Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 283

Chapter 283

JULIAN

The morning sun threw itself across my office in long golden slabs, and I let it have its moment because I was feeling magnanimous. Today was the day. Today Scarlett Vance would walk into Dominic Ford’s orbit dressed like a walking sin and he would swallow the hook so deep it would take surgery to remove, and by the time he surfaced for air, I would own every second of his humiliation. The thought was so sweet I could almost taste it, like the last sip of a very expensive whiskey.

I had spent a fortune arranging it, and I had spent it gladly because some purchases were worth every cent. A cover story about a business associate with deep pockets and a taste for discretion. And Scarlett, that flame-haired masterpiece of a woman, who could make a monk abandon his vows with one glance and then make him thank her for it. Dominic thought he was meeting a partner. He was meeting the beginning of his end, and he would be so busy staring down her dress that he would never see the cameras until it was far too late.

And then I would take that footage to Celeste. I would lay it out before her like evidence at a trial, every frame of Dominic Ford groaning and thrusting and making a fool of himself, and I would watch the scales fall from her

eyes.

She would finally understand the kind of man she had chosen over me. A man who could throw her under the bus the moment a prettier face walked past. And once she saw that, once she understood that her precious Dominic was just another animal with his pants down and his dignity in a woman’s mouth, she would realize that giving her husband a second chance was the smarter play. After all, she had cheated on me too. We were both guilty. We were both dirty. So we would simply wipe the slate clean and start over, and I would be the bigger man for it, and she would love me all the more for my mercy.

I was still savoring that particular fantasy when my phone rang, and the name on the screen made me frown. Mom. I almost let it ring out. I should have let it ring out.

I answered anyway.

“Julian, please, you have to help us. Please, please, you have to help us.” Her voice came apart in my ear, shredding on every syllable, and I sat up so fast my chair nearly tipped backward. I had never heard my mother sound like that.

“Mom? Morn, what’s wrong? What happened? Where are you?”

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