snaps, her mind reeling.
“Y … you think he is coming for me?” Celeste whispers, horrified.
“I think he is already here.”