Chapter 3 - The Petition
Celeste filed the petition at 8:02 the next morning.
By nine, the first reporter was outside Rosecliff’s gates.
By ten, three more had arrived.
The filing accused Edward of allowing “dangerously deteriorated estate conditions,” failing to supervise household employees and exposing Sophie to “repeated emotional and physical risk.”
It also alleged memory problems.
Medication confusion.
Missed appointments.
Erratic business decisions.
Edward read the twenty-eight pages twice.
Most of the accusations were distorted.
Some were not.
He had missed Sophie’s dentist appointment in March.
He had forgotten a board dinner.
He had once taken his blood-pressure medication twice in the same morning and called Maria when he became dizzy.
Celeste had witnessed all three.
“You see what she did?” Edward said.
Naomi did.
“She collected ordinary mistakes and placed them into a legal narrative.”
“Can a judge remove me because I forgot a dinner?”
“No.”
“What about yesterday?”
“That’s more serious.”
“I didn’t release the roof.”
“No. But the petition says you failed to maintain the greenhouse.”
Edward threw the filing onto his desk.
“She released it.”
“We believe that.”
“We have her scarf.”
“We have fabric consistent with her scarf.”
“We have deleted footage.”
“We have missing footage.”
“Sophie saw the key.”
“Sophie is six.”
Edward glared.
Naomi did not flinch.
“You hired me to tell you where the weaknesses are.”
His anger faded.
“You sound like Anna.”
“She paid me extra for that.”
For one second, grief softened the room.
Then Naomi opened another file.
“Celeste is requesting emergency appointment as temporary trustee.”
“No.”
“If granted, she would vote Sophie’s shares.”
“No.”
“We need evidence beyond the greenhouse.”
Edward called Peter Lawson again.
This time the CFO answered immediately.
“Peter, send the Verdant records.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Legal hold.”
“By whom?”
“Celeste’s counsel.”
“Since when?”
“Yesterday evening.”
Naomi mouthed, convenient.
Edward lowered his voice.
“How much did we pay Verdant Restoration?”
Peter hesitated.
“I don’t have that number in front of me.”
“You’re the CFO.”
“I’m also employed by a board currently divided between two controlling family blocs.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Peter exhaled.
“Approximately six million over five years.”
Edward stood.
“For what?”
“Greenhouse renovations. Hotel conservatory work. Procurement consulting.”
“Six million?”
“Across multiple properties.”
“Who owns Verdant?”
“I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
Peter’s voice became quiet.
“Edward, be careful.”
“Of what?”
The line went dead.
At noon, Detective Chen returned.
The forensic inspection had produced a preliminary result.
“The release arms did not fail naturally.”
Edward gripped the edge of his desk.
“They were opened?”
“Manually.”
“With the key?”
“Most likely.”
“And the panel?”
“The retaining pins were partially withdrawn. Someone prepared it to drop.”
Maria crossed herself.
Sophie was upstairs with a court-appointed child interviewer.
Edward hated that strangers were now asking his granddaughter questions about her home.
Chen continued.
“The fabric caught in the mechanism is silk. Dark green.”
“Celeste’s.”
“We’ll need lab comparison.”
“Her scarf is missing the same corner.”
“That’s evidence. It is not yet proof of who operated the mechanism.”
Edward almost snapped.
Naomi spoke first.
“What about the deleted video?”
“Administrator credentials.”
“Whose?”
Chen looked at Edward.
“Yours.”
The room went silent.
“My credentials?”
“Yes.”
Edward stared.
“I didn’t delete anything.”
“When was your password last changed?”
He could not remember.
Maria whispered, “Señor Edward…”
Then memory surfaced.
Celeste helping him set up the estate tablet after Anna’s funeral.
Dad, just give me the password. I’ll fix the cameras.
He had.
He closed his eyes.
“I gave it to her eighteen months ago.”
Chen wrote that down.
Naomi muttered, “Stop giving Celeste passwords.”
Edward looked at her.
“It was one password.”
“Apparently enough.”
The child interviewer came downstairs twenty minutes later.
Sophie followed.
She immediately ran to Edward.
The interviewer asked to speak privately.
“Sophie repeated the statement about Celeste saying Anna wanted her gone.”
“Good.”
“I wouldn’t use the word good.”
Edward nodded.
“Sorry.”
“She also said Celeste told her Rosecliff would become hers someday if she learned to be ‘a good girl.’”
Naomi’s expression sharpened.
“What did Celeste mean by that?”
“She wouldn’t say.”
Sophie had apparently become frightened.
Later, Edward found her hiding beneath Anna’s old piano.
He sat on the floor beside her.
“You know no one can make you leave because you’re bad, right?”
Sophie looked at her rabbit.
“What if a judge says?”
Edward’s heart broke.
“Who told you about a judge?”
“Aunt Celeste.”
“When?”
“Before the glass.”
That mattered.
Celeste had discussed legal proceedings with Sophie before the greenhouse incident.
Meaning the petition had not been a reaction.
It had been prepared.
Edward called Naomi into the room.
Sophie repeated it.
Naomi’s face became very still.
“What exactly did she say?”
Sophie whispered, “She said soon a judge might decide Grandpa is too old to keep me.”
Edward’s hands went cold.
The greenhouse incident had not inspired Celeste’s petition.
The petition already existed.
The falling glass had been intended to support it.
Naomi immediately called her investigator.
“Get the metadata on Celeste’s court filing draft. I want creation dates.”
An hour later, they received the answer.
The petition had been created twelve days before the greenhouse panel fell.
Edward stared at the date.
Celeste had begun building a case to remove him nearly two weeks before Sophie nearly died.
Then Naomi noticed something else.
Attached to the draft petition was a proposed order.
If granted, temporary control of Sophie’s trust would transfer to Celeste.
And the proposed order specifically authorized her to vote the Vale Glass & Gardens shares in any pending acquisition.
May you like
The Sentinel sale had not followed the accident either.
It had been waiting for it.
