Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 90

Chapter 90

Maybe he just missed me. The way I missed him, which was more than I was comfortable admitting even to myself.

I got out of the car and walked toward the entrance and yawned so hard my jaw cracked.

Too many orgasms on an empty stomach, it turned out, was not the ideal preparation for a full day of research. Noted. I would file that under lessons learned and absolutely not change my behavior.

Pat was already inside, moving through the new space with the energy of a woman who had been waiting years for a building this size and intended to make the most of every square foot of it. She looked up when I walked in and immediately read my face.

“You need breakfast,” she said.

“I need breakfast,” I agreed.

We sat in the small kitchen area and I ate and she talked and I felt some of the morning’s chaos settle. Pat had always had that effect on me. She was steady in the way that certain people were steady, not because nothing affected them but because they had decided a long time ago that falling apart was not particularly useful.

I told her I was going to use one of the bedrooms for a while. Late nights, early mornings, I wanted to be

close to the work.

She looked at me over her cup. “How late are we talking?”

“Very late,” I said.

She nodded slowly. “And this has nothing to do with anything going on at home.”

“It has everything to do with the work,” I said, which was at least partially true.

She let it go.

The day moved quickly after that. We had decisions to make and equipment to order and a team meeting that ran two hours over schedule because everyone had opinions and the opinions were mostly good ones. I was in the middle of signing off on a procurement list when my phone rang.

My mother.

I stepped out into the corridor and answered.

“Hi, Mum.”

“Celeste.” Her voice was not the warm hello I was used to. It was careful. Worried. “Are you cheating on

Julian?”

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I closed my eyes briefly.

Of course.

*Julian called,” she continued. “He said you moved into the guest room. That you invited a man over. That he heard things, Celeste. And there was evidence…”

“Mum,” I said.

She stopped.

“In this whole world,” I asked, “who knows me better than anyone else?”

A pause. “It’s me,” she said quietly.

“Do you think I am capable of doing something like that?”

“No,” she said immediately. “That’s why I’m so shocked. But Julian sounded so worried. He said the five billion was going to your head. That you were not yourself.”

I sighed. Julian using my mother as a weapon. Of course he was. Of course.

“I will come and visit you this weekend,” I told her. “We will sit down and talk properly. But I want you to know that I have not done anything wrong.”

Her exhale was audible and relieved. “I feel better hearing you say that. I will be waiting for you.”

“Get some rest, Mum. I love you.”

“I love you too, my darling.”

I ended the call and stood in the corridor for a moment.

That was it.

That was the moment, if I had needed one, that confirmed everything. Julian had called my mother. Had performed the worried husband routine for her. Had used her love for me as a tool to apply pressure, exactly the way he used everything, quietly and with a smile on his face.

I had been planning to take my time. To control the timing. To let things unfold at the pace I chose.

I was done waiting.

I called Dominic.

He answered on the second ring.

“I want Julian to catch us,” I told him. “In the act. In person. No more hints or suggestions or evidence on bedsheets. I want him to see it with his own eyes.”

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