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Chapter 230: The Memoir Tour

Penulis: Clare
last update Tanggal publikasi: 2026-08-10 05:22:55

The publisher wanted a tour.

Not a real one—nothing like the grueling marathons Celeste had endured during her Laurent Axis days. Just a few cities. A few events. A few carefully managed opportunities for readers to meet the woman behind The CEO Already Knew.

I said no.

Then the publisher offered more money.

I said no again.

Then Celeste said, "You wrote a book. People want to hear about it. Stop being difficult."

"Difficult is my brand."

"Your brand is being a reformed con artist who found lov
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  • THE CEO ALREADY KNEW    Chapter 245: The Garden at the End of the World

    We flew home with Eleanor's letter in my pocket.The Atlantic was grey beneath us, endless and indifferent. Celeste slept beside me, her head on my shoulder, her hand curled around mine. The new Lucky—Lucky the Third, the small white thing we'd adopted from a neighbor—was in a carrier at our feet, snoring softly.I thought about Eleanor. About her 112 years. About the way she'd held my book on her lap like a prayer book. About the words she'd written on that scrap of paper.I want to be remembered as someone who I loved.Wasn't that what all of us wanted? To be remembered not for our accomplishments, not for our failures, but for the simple, brutal, beautiful act of loving?"You're thinking too loud," Celeste murmured."I'm thinking about death.""Mortifying.""Eleanor wasn't afraid. She said I taught her that fear and courage can coexist.""You did.""I didn't do anything. I just wrote books.""You just wrote books that saved lives." She opened her eyes. Look at me. "That's not nothi

  • THE CEO ALREADY KNEW    Chapter 244: The View from Here

    The rosebush grew tall.Ten years after Lucky died, it had climbed the south wall, tangled itself around the trellis, and claimed a corner of the garden as its own. The blooms were pink—the same pink as the roses in my fourth book, the same pink as the dress I'd worn to Clara's wedding, the same pink as the sunset over the mountains on the night Celeste first said she loved me."I think it's trying to take over," Celeste said.We were in the garden, as we always were on summer evenings. Her hands were covered in soil. Her hair was entirely silver now, and she wore it in a braid that fell over her shoulder."I think it's succeeding.""Should we cut it back?""Absolutely not."She smiled. "I thought you'd say that."We sat on the stone wall, side by side, watching the roses sway in the evening breeze. The mountains were purple in the distance. The lake was calm."Fifteen years," I said."Fifteen years since what?""Since the gala. Since you sent a drink across a crowded room and watched

  • THE CEO ALREADY KNEW    Chapter 243: The Shape of Years

    Time became something different after the fifth book.Not a river—rivers moved too quickly, too urgently. Time became a garden. Something that grew and changed and needed tending. Something that rewarded patience.I woke one morning and realized I'd been with Celeste for seven years.Seven years since the gala. Seven years since she'd sent a drink across a crowded room and watched me try not to drown."You're staring," she said.We were in bed. The morning light was grey—autumn again, or maybe winter. The seasons had begun to blur together, each one beautiful in its own way."I'm counting.""Counting what?""The years. The days. The moments." I reached for her hand. "Seven years since I walked into your life wearing a borrowed identity and a rehearsed smile.""Seven years since I let you.""You let me?""I opened the door." She smiled. "You walked through."I kissed her knuckles. "Lucky for you.""Lucky for us."The dog in question was asleep at the foot of the bed, snoring softly. Hi

  • THE CEO ALREADY KNEW    Chapter 242: The Legacy of Small Things

    The letter from Eleanor arrived again in autumn.Not a new letter—the same one. The eighty-two-year-old woman from Vermont had written to me twice more since that first spring, updating me on her garden, her grief, her slow return to the land of the living. Her handwriting had grown shakier with each envelope, but her voice remained steady.Dear Daphne,I planted a rosebush today. Pink, like yours. The woman at the nursery said it wouldn't survive the Vermont winter, but I bought it anyway. Sometimes hope is more important than expertise.My daughter visited last week. She brought my grandson—a boy with your dog's name, can you believe it? Lucky, they call him. Not after your dog, she said. After the feeling.I told her about your books. About the garden. About the woman who taught me that it's never too late to start over.She asked to borrow them. I said no. I'm not ready to share with you yet.Maybe next year.—EleanorI read the letter twice. Then I folded it carefully and tucked

  • THE CEO ALREADY KNEW    Chapter 241: The Winter of Small Things

    The winter of our third year in Geneva was the coldest on record.Not metaphorically—literally. The meteorologists used phrases like "polar vortex" and "historic low temperatures." The lake froze solid enough to walk on. The mountains disappeared behind curtains of snow that didn't lift for weeks.Lucky refused to go outside at all."He'll have to go eventually," Celeste said, watching the dog stare mournfully at the back door."He'll hold it until spring. He's stubborn.""He's ridiculous.""Like his owners."Lucky looked back at us, as if to say are you two going to open this door or not? Then he turned around and walked to his bed and curled into a tight ball of indignation."He's not going," I observed."He's not going."We sat on the couch and watched the snow fall.---I wrote in the nook, wrapped in blankets, drinking tea that went cold before I remembered to drink it. The fourth book—The Beginning That Never Ends—was finished now, off with the publisher, waiting to become real.

  • THE CEO ALREADY KNEW    Chapter 240: The Beginning That Never Ends

    The fourth book had a title before it had a shape.The Beginning That Never Ends. Celeste found it scrawled on a scrap of paper beside my laptop, next to a coffee ring and a dried smear of mud from Lucky's paws."That's either very romantic or very ominous," she said."It's both.""Like you."I took the paper from her. Looked at the words I'd written in a half-sleep, words that had surfaced from somewhere deeper than conscious thought."I keep thinking about endings," I said. "The way we talk about them like they're real. Like something actually ends.""Things do end. Books end. Tours end. Lives end.""But the story doesn't. Not really. The story keeps going, even after the last page. Even after the credits roll." I looked at her. "That's what I want to write about. The story after the story."Celeste was quiet for a moment. Then she sat beside me on the couch. Lucky immediately climbed into her lap."Then write it," she said. "I'll be here when you're done.""You're always here.""Th

  • THE CEO ALREADY KNEW    Chapter 4: The First Time I Saw Her

    The gala is the kind of event where the centerpieces cost more than cars.I know this because I looked up the florist — a name I recognized from a previous operation in Monaco, where a single arrangement for a wedding had cost upwards of forty thousand euros. These arrangements are smaller but more

  • THE CEO ALREADY KNEW    Chapter 3: Laurent Axis Has Three Hundred Cameras and One Blind Spot

    The building has three hundred and fourteen cameras.I know this because I spent a week cultivating a friendship with a mid-level IT contractor who works the overnight Laurent Axis security rotation. His name is Marc. He's thirty-two, divorced, plays chess online under a pseudonym he's very proud o

  • THE CEO ALREADY KNEW    Chapter 2: Study the Target. Don't Become the Target

    Rule one of any operation: know your target better than they know themselves.It sounds simple. It's not. Knowing someone better than they know themselves requires a kind of attention that most people are incapable of sustaining — the ability to notice the things they're not saying, the patterns th

  • THE CEO ALREADY KNEW    Chapter 1: The Best Liars Never Look Like They're Lying

    The trick to a good lie is that you have to believe it first.Not the whole thing. Not every detail. Just the feeling of it — the emotional core you're selling. Believe the feeling, and the rest follows naturally. The posture adjusts. The eyes soften. The voice drops into exactly the right register

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