Chapter 126 -
The room felt very cold at the moment, some people raising their brows either in surprise, confusion, or both.
Christian turned from the window. "What do you mean you know who it is?"
Lucia stood straight, her hands loose at her sides. She wasn't performing anything. She was just being honest, and that alone made it harder to dismiss.
"When I got here three days ago," she said, "I brought Gabriel through the east entrance because the main gate had too many men standing around and he gets overwhelmed. One of the staff let us in through the side. It was a woman. She didn't ask for identification. She didn't confirm we were expected." Lucia's amber eyes moved to Leo. "She just waved us through and went back to what she was doing. And what she was doing was writing something down in a small notebook."
"That describes half the staff," Micheal said carefully.
"This one was standing directly outside this room," Lucia said. "And the notebook was not a household log. It was too small. Personal size." She paused. "Her name is Celeste. She's been here about eight months."
Leo looked at Micheal. Micheal was already typing.
"Celeste Toulouse," Micheal said after a moment. "Hired as a secondary housekeeper. References checked clean. Background came back clear." He scrolled. "No red flags."
"No red flags that we put there," Christian said.
"Santiago's good at clean records," Nia said. Everyone looked at her. "Jordan told me the mole has been feeding information since before Andrea died. That's not someone hired last month. That's someone careful. Someone who took time to become invisible."
"Eight months isn't before Andrea died," Christian said.
"No," Nia agreed. "But it's long enough to settle in. To become normal. To be overlooked." She looked at Lucia. "Is she the type that people stop noticing?"
Lucia considered. "Yes," she said. "That's exactly what she is."
Leo stood. "Find her."
Matteo came back within four minutes, and he wasn't alone. He had a woman with him, somewhere in her mid-thirties, dark-haired, with a plain face that was very good at being unremarkable. She looked confused and slightly frightened, which was either genuine or rehearsed. Both were possible.
As Nia watched her enter, the woman's eyes moved around the room. They landed on Lucia for half a second too long.
That was enough.
"Celeste," Leo said. "Sit down."
She sat. Her hands went to her lap. Her back stayed straight.
"I'm going to ask you something once," Leo said. "And I want you to understand that however this conversation goes, your cooperation is the only thing that changes what happens next. Nothing else. Not your years in this house. Not how helpful you've been to Rosa. Just cooperation, right now, in this room."
"I don't know what I've done," she said. Her voice was steady but her eyes were not.
"Then let's talk about the notebook," Leo said.
The steadiness cracked, just at the edges… just enough.
"I keep notes for Rosa," she said quickly. "For the household schedule. She asked me to track—"
"Rosa doesn't use small personal notebooks," Leo said. "Rosa uses the house ledger. She has been using it for twenty years." He watched the woman. "Try again."
Christian moved to stand beside Leo. He didn't say anything. He didn't have to. He was Christian DeSanto, and standing beside Leo while Leo asked questions was its own kind of pressure.
Celeste looked down at her hands.
"He said nothing would happen to the family," she said finally. Her voice had dropped, all the steadiness bleeding out of it. "He said he only needed information. Movements, schedules. Nothing dangerous. Just enough to keep him one step ahead so he knew when to stay clear."
"And you believed that," Christian said.
"I needed to believe it," she said. Her voice cracked for a moment, then she pulled it back together. "He has my brother. He's had him for two years. His name is Olivier. He's nineteen. He told me if I stopped providing information he'd—" She stopped. Her hands pressed flat against her thighs. "He told me what he'd do."
The room was still for a moment.
Nia looked at Leo. His face hadn't changed. He was listening.
"How do you contact him?" Leo asked.
"With Aaphone," Celeste said. "It's hidden in the east wing laundry room. Behind the second machine from the left." She looked up. "I swear to you, I never reported anything that I thought would get anyone killed. I didn't know about the warehouse. I didn't know about Isadora. I only told him about the schedules."
"You told him enough," Leo said quietly.
She looked away.
Micheal went to find the phone. He was back in three minutes, holding a burner in a sealed bag.
"Last message sent was six hours ago," he said. "Before our planning session. She reported that the team was assembling and that a decision was being made about an asset."
"He knows we're planning something," Christian said. "But he doesn't know what or when."
"He might not need to," Leo said. "If she was reporting our activity, he can watch the house and draw his own conclusions."
"Then we don't hand him another six hours to adjust," Nia said. "We don't give him time to move Isadora again. We go to the warehouse tonight."
Christian frowned. "The plan was tomorrow morning."
"The plan was based on information we thought was locked down," Nia said. "It wasn't. Every hour we wait is an hour Santiago has to change his position." She looked around the table. "We go tonight."
Micheal looked at Leo. Leo looked at Nia in turn. The silence lasted exactly four seconds.
"Get Matteo," Leo said. "Tell him to wake everyone. We go at midnight."
Christian turned to Celeste. "Your brother, Olivier. If you're telling the truth, we'll look for him."
Celeste looked up at him with a load of desperation in her face. "Do you really mean that?"
"We'll look," Christian said. "That's what I said."
Rosa had been standing in the doorway for the last three minutes. Nia noticed her before anyone else did. The older woman had a small case in her hands, the kind she kept her sewing kit in.
"Leo," Rosa said. "I need five minutes with Nia before the team starts moving."
Leo glanced at her. "What for?"
Rosa held up the case. "The trackers need to go somewhere Santiago won't think to look." She looked at Nia directly. "Come with me."
Nia stood. She looked at Leo once, and he gave a small nod. She followed Rosa into the hallway.
Lucia put her hand on Christian's arm. He looked down at it, then at her face.
"Don't make Gabriel a liar," she said quietly.
Christian covered her hand with his, just briefly, then he went to get Matteo.