Chapter 4: The Second Hearing
Morning brought a thinner gallery and a thicker stack of sealed filings.
Judge Kent convened with the understanding that portions of the record would remain under protective order. Victor Sloan opened with a renewed push for temporary control, arguing that even if Orison faced scrutiny, the company still required stable leadership while allegations against me remained unresolved. Rachel answered with Mercer’s submitted summary, the timeline of Celeste’s pre-scandal outreach to Orison, and a forensic note that the “integrity failure” on Hale Defense servers had originated from an administrative account tied to Celeste’s office suite, not from Tessa’s token cluster.
Celeste testified under a constrained scope. She admitted contact with Orison executives and framed it as exploratory, the sort of conversation any board-adjacent family member might have when a company “showed signs of drift.” When Rachel placed the “control will be resolved before quarter close” language in front of her, Celeste repeated the rehearsed line about Mother’s board position. Judge Kent’s expression did not change, which was its own kind of verdict on the performance.
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Mother took the stand next and spoke in the soft register she reserved for public injury. She described my “obsession” with Tessa, the adopted child who had never quite fit, and the fear that company assets were being diverted into a private loyalty project. She did not use the words stray dog in the courtroom. She did not need to. The cameras in the hallway had already done that work. On cross, Rachel asked only whether Mother had reviewed the Orison correspondence before Celeste sent it. Mother said she trusted her daughter’s judgment. Rachel let the answer hang.
Mercer did not testify in open court. He provided the judge with an in-camera proffer regarding the national-security review and confirmed that Captain Tessa Hale was available to appear by secure video under protection. Judge Kent ordered the video session for the afternoon and recessed with a warning that any party leaking protective-order material would face immediate sanctions.
