Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 110

Chapter 110

A beat of quiet on his end.

He did not say it back.

Of course he did not. That was not who we were. That was not what this was. I knew that and the small

quiet on the other end of the line was a reminder delivered without malice but landing nonetheless.

After the call, I sat on the edge of the bathroom counter and looked at my reflection in the mirror.

I had told him it was time. I had meant it when I said it. And I still meant it, because the alternative, staying in this suspended in-between indefinitely, was not something I could sustain. It needed to end cleanly. It needed to end while I could still walk away from it with my chest mostly intact.

But there was a heaviness sitting below my ribs that I did not have a name for, and it had been there since the moment I put the phone down.

Tonight, possibly. He was coming to pick me up. They would catch us and it would be over and I would be free.

I was not entirely sure why free felt the way it felt.

Pat noticed my mood for the rest of the afternoon. She watched me without commenting for approximately two hours before she finally said something.

“Are you okay?”

“I am fine,” I told her.

She studied my face. “You look like you miss your husband.”

It took everything I had not to roll my eyes directly out of my head. “I am fine, Pat.”

“It is okay to miss him,” she said. “You spent the night away from home. It makes sense that you would…”

“Pat.”

“I am just saying.”

“I know what you are saying. I am fine.”

She retreated, unconvinced, and I went back to the report in front of me and told myself to concentrate.

In the evening I showered carefully and took my time.

The red dress was short, fitted, built to do exactly what it did when I put it on, which was make me look like someone worth looking at. The makeup took longer than usual. The matching lingerie beneath was a decision I did not examine too closely.

Pat appeared in the doorway while I was finishing my lipstick.

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Her eyes went over me slowly. “Where are you going?”

The CEO of Veil Holdings invited me for a conversation about Helix,” I told her, keeping my eyes on the mirror. “Nothing formal. Just a check in.”

She was quiet for a moment. Then, “Take Seraphine.”

I turned. “What?”

“Take Seraphine with you,” she repeated. “She is trying so hard to reach Dominic. If you are going to Veil Holdings, maybe she could come along. Maybe she could get a chance to see him.”

I stared at her.

The suggestion was so earnest and so completely wrongheaded that I almost laughed. Pat, who was trying to help. Pat, who had no idea what she was suggesting or who she was suggesting I bring into what was about to happen tonight.

“That would not be appropriate,” I said, turning back to the mirror and keeping my voice even. “If Seraphine were still part of Helix it would be different. But she left. Taking her along to a meeting with our primary funder would create complications I am not willing to introduce. The relationship between Helix and Veil Holdings is too important to risk.”

Pat considered this. “I suppose you are right.”

“I know I am right.”

Just then, my phone buzzed. It was a message from Dominic.

I am outside.

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