Chapter 9 - Celine’s old email
Celine had archived everything.
Annoyingly.
Her work email had been preserved under company retention.
My access required counsel because death does not erase governance rules.
Miriam obtained review authorization through Devereux’s independent committee.
We searched only Vane-related materials.
Not her personal life.
There was an email dated six years earlier.
To me.
Subject:
Marcella problem.
I had forgotten it.
Celine wrote:
Marcella cornered me after the board dinner. She said Victor will never forgive me for “putting their family on a leash.”
I told her contracts are not leashes.
She said Alaric will eventually get tired of playing respectable and then we’ll have evidence of what Devereux really is.
I read that twice.
Then another.
Four months later.
Marcella continues to bait you at events. Stop taking it personally. If she calls your father a gangster, let her. If she calls you weak, let her. We need clean hands while Vane restructuring remains active.
Celine had seen the pattern.
Before illness.
Before Elowen.
Marcella provoked.
I reacted.
Celine corrected.
Then one final email eighteen months before Celine’s diagnosis:
I think Marcella believes humiliation is leverage because she knows you care more about respect than money. That is exactly why you cannot give it to her.
I closed the laptop.
For several minutes, I could not speak.
Miriam sat across from me.
“Useful?”
“Yes.”
“Emotionally or evidentially?”
“Both.”
Lawyers.
Of course.
The emails did not prove Marcella destroyed photographs to create a legal record.
May you like
They proved long-standing motive to provoke me.
Pieces.
