All Chapters of Two Can Play: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

SERAPHINE I sat on the sofa frowning at Julian who was standing close to the foyer, drawing smoke from the cigarette in his mouth like he did not have a care in the world. "Wipe that frown off your face." He walked closer as he spoke. "I left my husband to come spend time with you," I said. "You promised to give me the princess treatment and now you're bringing some other girl to this sacred place of ours." "Isn't that why I spoil you with enough money?" "But it's always been just the two of us." "Quit whining." He blew smoke at me and sat beside me. "You've gotten boring lately. This is for your own good. Leslie is only coming here to spice up the sex and stop me from moving on to someone more lively." Hearing this, my heart skipped a beat. I could not afford for Julian to cast me aside. How would I keep up my lifestyle if he did. Being married to a poor man was a curse. Many times I regretted getting married to Dominic. Granted, he had a sexy body and was good in

SERAPHINE Veil Holdings did not look like a building that belonged to my husband. That was the first thought I had when I turned onto the street and saw it rise up ahead of me. Glass and steel, floor after floor of it, the kind of structure that did not apologize for the space it occupied. The morning light hit the facade and threw it back at the street in sheets of silver and I sat in my car at the traffic light and stared at it with my mouth open. I had driven past buildings like this my whole life. Had looked up at them from the street and thought about the men inside them, the kind of men who made decisions that moved money across the world before breakfast. My husband was one of those men. My husband owned this building. I pulled into the visitors lot with my hands tight on the wheel and my heart doing something embarrassing in my chest. The lobby doors were glass too, tall enough to make you feel small before you had even walked in, and through them I could see a rec

CELESTE I woke up before the sun. The room was quiet and dark and for a moment I lay there, the sheets too soft and too expensive to be my own. Then I remembered. The party. The stage. The glass room. The closet full of clothes in my size with price tags I had turned my face away from. Dominic. I turned my head on the pillow and looked at him. He was asleep on his back, one arm across his stomach, the sheet pulled to his waist. In sleep he looked different. The controlled stillness he carried when he was awake became something softer, something unguarded. His jaw was relaxed. His breathing was slow and even. He looked like an angel who had appeared in my life from nowhere. I looked away. That was exactly the kind of thinking I could not afford. I knew better. I had told myself I knew better, and then I had spent the night in his bed, and now I was lying here at five in the morning watching him sleep and thinking about angels. I needed to be careful. Whatever this w

CELESTE I stared at the document in my hand. Then I stared at him Dominic. He crossed the room and took it from me, looked at it, and smiled. Not the smirk from the stage. Something quieter than that. "We are still married," he said. "But not for much longer." "I don't understand," I said. "She signed divorce documents and you are still married?" He set the document on the desk and leaned against the edge, crossing his arms. "When I first found out about her affair with Julian, I was furious," he said. "I wanted it done immediately. I drafted the documents that same week, signed my portion, and went to find her." He paused. "She was getting ready to go out. In a rush, distracted, already halfway out of her own mind. I told her I had something for her to sign. I told her I had already signed it and it only needed her signature." "You didn't tell her what it was?" "I wanted her to read it." His jaw shifted slightly. "I wanted her to see the words right there in fr

CELESTE I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at my phone. Julian had sent text messages. "Where are you, baby. I'm worried." "Please call me when you get this." "I miss you so much. You are the love of my life." "Please just let me know you are safe." I read them one by one and felt nothing except a mild, distant irritation, the way you feel about a noise that has been going on too long. I rolled my eyes and put the phone face down on the bed. Then I picked it back up and scrolled to my mother's name. She answered on the second ring. "Celeste." Her voice was warm and immediate, the voice she had used my entire life, the one that made me feel twelve years old in the best possible way. "My daughter. A millionaire. I always knew you had big dreams and I always knew you would fulfill them." I laughed. "Mom." "Don't Mom me. I am allowed to be proud. Your father is so proud too." A pause. "Where are you? I feel like I haven't seen your face in so long." "I know. I'm sorry.