Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 387

Chapter 387

PAT

I took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

The event room was exactly what I had expected: a vast round space with a table so large it could have seated twice the people gathered around it, the surface/groaning under plasters of food I had no it-tention of touching. A cake sat at the center, three tiers of white frosting and gold leaf, tall enough to be seen from any corner of the room, and the whole place had been decorated within an inch of its life, streamers and balloons and fresh Howers arranged like someone was trying to buy love with confetti.

Everyone was already there. My father at the head of the table, my mother beside him, Vivian in the seat of honor with her husband Jonathan, my uncle and aunt, and a scattering of distant relatives I barely recognized, all of them dressed as though they had been invited to a wedding instead of a birthday.

Vivian looked like she had tried the hardest of all. Her dress was the color of champagne, cut low and tight, her hair swept up in a style that must have cost a small fortune, diamonds flashing at her ears and wrists. She looked expensive. She always looked expensive.

Every year on Vivian’s birthday, they gathered like this and licked her ass, all because Jonathan was a manager at a finance company. No one in this family remembered my birthday. No one cared. I had gone almost numb to it by now, the way you go numb to a tooth that has ached for years. When my parents’ birthdays came around, I was expected to show up with a gift, and if I did not show up, they made a scene about it. But no one ever seemed to remember that I was also a member of this family.

Almost every seat at the table had been taken. The only two left were the stools tucked against the far corner of the room, the ones smaller than all the chairs, the ones from which it was nearly impossible to reach the food. It was not the first time. I did not care. I just wanted to go through the motions and be out of there as quickly as possible.

I walked in and greeted everyone, my parents included.

The looks of disdain were evident in their eyes.

“Patricia.” My mother said my name like it tasted bitter. “You came.”

“I said I would.”

Vivian rose from her seat and glided toward me, her smile so wide and bright it could have powered the room. “Pat! You made it

“This?” She held it up between two fingers like something she had found in the gutter. “You bought me this? On my birthday?”

“It’s a nice necklace, Vivian.”

“It’s cheap.” She said the word like a verdict. “It would have been better if you’d gotten me nothing at all instead of such a cheap gift. What am I supposed to do with this? Give it to the maid?”

I had spent a thousand dollars on that necklace. I did not think it was too cheap. It was my hard-earned money, and I had no reasun to spend more on anyone in this family.

I wasn’t lacking though. In the past, I had struggled with Helix, fighting to keep the lights on and the salaries paid, but once Celeste got that five billion funding from Veil Holdings, she had given me a hundred million for all the hard work I had put in over the years. My new salary structure came with bonuses and incentives that had nearly made my eyes pop out the first time I saw the numbers.

But I had always lived a simple life. I invested every cent Celeste gave me. I had told myself that someday I would retire from Helix, and if I did not have a husband by then, I would tour the world, live a carefree life, and spend my money on enjoyment.