Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 239

Chapter 239

I pressed my fingers to my temples, where the headache was threatening to make a comeback. “You cannot breathe without me, huh?”

He nodded like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Not a single breath.”

“So how have you been surviving all these years before you met me?”

He thought about it, his brow furrowing, his lips pursing in mock contemplation. “I honestly have no idea. Celeste, I do not know what you have done to me. I am so lost in your love.”

I finally let myself smile, a small reluctant curve of my lips that I could not quite suppress. “Enough with the cheesy lines, Dominic. We have a real problem on our hands. You know I am not yet divorced from Julian. Why did you hug me and carry me bridal style in front of all those reporters? And are we going to be stuck here in the back of your car, because the reporters outside do not seem ready to leave any time soon?”

Dominic took both of my hands in his, holding them warmly, his thumbs stroking across my knuckles. “My driver is around. I just wanted to talk to you first.”

His expression shifted, the playfulness fading into something more serious. “After you left the hospital, I thought about it. I knew my grandmother would use those pictures she had of us to shame you. She is vindictive and petty and she does not care who gets hurt as long as she gets what she wants. So I decided to act first.”

I frowned. “Act how?”

“Since Julian’s sex video was already out there, I hired people to add fuel to the flames.” He said it like he was describing a routine business decision, something as ordinary as ordering coffee. “They dragged Julian and Seraphine online. They emphasized how Julian betrayed you, how he slept with Seraphine in the matrimonial bed he shared with you, how he treated you badly and was a terrible husband who tried to destroy your career.”

I opened my mouth to speak but he kept going, his words picking up pace.

“They also talked about you. How you had been the perfect wife, doting and kind and loving and faithful. How after you found out about your husband’s affair with your best friend, you moved out of the house and filed for divorce. They made sure everyone knew your marriage was over and that you deserved someone who truly loved you and would support you in every endeavor of your life.”

“The one of us on stage the day I funded Helix with five billion dollars.”

I remembered that moment. The flash of cameras, the way Dominic had stood beside me with his hand on the small of my back, looking at me like I was the only person in the room.

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“People started talking about how good we looked together,” Dominic continued. “Some of them said you deserved a man like me who was willing to support your career with five billion dollars, not a man like Julian who tried to destroy it. Of course, all of that was started by the peopted hired. But then real people started joining the conversation. The picture of me kissing your forehead went viral. People are shipping us now, Celeste. They are asking for more lovey-dovey moments between us.”

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