Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 46

Chapter 46

CELESTE

I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at my phone.

Julian had sent text messages.

“Where are you, baby. I’m worried.”

“Please call me when you get this.”

“I miss you so much. You are the love of my life.”

“Please just let me know you are safe.”

I read them one by one and felt nothing except a mild, distant irritation, the way you feel about a noise that has been going on too long.

I rolled my eyes and put the phone face down on the bed.

Then I picked it back up and scrolled to my mother’s name.

She answered on the second ring.

“Celeste.” Her voice was warm and immediate, the voice she had used my entire life, the one that made me feel twelve years old in the best possible way. “My daughter. A millionaire. I always knew you had big dreams and I always knew you would fulfill them.”

I laughed. “Mom.”

“Don’t Mom me. I am allowed to be proud. Your father is so proud too.” A pause. “Where are you? I feel like I haven’t seen your face in so long.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I’ve been so busy, especially now with trying to set up the lab at the new location. Everything is moving so fast.”

“You will come and visit?”

“Next week,” I promised. “I will come next week.”

“I will hold you to that promise, Celeste.”

“I know you will.”

After the call ended I sat there for a moment with the phone in my hand and felt the warmth of her voice settle somewhere in my chest. Then I scrolled to my brother.

He picked up immediately.

“There she is,” he said. “The woman of the hour. I saw you on the news. On a stage with the richest man in the country. My sister.”

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“Stop,” I told him, but I was smiling.

“I’m serious. Congratulations, Celeste. Genuinely. You worked for this.”

“Thank you.”

There was a pause. Then, “Was that Seraphine’s husband? The chairman. Dominic Ford. The name and the face, it’s definitely him, isn’t it. Sera’s husband.”

I went still for a half second.

I had almost forgotten. My brother had carried a quiet thing for Sera years ago, back when the three of us were still in university and the world was smaller and simpler. Sera had never looked at him twice. When she eventually married, he had moved on and never mentioned it again.

I had not realized he still kept tabs on her life closely enough to know her husband’s face.

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“Nothing yet.” I took the phone back. “I can handle Seraphine. I’ll keep you posted if she does more than leave voicemails.”

He nodded. Then his expression shifted, the ease going out of it, replaced by something more careful.

“Sit down,” he said. There is something you need to know.”

We both sat

He was quiet for a moment, the way he got when he was choosing his words rather than just producing

them.

“Sparrow thinks the attack today was not something to take lightly,” he began. “In the past, there were many men who tried to take my father’s company. After my parents were killed, they came for me too. Sparrow handled them, one by one. That is why I stayed hidden all these years. I could not surface until they were all dealt with.”

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