“What?”
Celeste handed him Hannah’s complaint.
He looked down.
At first he did not understand.
Then he saw the name.
His entire body changed.
“Where did you get this?”
“Internal archive.”
He read.
Slowly.
His face emptied.
Celeste stayed silent.
Owen reached the note.
Deceased.
No further escalation anticipated.
His hands began shaking.
He set the page down before he tore it accidentally.
“She never told me.”
Celeste whispered:
“She may not have been allowed.”
“She told me everything.”
Then corrected himself.
“No.”
“That’s not true.”
“She didn’t.”
“Toward the end…”
He looked away.
“She stopped telling me work things because I was already doing hospital schedules.”
“Ellie.”
“The garage.”
“She said spreadsheets could wait.”
Celeste stepped closer.
Owen did not look at her.
“She knew?”
he asked.
“About Vale?”
“She suspected a lender data-sharing scheme.”
“And my garage?”
“No evidence she knew it would be targeted later.”
He laughed bitterly.
“They bought my loan because she complained?”
“We don’t know that.”
“Owen—”
“Her name was in their file.”
“Yes.”
“Then three years later they specifically buy my loan.”
“Yes.”
“And you want me to believe coincidence?”
“No.”
Celeste shook her head.
“I want evidence before I tell you what happened.”
He looked toward her.
Pain had become anger.
“You people always want evidence after we lose something.”
Celeste absorbed it.
He continued:
“She lost her job six months before she got sick.”
“Did you know that?”
Celeste went still.
“No.”
“MidCounty said restructuring.”
“She never believed it.”
“She thought somebody wanted her gone.”
“Then she got diagnosed.”
“We stopped fighting.”
“We had bigger things.”
His voice cracked.
“And now you bring me a paper telling me she was right too.”
Celeste took another step.
Owen backed away.
“Don’t.”
She stopped.
He covered his mouth.
Tried to breathe.
Celeste wanted to touch him.
Did not.
Finally Owen whispered:
“I spent three years thinking I failed her.”
Her eyes filled.
“What?”
“The garage.”
“The dream.”
“Everything.”
“She wanted the workshop.”
“She wanted Ellie around engines and airplanes.”
“She wanted this place to become something more.”
“After she died, I borrowed money to keep it.”
“Then Vale comes along.”
“And every month I’m losing it.”
He looked toward Hannah’s complaint.
“What if this wasn’t random?”
“What if the reason I couldn’t keep her dream was because she tried to stop the same people?”
Celeste’s chest hurt.
“Owen.”
He looked at her.
“I don’t need you to fix this.”
“I know.”