No theatrical rage.
Just immaculate gray hair, pearl earrings, and the relaxed expression of someone accustomed to arriving after decisions had already been made.
CELESTE: “There you are.”
Her gaze moved to Lena.
Then to the monitor.
Her smile disappeared.
CELESTE: “Three?”
Lena’s hand went instinctively to her stomach.
Celeste recovered almost immediately.
She opened the blue folder.
CELESTE: “Your mother left seventeen thousand, eight hundred and forty dollars in unsecured obligations that you’ve been making voluntary payments toward.”
Lena’s mouth went dry.
CELESTE: “Vale Financial Holdings acquired those accounts this morning.”
ADRIAN: “Without board approval.”
Celeste never looked at him.
CELESTE: “Lena, you can’t afford three children.”
LENA: “That isn’t your decision.”
Celeste removed a document.
CELESTE: “No. Your finances are.”
She laid the paper on the counter.
CELESTE: “Proceed with your appointment, sign a confidentiality agreement stating you’ll make no financial or reputational claim against Miles, and those balances disappear.”
Lena looked at the page.
Her name was already typed beneath a signature line.
The cruelty of it landed slowly.
Celeste had not come to argue with her.
She had come expecting obedience.
LENA: “And if I don’t?”
CELESTE: “Then the accounts remain due.”
LENA: “They were already due.”
CELESTE: “Not to someone willing to wait.”
Adrian’s voice hardened.
ADRIAN: “Put the papers down, Celeste.”
Celeste finally faced him.
CELESTE: “Your brother jeopardized an engagement, a pending partnership, and his position in this company for one careless night.”
Lena flinched.
Not because of the insult.
Because Miles was engaged.
Celeste saw that reaction.
And kept going.
CELESTE: “You didn’t know.”
LENA: “Get out.”
CELESTE: “You should understand what you’re walking into.”
LENA: “I understand you perfectly.”
Celeste’s fingers tightened around the folder.
Lena bent, grabbed her tote, and the broken zipper gave way. Her diner uniform spilled onto the floor.
For a moment she stood over it, humiliated by how completely her life seemed to fit inside that cheap bag.
Then Adrian crouched.
He picked up the uniform but did not hand it to her until she reached for it.
ADRIAN: “Your choice.”
Not his.
Not Celeste’s.
Lena shoved the uniform back into the tote.
Then she looked at Marcy.
LENA: “I’m not doing the procedure today.”
Marcy nodded.
