Chapter 3 - CELIA'S VERSION
Emily refused to meet Celia.
At first.
Then she changed her mind.
The interview took place through prosecutors with lawyers present.
Celia looked thin, pale, and unnervingly calm.
“You touched my baby.”
Celia closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“What did you give him?”
“A research intervention that was not approved for him.”
Emily’s chair scraped backward.
“You experimented on him?”
Celia’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Emily wanted to cross the table.
She did not.
Daniel’s lawyers would use any outburst against her.
Celia explained that Halcyon Pediatric Ventures funded a neonatal treatment program that had been paused after safety concerns.
She believed the pause was overly cautious.
“Did Liam qualify?”
“No.”
“Did I consent?”
“No.”
“Did Daniel?”
Celia hesitated.
“Yes.”
Emily stopped.
“He consented to an experiment on our son without me?”
“He agreed that if Liam deteriorated, I could use the intervention.”
“Was it legal?”
“No.”
The word landed cleanly.
Then Celia said:
“I believed it might save him.”
Emily laughed bitterly.
“And when it didn’t?”
Celia looked away.
“Daniel said if the exposure became known, the hospital would report Halcyon and the company would collapse.”
“What did that matter to him?”
Celia looked at Hale.
Then back at Emily.
“His family trust was an investor.”
Emily stared.
She had known Daniel’s family invested in medical companies.
She had never heard Halcyon’s name.
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Celia added:
“Daniel told me your genetic screening could explain the collapse.”
Emily’s voice broke.
“He decided before Liam died?”
Celia shook her head.
“No. The cover story came after he started worsening.”
That distinction felt obscene.
Then prosecutors showed Emily an email Celia had saved.
Daniel:
If this goes bad, nobody can connect it to Halcyon.
Celia:
You’re talking about your son.
Daniel:
I’m talking about keeping one disaster from becoming two.
Emily looked at him in her memory.
Dark suit.
Cold face.
Your defective genes killed him.
He had not been grieving badly.
He had been directing blame.
Then Celia whispered:
“I am sorry.”
Emily stood.
“No.”
Celia looked up.
“You don’t get to use dying as a shortcut to forgiveness.”
Emily walked out.
Hale followed.
In the hallway he said:
“There’s something else about Celia’s confession.”
“What?”
“She says the intervention may not have caused Liam’s death.”
May you like
Emily stared at him.
And suddenly even the confession was not going to give her certainty.
