Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 417

CELESTE

"I need to speak to you about something very important."

The silence on the other end of the line stretched so long I pulled the phone away to check the screen, and then Kingsley's voice came back, slow and careful, like a man testing ice. "I'm listening."

"I want to know what Pat means to you, Kingsley. And I want to know what plans you have toward her. Be honest with me. No matter how bad it sounds, the truth is better than anything else."

"Is she alright? Did something happen?"

"Pat is fine. She is resting. This conversation is about you and what you intend to do about her."

He let out a long breath, and when he spoke again his voice had changed. The caution was gone, and in its place was something steadier, like a man finally saying words he had been carrying for a long time. "I care deeply about Pat, Celeste. More than I can explain. I know what I did to her was unforgivable. I lied to her. I used her. I filmed her like she was nothing, and I will have to live with that for the rest of my life.

But if Pat would let me, I want to make her my wife. I want to spend the rest of my life proving to her that the man who hurt her is not the man I am. I want to give her a home. A family. Everything she has ever deserved."

"Tomorrow is her younger sister Vivian's birthday, and Pat has to attend. Her family does not treat her like one of their own. They compare her. They mock her. They remind her of every failure they believe she has made. Her mother calls her to lecture her about how she will never be as wonderful as her younger sister. Her sister takes every chance she gets to cut her down in front of other people. Pat walks into that room knowing she is going to be hurt, and she goes anyway, because she has spent her whole life believing that is what she deserves."

The silence on his end was different now. Harder. I could almost hear him breathing through his teeth. "How long have they treated her like that?"

"Her whole life. And tomorrow she is going to sit at that table alone, and they are going to take turns making her feel small, and she is going to smile through all of it because that is what she has always done."