Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 166

Chapter 166

JULIAN

The world tilted on its axis the moment Celeste walked out the door, and I felt the floor rush up to meet me before I could even process that I was falling.

When I opened my eyes, the ceiling was white and sterile and the smell of antiseptic burned my nostrils. My sister, Riley was hovering over me with tears streaming down her face while my mother stood by the window with her arms crossed, her expression so tight it looked like her face might crack from the pressure of holding in everything she wanted to say.

“He’s awake,” Riley said, her voice cracking, and she turned and rushed out of the room, her footsteps echoing down the hallway as she went to call the doctor.

I tried to sit up but my body felt like it had been filled with lead, every muscle protesting, every bone aching, and I sank back into the pillow with a groan.

My mother did not move from the window. She just stood there, staring at me, her eyes sharp and hard and unforgiving.

The doctor came in a few minutes later, a middle-aged man with graying temples and a stethoscope around his neck, and he shone a light in my eyes and asked me questions about my name and the date and who the president was, and I answered them all with the kind of mechanical precision that came from pure spite.

“You’ve been under too much stress lately,” the doctor said, his voice calm and measured, the kind of voice doctors used when they were telling you something bad but didn’t want you to panic. “Your body has been pushed too hard. All of it contributed to the loss of consciousness. I would advise you to focus on your health for a while. Get enough rest. Eat well. Sleep well. Your body is telling you to slow down, Mr. Fisher.”

I nodded and thanked him and waited until he left the room before I turned to my mother.

“Mom…”

“Don’t,” she said, her voice sharp enough to draw blood. “Do not sit there and try to explain yourself to me, Julian. I am very angry at you. Very angry. You knelt down and begged that woman like she was some kind of princess. You humiliated yourself. You humiliated this family. And for what? For a woman who does not even matter?”

“She is my wife, Mom.”

“She is your wife in name only. She has not acted like a wife since I moved in. She has disrespected you, disgraced you, and now she has made you faint like a weakling. If you plan to take Celeste back afte everything she has done, then you should better be ready to forget your relationship with me as your mother, because I will not stand by and watch you destroy yourself for a woman who does not care about you.”

She reached out and took my hand, squeezing it tight. “No matter what is going on, you are my brother. My only sibling. The

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only brother I have. I do not want anything to happen to you. Dad is already sick and we do not even know if he will get well, and now you are in a hospital bed. I do not like this. I do not like any of this.”

“Don’t worry about me,” said, pulling my hand away and swinging my legs off the bed. “I am strong. I will pull through. But I have to leave. I have to go talk to Celeste.”

The doctor came back in as I was standing up, his face a mask of professional concern. “Mr. Fisher, I really must insist that you rest. At least for the rest of the day. Tomorrow you can do whatever you need to do, but for now…”

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