Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 147

Chapter 147

CELESTE

Pat stared at me for what felt like an eternity, her hands still wrapped around mine, hereyes searching my face like she was looking for something she could hold onto, something that would make sense of the words I had just thrown into the air between us.

The silence stretched and coiled and I could feel my heartbeat counting the seconds, until finally she pulled her hands away and leaned back in her chair with a long, deliberate exhalation that seemed to carry the weight of everything she was about to say.

“What you are feeling right now is not love,” she said, her voice firm, the words landing like stones dropped into still water.

I felt my brow furrow, a reflexive denial already forming on my lips. “Why would you say that?”

“Think about it logically, Celeste,” Pat said, leaning forward again, her elbows resting on her knees, her hands clasped together like she was about to deliver a sermon. “You trusted Julian with everything you had. You built your entire life around that man. You gave him your loyalty, your body, your dreams. And he betrayed you.

He shattered the foundation of everything you believed in. And then Dominic was there. He was the one who told you the truth. He was the one who showed you the evidence. He was the one who held your hand while you watched your world collapse. Of course you feel attached to him. That is not love. That is trauma bonding.”

I shook my head slowly, the words sitting wrong in my chest, scraping against something tender and raw. “It is more than that, Pat. I know what I feel.”

“Do you?” Pat asked, her voice gentle but pointed. “You have known Dominic for what, a few weeks? A month at most? Yes, he is handsome. Yes, he is wealthy. Yes, he has all the qualities that would make any woman weak in the knees. But how well do you actually know him? How much of what you feel is real and how much of it is just the relief of finally having someone on your side after being taken for granted?”

I opened my mouth to respond but she held up a hand, stopping me before I could get the words out.

“And let us not forget the most important detail,” she continued. “It was you who suggested the affair arrangement. You said it yourself. If you had not mentioned it, Dominic would never have brought it up. Which means that whatever is happening between you two exists because you initiated it. Not because he pursued you. Not because he had feelings for you. But because you needed a tool for your revenge and he agreed to be that tool.”

The words hit harder than I wanted to admit, each one finding a crack in my armor and slipping through.

+15 Bonus

I nodded slowly, the motion feeling mechanical, disconnected from the chaos swirling inside my chest. “I appreciate you looking out for me, Pat. I really do. And maybe you are right. Maybe this is just trauma bonding. Maybe I am confusing gratitude and attraction for something deeper, But I have to tell you, whether what I feel is real or not, the desire I have for that man is unlike anything I have ever experienced. I did not even feel this strongly about Julian when we were at our best. And that is what scares me.”

Pat was quiet for a moment, her eyes studying my face, and then she said, “That is exactly why you need to be decisive right now, Celeste. This is the time to protect your heart, not to throw it into the fire and hope it does not burn.”

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