Chapter 16 - The Video EvidenceCeleste pushed violently away from the table, her chair screeching. “She staged it!” she shrieked, pointing a shaking finger at me. “She staged everything! Look at her. What kind of person fakes her own death?”
“The kind whose husband has prepared false psychiatric records to explain it,” Miriam Shaw replied coolly, opening her legal folder.
Celeste turned to the board. “She’s unstable! Adrian told me she was obsessed with controlling him. She set this up to ruin us!”
I turned toward her, closing the distance. “You wore black for the cameras less than twelve hours after watching me go overboard.”
“I didn’t touch you!”
“You watched.”
“I was terrified!”
“You laughed.”
Her mouth snapped shut.
Adrian finally found his voice, stepping around the fallen chair. “Helena, listen to me. Whatever you believe you heard on that audio, you don’t understand the context. Celeste manipulated this situation. I was angry. I was trying to frighten you. I never intended—”
The screens on the wall changed again. The audio was replaced by high-definition video from the hidden stern camera Captain Owen had installed.
The footage showed Adrian pulling me violently from the table. It showed Celeste following closely. It showed his hand bruising my arm, pinning my body against the railing, and the forceful, deliberate shove that sent me plummeting overboard into the black water.
No interpretation was required. The board of directors sat in stunned, horrified silence, watching Adrian Cross attempt to murder his pregnant wife.
Miriam stopped the video just before the impact.
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The doors opened again, and two federal investigators entered the room. Special Agent Lucas Bennett displayed his FBI credentials.
“Adrian Cross,” Bennett said, his voice echoing in the quiet room, “the recording you have just seen was transmitted in real-time to a secure federal server. We have verified its source, timestamp, and digital integrity. We also have financial records related to the fraudulent insurance policy, forged medical documentation, and the attempted illegal transfer of trust assets.”
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