Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 330

Chapter 330

Dominic stood over him, his chest heaving, his jaw set so tight the muscles bulged at the corners, and when he pointed a warning finger at Julian’s crumpled form, his voice was the voice of a man who had never made a threat he was not prepared to carry out.

“The next time you touch Celeste, I will make you and your entire family disappear from this city for good. That is not a threat, Julian. Test me on it if you want to find out exactly how serious I am.”

He did not wait for a response. He took my hand in his, his grip warm and solid and reassuring in a way that should have calmed me, and he pulled me away from the courthouse plaza, away from Julian’s crumpled form on the concrete, toward the car idling at the curb. One of my bodyguards held the door open and Dominic guided me inside with the quiet, controlled urgency of a man who was holding himself together through sheer force of will.

I should have felt relieved. I should have felt safe. Dominic had appeared at exactly the right moment, had rescued me from Julian’s suffocating embrace, had issued the kind of protective threat that made a woman’s heart flutter. But Julian’s words were still ringing in my ears, the recording still playing on a loop in my memory, and as I sat in my bodyguards’ SUV with my divorce certificate clutched in my hands, I could not shake the cold tendril of doubt that had wrapped itself around my spine.

I forced myself to breathe. Julian would say anything to turn me against Dominic. Julian was a liar and a manipulator and a man whose desperation had stripped away whatever moral compass he once possessed. Of course he would fabricate evidence. Of course he would twist the truth to serve his purposes. I trusted Dominic. I trusted him completely.

Didn’t I?

The question sat in the back of my mind like a stone, heavy and immovable, and I could not quite bring myself to

answer it.

Dominic’s hand found mine, his thumb tracing lazy circles on my knuckles. “Are you alright? Did he hurt you?”

“No. He just… ambushed me. Showed up outside the courthouse like he had been waiting.”

“Of course he was waiting. The man has nothing left to lose. His reputation is in tatters, and now his wife has officially divorced him and taken half his fortune.” He lifted my hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to my fingers. ” You are free of him now. That is what matters.”

“I got the certificate.” I held up the envelope, forcing brightness into my voice.

“That is my girl.” His smile was warm, genuine, the smile of a man who was truly happy for the woman he loved. “We should celebrate. It’s lunch time already.”

The knot in my chest loosened slightly. Lunch. Of course. Dominic had promised me that nothing at work was more important than having lunch with me, and he was going to keep that promise. This was the man I knew. The man who answered my calls on the second ring. The man who moved mountains in three minutes just because I asked him to. Not the cold, mocking voice on Julian’s recording.

His phone rang before I could respond. He glanced at the screen and his expression flickered, just for an instant, into something I could not quite read.

“One moment.” He answered the call, his voice shifting into the clipped, efficient tone he used for business. “Yes. Okay. I will be right there.”

The call ended. He turned to me, and I saw it before he even opened his mouth, the slight tightening around his

eyes.

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“Unfortunately something important has come up. I will have to leave now.”

“But what about lunch?” The words came out too quickly, edged with something I did not want to name.

“I’m afraid I’ll have to cancel.” He reached over and patted my cheek lightly, the kind of gesture you might give a child or a pet, and before I could formulate a response, he was out of the car and climbing into his own vehicle, The door closed, the engine revved, and he was gone.

I sat there, still holding my divorce certificate, still wearing the emerald dress I had bought specifically because } wanted to look beautiful for the celebration lunch he had promised me, and I felt something inside me crack. It was not a clean break. It was the kind of fracture that started small and spread, branching out in all directions, threatening the structural integrity of everything I had believed was solid.

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