Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 298

Chapter 298

But then today you asked me to get dressed instead and said Jasmine is menstruating. But I know she is not at her time of the month.” Her eyes met mine, and there was something sharp in them, something that reminded me so much of Lynette that my chest ached. “Why did you do that?”

I sighed, and the sound came out heavier than I intended, weighted with everything I had been carrying for years.” Last night, if I had said that you were the one I was taking along, Julian would have dragged you into that room. And he would have had sex with you. I could not let that happen. Especially knowing what you have to do today

“So you were protecting me.”

“Yes.” The word came out fierce, fiercer than I expected, and I saw her flinch slightly at the intensity of it. ” Everything I have been doing has been for you, Tasha. Everything.”

“But why?” She shook her head, her brow furrowed, and I could see the confusion written across her face like a language I had forgotten how to read. “Why are you being so good to me?”

I swallowed, and the words that had been lodged in my throat for years finally came loose. “Because I made a promise to your mother.”

Tasha went still. Utterly, completely still, the way an animal goes still when it senses a predator nearby. “My mother? You knew my mother?”

I nodded, and I felt the tears prick at the corners of my eyes, tears I had been holding back since I was seventeen years old and kneeling at Lynette’s bedside while she made me swear on everything I had ever loved that I would find her daughter and keep her safe if she died.

“We do not have much time, so I am going to go over the story as quickly as possible.” I took her hands in mine and held them tight. “Your mother, Lynette, was my big sister. Our mother gave birth to me, and Lynette gave birth to you the very next day. So we are practically age mates, just one day apart. But I am your aunt, because Lynette was way older than me. My mother died while giving birth to me, and Lynette became like my mother. She raised me. She loved me. And she loved you more than anything in this world.”

Tasha’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. Her eyes were glassy, wet, and I could see her trying to process what I was telling her, trying to fit this new information into the picture she had always had of her life.

“The man who fathered you, he abandoned Lynette when she got pregnant. Our mother helped with the pregnancy, but after she died, it was just the three of us, me, Lynette, and you. Two little children and a woman who was barely more than a child herself, trying to survive.

And then that man came back. He pretended he regretted what he had done, pretended he wanted to be a father to you. Lynette just wanted you to have a father. She thought no man would really hurt his own daughter.”

My voice cracked, and I had to stop and breathe before I could continue. “But he stole you. He took you and he ran, and when Lynette tried to find you, he had disappeared. She searched for you like a madwoman, Tasha. She spent every penny she had, she begged every favor she was owed, she went to places that decent people do not go, and still she could not find you. It broke her. The searching ate her health piece by piece until there was almost nothing left of her.”

Tasha’s tears were falling now, silent streams tracking down her cheeks, cutting through the makeup I had spent an hour applying. I reached up and wiped them away with my thumb, and the gesture was so familiar, so maternal, that it made my heart ache.

“Growing up, I had to watch Lynette waste away. She loved you so much, Tasha. She wanted nothing more than to be with you, to hold you, to have you back. So I focused on my studies. I took my lessons. I learned how to fight,

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learned how to hack, learned how to survive so I could find you by any means possible. Before I could find you, Lynette passed away. But on her dying bed, she made me promise to look for you. And I have spent every day since then trying to keep that promise.

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