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Celeste's POV

Thorn Pharmaceuticals loomed overhead, affluence barricading the skyscraper like I had no business stepping foot inside it.

It was safe to say that in person, Miller Pharma didn't hold a candle to it.

My heels clicked on the marble as I strutted in anyway. With the information I held in my hands, he was one conversation away from watching it all crumble if he didn't pay attention to me.

I headed straight for the elevator and reached his secretary's office.

“I'm here to see Kade Thorn.”

The young girl looked up at me, her expression unwelcoming in a way that wasn't my problem.

“Do you have an appointment?”

“Just tell him it's important. Celeste Miller.”

She shook her head.

“I can't do that ma'am. Without an appointment, I can't—”

“The elder sister?”

A voice cut through the air, deep and familiar, so I turned.

Then I met his gaze.

Eyes that held me in place for a beat longer than necessary, something unreadable passing behind them, before I cleared my throat.

“Mr Thorn, I would like to have a word.”

His brow lifted.

“I see.”

This smug son of a bitch. He cast me a measured glance before tipping his head, signaling me to follow.

I rolled my eyes.

I couldn't wait to wipe that smug off his face.

His office came into view—grand, intense, spotless, not a speck of dust out of place.

I clicked my tongue.

Why perform power when you already have it? He was a bastard through and through.

“Aren't you going to offer me a seat?” asked when he rounded his desk and sank into his seat, leaving me hanging.

If I didn't have plans to use him, I would've already turned around and found my way out of here.

“What brings you here?” He ignored my question and rested his hands on top of his desk. More intense stares that were so particular of him, settled on me.

I wasn't backing down. I reached the edges of the desk and leaned into it.

“If i were you, i wouldn't be so cocky right now.”

Something flickered across his face for a fleeting beat, the first genuine reaction I'd extracted from him since I met him.

“Interesting. You talk back.” I caught a small smile ghost his lips before it disappeared.

Somehow I felt like I'd earned it. Who knew this asshole could move his face?

“So…ready to discuss or not?”

“Not with you giving me a generous view, no,” His eyes lingered on my exposed chest.

“I don't approve of being seduced by the elder sister.”

I let out a powerful scoff.

“You wish.”

His gaze moved through the length of me anyway, unhurried, keeping me almost uncertain of his next move.

“Fine. Let's discuss.” Quiet relief settled within me as I watched him rise and round his desk before pulling out a seat for me. Our eyes met for a second before I took it, and he pulled it back in.

Somehow, something shifted in the air.

“Comfortable?” The tease in his voice as he headed back to his seat didn't bother me in the slightest.

“Very.” He settled back in, all his attention on me. I made my move.

I took out the photographs and laid them on the table, well enough for his sight to catch.

As his eyes soon darted across them, I saw the exact moment his perfect composure completely collapsed, even though he pretended otherwise.

The photographs were proof of Henry's manipulations affecting the contract, Mom's embezzlement, knowing fully well that it simply meant that Kade was lied to concerning the company's actual financial standing,

“Why are you showing me this?”

That question completely threw me off guard. His eyes lifted to meet mine and held for over a couple of seconds, his head tilting.

“Because you deserve to know the truth.”

He shook his head, his face morphing into cheap amusement.

“No, Celeste. Tell me what you want.”

I ignored the way my name rolled off his tongue like he had practiced.

Seems he clearly didn't consider me an ally just yet. I pulled out my last card, and I laid it on the table, ignoring his penetrating stares. The evidence of the future hostile takeover of his company by Henry and my mother.

I saw the moment his hands clenched around the photocopy paper as he picked it up, something dark moving through his eyes that was hard to miss.

Then a smile blossomed on his face as his hands loosened.

“Incredible…” He muttered.

What could possibly be so amusing?

“Aren't you upset?” I was slowly losing patience.

“So what if I'm upset?”

My knuckles had already turned white, my fists clenched at my sides.

“Maybe you should do something then.”

He leaned back into his seat.

“You should consider telling me what you want. It's been a while since I've experienced betrayal within blood.”

Bile rose in my throat.

“Blood? You mean family? I don't have one.”

His brows shot up.

“I'm listening.”

“It's really none of your business—”

“I'm also getting cheated on by your sister, so I get it.”

I almost froze upon realization.

He had no idea this wasn't the first time he was revealing my husband's affair to me.

“So what you want is…”

I blinked out of that mood and stated exactly what I wanted like I had been waiting for this moment my whole life.

“Your resources. I want your protection in exchange for all this information.”

His eyes narrowed slightly.

“You're saying you want to be an ally.”

“That's exactly what I'm saying.”

“And why should I believe you?”

Tension was thick in the air.

“Think about the fact that I could've destroyed all this evidence instead of bringing them here.”

“I wasn't trying to make an enemy out of your family—”

“Now you have every reason to.”

I saw this man's teeth. He flashed me a charming smile, I almost didn't believe it.

“You're good.”

“At what?”

“How does a fake dating situation sound…for your protection? Falling for me after announcing your divorce makes the most sense here. No one will question it.”

“What? No.” My face scrunched up.

“No?” He stilled for a moment.

I had a feeling right then, as he rode through his shock, that he had never been subjected to that word in his life before.

“I'm not leaving an entanglement to slip right into another. I don't even know you.”

“Alright. You should know me soon.”

There was something underlying about his sentence and his tone. It was unsettling.

I ignored it.

“And that means we have a deal, right?”

“Welcome aboard, Mrs Miller.”

He stretched his hand for a handshake, and I melted into how soft and warm his hand was.

“Miss.”

“Your mom will come for you once she finds out. What do you plan to do then?”

“Whatever it takes.”

He was right. She came for me that same evening.

There was a gala being held in one of the most prestigious art galleries in the country to celebrate an anniversary, and I arrived just as it began.

When I strutted right through the entrance, I felt a thousand penetrating gazes fall on me, most in awe, most in shock.

Even more heads turned in my direction, whispers reaching my ears.

“Is that really Celeste Miller?”

“I told you something happened—”

“I can't believe my eyes—”

It was all cut short, my sea of unsaid compliments, the moment a hand met with my face, sending a hot slap across it.

My mother. I blinked as I staggered back a step, those awed eyes now facing the scene in shock.

My mother's body was shaky with a tremor she struggled to hide, her eyes wide and glassy as a shriek tore out of her.

“You want a divorce? You?”

My body instantly went rigid, numbness spreading through me.

I couldn't handle their stares that made me feel so small, like I hadn't already made up my mind to never let myself be looked down on again.

Just before my eyes blurred, a warm arm wrapped around my waist, and I was pulled and pressed against a hard wall.

“Sorry I'm late, Celeste.”

Kade. Whispers swelled across the gallery, flashes of cameras in our direction as this man held me like he's done it before, so naturally.

My mother's eyes conveyed her shock as they connected with his hands on my waist, even though she straightened.

“What are you—” I breathed, amazed I could even form words.

“Shh, play along.”

Something in my mother's expression cracked then, and it wasn't anger.

It was fear.