Chapter 13 - Celeste Vale
Celeste’s maiden name was not Hawthorne.
Everyone knew that.
What almost nobody knew was that “Celeste Arden” was not her birth name either.
She had changed it at twenty-three.
Her original birth certificate listed:
Celeste Vale.
Father:
Martin Vale.
Maya stared at the document.
Jonathan looked as though he had forgotten how to breathe.
“My wife is Martin Vale’s daughter.”
Noah heard.
Simon did too.
Celeste had entered Jonathan’s life carrying the name of the man Evelyn had been investigating.
Every piece shifted.
Jonathan requested another interview.
This time Celeste did not deny it.
“Yes.”
“Why hide your father?”
“Because Evelyn asked me to.”
Jonathan laughed sharply.
“Stop using Evelyn to explain every lie.”
Celeste’s face tightened.
“My father destroyed lives.”
“Did he order the trial?”
“No.”
“Did he switch Samuel?”
“No.”
“Then what did he do?”
“He covered it up.”
The distinction mattered.
Celeste explained that Martin Vale discovered the unauthorized dosing hours after it happened.
Instead of reporting it, he helped manipulate records to protect Hawthorne Medical and his own career.
Richard Hawthorne learned later.
He also covered it up.
Neither man ordered the initial mistake.
“Who did?”
Celeste looked toward the floor.
“My mother.”
Jonathan stared.
“What?”
Celeste’s mother, Dr. Lorraine Vale, had been director of neonatal research at St. Catherine’s.
She was the principal investigator on the trial.
The night Samuel was born, a research nurse mistakenly administered the experimental drug to him.
Lorraine realized it before anyone else.
She ordered the records altered.
When the other infant deteriorated, Lorraine authorized the identification switch to hide the unauthorized dose and make the adverse event appear connected to an enrolled patient.
Maya felt sick.
“What happened to the other baby’s real mother?”
Celeste’s voice became quiet.
“She was told her child survived.”
Everyone froze.
Jonathan stared.
“What?”
“The surviving baby—Samuel—was initially released under the other infant’s identity.”
Maya understood.
The false mother, Natalie Reed, had not existed because the real mother’s identity was hidden.
“Who was she?”
Celeste looked toward Jonathan.
“A seventeen-year-old girl.”
“Name?”
“Anna Mercer.”
Jonathan frowned.
He knew the surname.
“Mercer?”
Celeste nodded.
“She worked in the hospital cafeteria.”
The teenage mother had delivered secretly.
Her parents did not know she was pregnant.
The hospital used a confidential record.
After the switch, she briefly believed Samuel was hers.
Then Evelyn discovered what happened.
The two mothers met.
“What did they do?” Maya asked.
“Evelyn told Anna the truth.”
Jonathan stared.
“And Anna gave Samuel back?”
“Yes.”
“Just like that?”
“No.”
Celeste’s voice shook.
“Nothing about it was ‘just like that.’”
Anna had lost her own child.
Then learned the baby she had held for four days belonged to Evelyn.
She agreed to return Samuel only after Evelyn promised to help her expose the trial.
But Richard and Martin intervened.
They threatened both women.
Evelyn ultimately hid Samuel through Meridian.
Anna disappeared.
Jonathan whispered:
“Is she alive?”
Celeste shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Maya asked the more immediate question.
“Where is Lorraine Vale?”
Celeste went silent.
Jonathan remembered something.
“Your mother died twenty years ago.”
“That is what the obituary says.”
His eyes narrowed.
“She’s alive.”
Celeste’s silence answered.
Martin Vale had spent thirteen years appearing to be the central threat.
But Evelyn’s note had warned specifically about Celeste blaming him.
Maya leaned forward.
“Did Lorraine order Noah confined?”
Celeste whispered:
“No.”
“Did she tell you to get the folder?”
Silence.
Maya felt the answer.
“Yes.”
Celeste’s eyes filled.
“She said if Jonathan learned the truth, Samuel would be taken from the only life he knew.”
Jonathan shook his head.
“That wasn’t her decision.”
“I know.”
“You drugged Noah for her?”
Celeste began crying.
“She threatened Simon.”
Jonathan stared.
“You knew where he was.”
“Yes.”
“And she threatened him?”
“She said she could make one phone call and expose his identity to people who would use him against Hawthorne Medical.”
Maya looked at her.
“And you believed her.”
Celeste whispered:
“I always believed my mother.”
Jonathan’s face turned cold.
May you like
“That was my mistake with my father.”
The parallel silenced the room.
