Chapter 2 - The Seven MinutesCeleste canceled the premiere.
Her studio protested.
The film's distributor called.
Her manager called seven times.
Marcus insisted that disappearing after such a public incident would make the story worse.
Celeste listened to none of them.
She took Nora through a private exit and brought her to a conference room inside the theater.
Security kept everyone else outside.
For several minutes, neither of them spoke.
Nora sat at one end of a long table.
Celeste sat across from her.
Between them lay the bracelet.
Sixteen years.
Reduced to a strip of plastic and faded ink.
Celeste finally asked:
“What was her name?”
“Julia Bennett.”
“The woman who raised you?”
Nora nodded.
“She was my mom.”
Celeste felt the instinctive sting but forced herself not to react.
Of course Julia was Nora's mother.
She had raised her.
Loved her.
Stayed.
Celeste had no right to compete with a dead woman she had never known.
“What did Julia tell you about me?”
“Not much until she got sick.”
Nora opened the envelope.
“She said the adoption wasn't normal.”
Celeste's stomach tightened.
“What does that mean?”
Nora pulled out several documents.
A certificate.
A receipt.
Two letters.
And an old business card.
New Horizons Family Placement.
Celeste had never heard the name.
Nora continued.
“Mom said she and her husband had been trying to adopt for years. Someone connected them to a private agency. They were told my biological mother was a young actress who wanted complete confidentiality.”
Celeste shook her head repeatedly.
“I never signed anything.”
Nora studied her.
“How do I know that?”
The question was fair.
Painful.
But fair.
“You don't.”
Celeste leaned back.
“And you shouldn't trust me just because I'm crying.”
Nora looked surprised.
Celeste continued.
“We verify everything.”
A knock sounded.
Marcus entered before being invited.
“We need to manage this immediately.”
Celeste turned.
“Leave.”
“Celeste—”
“Leave.”
“This is already everywhere.”
“Good.”
Marcus blinked.
“Good?”
“Maybe public attention will make it harder for someone to bury the truth a second time.”
Nora looked between them.
Marcus lowered his voice.
“You don't know who this girl is.”
Celeste stood.
“She has something that disappeared from a hospital room sixteen years ago.”
“That proves nothing.”
Celeste walked toward him.
“What do you know about the bracelet?”
Marcus hesitated.
Too long.
Nora noticed.
So did Celeste.
“Get out.”
When he finally left, Celeste locked the door.
Then she sat again.
“There is something you need to know about the night you were born.”
For sixteen years she had never told the full story publicly.
Her career biography said that at twenty she had temporarily stepped away from acting because of exhaustion.
The truth was different.
She had become pregnant during her first major television role.
The father was another young actor named Evan Ross.
Evan had wanted to keep the baby.
Celeste had been terrified.
But after months of uncertainty, she chose the same thing.
She wanted her daughter.
Her mother, Helena Lawson, disagreed.
Helena had managed Celeste's career since childhood.
“You're twenty,” Helena had said. “One scandal and they replace you tomorrow.”
Celeste refused.
She continued the pregnancy in secret.
Large coats.
Closed sets.
A temporary move to another state.
When labor came early, she was taken to St. Catherine's Medical Center under her legal name.
Claire Lawson.
“The delivery was difficult,” Celeste told Nora.
“I lost a lot of blood.”
Nora did not move.
“They put you in my arms.”
Celeste's voice broke.
“I counted seven minutes.”
“Why?”
“Because everyone kept telling me they needed to take you.”
She pressed her hands together.
“I thought if I counted, I could keep the memory.”
Nora looked at the bracelet.
“What happened next?”
“They took me into surgery.”
“And me?”
“I don't know.”
When Celeste woke several hours later, Helena was beside her.
Marcus, then a young assistant working for Helena, had also been there.
A doctor explained that the baby had developed severe respiratory complications.
There had been an emergency.
She had died.
Celeste had screamed until they sedated her.
“I asked to see you.”
Nora's eyes filled.
“They said your body had already been transferred.”
“That quickly?”
“I was twenty. Drugged. Grieving. My mother told me looking at you would make it worse.”
Nora whispered:
“Did you believe her?”
“For years.”
Celeste swallowed.
“Then I learned not to ask.”
“Why?”
“Because every time I did, my mother collapsed.”
Nora stared.
“She made your grief about her?”
The accuracy of the observation hurt.
“Yes.”
Evan had disappeared from Celeste's life soon afterward.
Helena told her he could not handle the loss.
Evan reportedly moved to Europe.
Celeste had not spoken to him in fifteen years.
Nora opened another document.
“My mom left this.”
It was a photocopy of a payment receipt.
New Horizons Family Placement.
Date: three days after Nora's birth.
Amount: $48,000.
Celeste's eyes stopped on the name authorizing the placement.
H. Lawson.
Helena Lawson.
Her mother.
Celeste whispered:
“No.”
Nora looked at her.
“That's your mother, isn't it?”
Celeste could not answer.
Her phone began ringing again.
This time the screen displayed:
MOM.
Nora saw it.
Celeste stared at the phone.
Then answered.
Helena spoke before she could say anything.
“Claire, whatever that girl told you, do not believe her.”
Celeste felt the room become cold.
She hadn't told Helena about Nora.
The premiere confrontation had happened less than forty minutes ago.
Celeste slowly asked:
“How do you know she's a girl?”
May you like
Silence.
And in that silence, sixteen years of lies began to crack.
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