Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 378

Chapter 378

“I love Felix too much to leave him.” Tears spilled down her cheeks again. “I cannot live without him. And that other woman has already disappeared. She is gone. She will not come back.”

“And if she does come back?”

Sierra’s jaw tightened. “Then Iwill deal with it when it gets to that point. But by then, Felix will already be my husband.”

I looked at her for a long time, at the desperate hope in her wet eyes, and something in me went cold and still. “Do not come to me when you regret your actions, Sierra. I am allergic to stupidity.”

I turned to leave, and she lunged forward, grabbing my leg, her fingers digging into my ankle. “Please, Celeste. At least come for the marriage tomorrow. Please.”

I looked down at her, at the woman kneeling at my feet, begging me to witness her own destruction, and I said plainly, “I will never be a party to such nonsense.”

I pulled my leg free and walked into Helix, and I did not look back.

My mood was already ruined, and the thought circled in my head as the glass doors slid shut behind me. May I never become so foolish because of love. It would be better for me to die instead.

Back in the lab, I buried myself in work, and every few minutes my eyes drifted to the clock on the wall. The hands crawled. When lunch finally arrived, I grabbed my keys and drove to the hospital.

Pat was sitting up in bed when I walked in, looking bright, and the smile on her face made something in my chest loosen. But the moment I told her the plan, the smile vanished.

“Dominic’s house?” Pat stared at me like I had grown a second head. “Absolutely not.”

“Pat.”

“I said no.” She crossed her arms. “Three is a crowd, Celeste. You and Dominic are newly engaged, you are practically glowing, and I would be constituting a nuisance in the middle of all that romance. I might as well hang a sign around my neck that says ‘ Professional Third Wheel.”” 1

“You would not be a nuisance.” I sat on the edge of her bed. “The house is huge. You would not even see us.”

Pat stared at me for a long moment, and then she sighed, the fight draining out of her. “Fine. But I am not eating anything fancy. And I am not letting you wait on me hand and foot.”

“You are my guest. I will wait on you however I want.”

“That is not how guests work”

“That is how this guest works.”

I helped her gather her things, signed her discharge papers, and drove her to Dominic’s house, and the whole way there Pat kept up a running commentary on the neighborhoods we passed, on the houses, on the cars, on everything and nothing. She was nervous, I realized. Nervous and excited and trying to hide both.

When we pulled up to the house, Pat’s mouth fell open.

“Oh my God.” She turned slowly in her seat, taking in the modern sprawl of glass and stone, the floor to ceiling windows, the manicured grounds. “Celeste. This is not a house. This is a resort with a roof.”