Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 135

Chapter 135

CELESTE

My alarm woke me up early, the harsh beep pulling me out of a dream I could not remember, and I sat up, blinking against the morning light filtering through the blinds.

I got dressed quickly and efficiently, chose something that suggested I was not particularly concerned about making an impression, and drove to the house. True to Dominic’s message, a car followed me at a steady distance from the moment I pulled out of the Helix car park, staying back but present, visible enough that I knew it was there.

It was unnecessary. I had always been able to take care of myself.

But it was also Dominic, and the unnecessary gesture landed differently than unnecessary gestures usually did, so I said nothing

about it.

As I entered the house, the first person I saw was Julian.

He was standing in the living room, his hair disheveled, his clothes rumpled, dark circles carved deep beneath his eyes like he had not slept at all. Of course he had not slept. He had spent the night consumed by rage, pacing and fuming and replaying the image of his wife being fucked by another man over and over in his head. I knew because I had done the same thing when I found him and Seraphine, except my rage had been tempered by a cold determination while his seemed to be burning him alive

from the inside.

My mind drifted to that day at the resort, standing in the rain, watching him fuck Seraphine against a tree with the water streaming down their bodies. I remembered the tightness in my chest, the pain of being betrayed by the two people I had trusted most, the tears I had spent the night shedding. And now, looking at the dark circles under his eyes and the twitching muscle in his jaw, I felt exactly what I had been waiting to feel.

Contentment.

Every single action leading up to this moment had been worth it. Every moment of doubt, every second of guilt I had felt about Dominic, every time I had wondered if I was going too far. It had all been worth it to see Julian standing here, broken and humiliated, finally understanding even a fraction of what he had put me through.

His eyes held mine, filled with rage, his jaw clenched so tightly it seemed his teeth were begging for relief. The veins in his neck were standing out, pulsing with the force of his anger, and his hands were balled into fists at his sides. It was amusing, seeing

him act like a true victim when he had been the one who started this chain of destruction.

He was heaving, his chest rising and falling with the force of his breathing, his eyes wild and unfocused. I heard footsteps pounding down the stairs and looked up to see his mother and sister rushing down, his mother’s voice cutting through the air in a panicked screech

“Julian, what happened, are you okay?”

The two ladies stopped short when they saw me their gazes shifting from concern to hatred and anger in the span of a heartbeat. Elizabeth’s lip curled, her eyes narrowing into slits as she looked at me like I was something she had scraped off the bottom of her shoe.

“I see the whore is finally back,” she sneered.

I chuckled, the sound light and easy, because her words did not have the power to hurt me.

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