Chapter 121: Celeste Fires Back
Celeste called the authenticated approval field a stolen fragment.
Her shareholder letter went out before the committee released any public detail. It said sealed testimony had been taken out of context by directors aligned with me and that temporary restrictions on her executive authority now threatened Sterling's future.
She did not name Mina.
She did not name Leah.
She did not quote the protected report.
Instead, she called the review a succession fight disguised as safety.
The letter asked shareholders to demand restoration of her full authority over communications, transaction strategy, records, and executive staffing. Conrad supported the request as chairman. Nathan remained listed as Chief Legal Officer and Celeste's fiancé, but his name did not appear among the letter's signers.
The special committee met within two hours.
"Can she communicate with shareholders?" one director asked.
"Yes," independent counsel said. "Restrictions are not a gag order."
"Can she describe sealed evidence?"
"Not beyond authorized findings."
The committee compared the letter line by line with its orders. Celeste had attacked motive and process without exposing protected content. Her claim that evidence was taken out of context was argument, not a disclosed fact.
I wanted to answer every sentence.
I did not.
The committee, not I, issued the response. It confirmed that Conrad's approval credential had authenticated one historical reporting decision, that copied recipients had not been found to know or agree merely because they were copied, and that no patient identity had been disclosed.
The response did not mention Celeste's copied address.
It did not accuse her.
Her letter had tried to place me at the center. The committee kept the center on process.
Celeste convened an investor call using private resources rather than company staff. She described herself as the chief executive employees had chosen to follow and me as a competitor who entered the board during a delayed transaction.
"Will you take Sterling if Northstar walks away?" an investor asked her.
"My sister has wanted my position since she came back."
The statement traveled everywhere.
I released no personal reply. My conflict disclosure already showed that Mercer and Sterling remained commercial rivals. I had one board vote. I could not restore or expand my own authority.
The six independent directors reviewed Celeste's request. They denied immediate restoration. The safety, records, and transaction restrictions would remain until the committee completed the current evidence phase.
That was the local result.
Celeste remained CEO.
Conrad remained chairman without control over the restricted subjects.
The board did not suspend her, cancel the wedding, or remove Nathan.
It refused to hand the investigation back to the people contesting it.
Shareholders were granted a special information session with independent counsel, not a vote to open sealed files. Questions could address governance, cost, timing, and transaction risk. They could not demand witness identities.
The session packet separated confirmed facts from disputed claims. Conrad's authenticated approval appeared under confirmed action. His explanation appeared under disputed purpose. Celeste's copied address appeared under routing only. That format prevented either side from turning an allegation or limitation into a headline-sized verdict.
Celeste called the decision proof that I had captured the board.
The chair answered with the vote record: I had abstained from the decision about her authority.
The other five votes came from directors appointed before my return. Their independence could still be challenged through governance procedures, but Celeste could not convert my presence into six copies of my will.
Her strongest claim lost one fact.
That evening, Tessa asked whether the family-war framing was working.
"Yes," I said. "That is why the next public record has to be something no sister created for this fight."
The authenticated archive from my mother's old house contained Sterling's earliest investor presentation.
It had been prepared before Celeste joined the company.
Before Conrad became the face of its history.
And before anyone could call the names on its first page a revenge campaign.