Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 510

The hotel was not open to the public. Only staff moved through its halls, and the few guests Dominic had chosen to house here ahead of the party. But these women were not staff. They were all dressed beautifully, in gowns that shimmered even from a distance, as though they were ready to attend an event. My event.

I should have looked away. The scene had nothing to do with me, and whatever drama was playing out beside that pool was none of my business. But some of the faces below seemed familiar to me. I could not place them from this height, could not make out the features clearly, but something in the way one woman stood, head high and proud, tugged at a memory I could not catch.

Curiosity, that old enemy of my peace of mind, got the better of me.

I slipped back inside, grabbed the key card from the vanity, and let myself out of the suite. The corridor was empty, the elevator silent, and the short ride down to the ground floor felt longer than it should have. I crossed the lobby quickly, past the few workers who looked up and then very carefully looked away, and made my way toward the pool.

I stopped at a safe distance, behind a row of tall planters heavy with white flowers, where I could see everything clearly and they could not see me.

Then the scene came into focus.

One woman stood in front of the others, facing the kneeling figure, and there was nothing accidental about the way she held herself. Her chin was high, her shoulders back, her arms loose at her sides like she had all the time in the world. Behind her, three more women stood in a loose half circle, dressed in their own fine gowns, watching like an audience. And in front of them all, on the warm stone tiles, the fifth woman knelt, her hands resting in her lap, her whole body bent under the weight of the moment.

I stood frozen behind the planter, one hand pressed to my mouth, my mind refusing to stitch what my eyes were showing me into the story I had been told. Safe. Free. The aunt who had given everything so her niece could have a life. And there she was, kneeling in the fading afternoon light, while her niece watched her humiliated and did nothing.

The sharp, bright sound of a laugh cut across the water, one of the three women finding something amusing, and Scarlett's shoulders flinched like the sound had been aimed at her.

My engagement party was less than an hour away, but I could not think about that anymore. I could not move, could not breathe, could not look away from Scarlett kneeling at Tasha's feet.