Celeste woke in Adrian's guest room, sunlight streaming through the windows. She stretched, feeling more relaxed than she had in months. Last night had been perfect. It felt real.
She padded toward the kitchen, then heard Adrian's voice from his study. He was on the phone, the door slightly ajar.
"I don't care what it takes, just make it happen. She can't know. If she finds out before the deal closes, everything could fall apart. Look, I'm handling her, okay? Just give me two more weeks. The grandmother situation complicates things, but I can work around it."
Celeste's blood went cold. Handling her?
"Once this wraps up, everything goes back to normal. I'll be free of this mess, and we can move forward with the acquisition. The optics will be perfect by then, just trust me."
She backed away from the door, her mind racing. It was all fake. Of course it was, that was the arrangement. But she'd started to believe that it was something more. She'd thought his feelings were becoming real.
She thought of her grandmother's bills, the money he'd promised, his offer to "help" with her career. Was that fake too? Was she just another business transaction to him?
Her chest tightened. She'd been so stupid. Billionaires didn't fall for broke bakery workers. They used them.
Her eyes fell on his study door, now fully open. The velvet box sat on the desk, the diamond ring gleaming in the morning light. His "family heirloom." The thing he claimed to love most.
She needed to get on with her plan. If this was just business to him, she could play that game too. The ring had to be worth at least six figures, maybe even more. Enough to cover all of Grammie's treatments, start over somewhere new, and most importantly, shut out her past forever.
******************************************
Later that morning. Adrian got called away to an emergency meeting.
"I have to get to the office," Adrian said, grabbing his jacket. "Emergency with the Tokyo merger. Make yourself at home. I should be back by noon. Maybe we could grab lunch?"
He looked hopeful and his voice seemed to have a glimmer of excitement in it.
Celeste managed a smile. "Sure. Sounds good."
He kissed her forehead and left.
Adrian sat at the head of the table. He tried to hide his apprehension, but it seemed like all the members of the board could see through him.
"Your relationship with Miss Lucas is beginning to do more harm than good to this company, "Oliver Gane, the Chief Financial Officer began. Adrian held his hands in his head. He knew Oliver was right. The Tokyo merger wasn't by choice. Moretti enterprises had been going down a financial drain, and this was the company's last chance of escaping bankruptcy. It was a desperate bid to bury a scandal. The senior Mr. Moretti had owed millions before Adrian had inherited the company, and now it had become his responsibility. Without this deal, there was no way to pay it back before the truth came out. The condition stipulated for the merger was simple. Marry the CEO of Hashimoto Inc.'s daughter.
Celeste stood frozen in the middle of his living room, her heart pounding.
She could leave and forget what she'd heard, give him a chance to explain. Maybe she'd misunderstood.
But she'd been betrayed before. Rich people always protected themselves first. She remembered the text she had seen on his phone.
She walked to the study. The ring sat in its box, shining and beautiful. Her hands shook as she picked it up. She closed her eyes and opened them. With a deep breath she slipped the ring into her pocket and left the box open on the desk. Let him see immediately what she'd done. She wanted to let him know she wasn't some naive girl he could manipulate.
Celeste grabbed her coat and without looking back, walked out of Adrian Moretti's penthouse.
******************************************
The hospital bills weren't the worst part of her grandmother's illness. The worst part was the man who had offered to "make them manageable." He never called; he didn't believe in that. Just simple threat reminders sufficed for him. 5 months turned to 3, and Adrian's betrayal was enough to spur her to steal that ring so she could pay him back before her time was up.
Celeste sat surrounded by boxes. Her grandmother's entire life had been packed into brown containers labelled in shaky handwriting.
She had sold the ring for forty thousand dollars. Not nearly close to what it was worth, but the jeweller had been suspicious, and she'd been desperate to leave New York. The money had covered her grandmother's final months in a better facility.
Now Celeste was alone in a new city, working at another bakery, trying to forget.
She opened another box filled with her own things from Brooklyn. Clothes, books, her culinary school diploma. And at the bottom, wrapped in tissue paper she didn't remember packing, the teddy bear. The one Adrian had won for her at Coney Island.
Celeste pulled it out, and something crinkled. A piece of paper which had been folded was pinned to its back. Her hands shook as she unpinned it.
Celeste
If you're reading this, you found Mr. Butters. (Yes, I named him. You never did.) I'm writing this at 2 AM because I can't sleep, and there are things I need to say but don't know how.
I know this arrangement started as business. But somewhere between the fake smiles and staged photos, something changed for me. I don't know if this is real for you like it's becoming real for me. I'm terrified to ask. But I'm working up the courage. Maybe by the time you find this note, I'll have already told you. Maybe we'll laugh about how I wrote it like a lovesick teenager.
Or maybe you'll never find it, and that's okay too. At least Mr. Butters will keep my secret.
Whatever happens, thank you for giving me the ability to feel. I thought I'd lost it forever.
—A
The note blurred as tears filled Celeste's eyes. She read it again and again till the tears began to roll down her cheeks.
He'd noticed everything. He had actually paid attention in those special moments. He'd felt something real.
And she stole from him. Ghosted him. Ran away without giving him a chance to explain what she'd overheard.
"Oh God," she whispered to the empty apartment. "What did I do?"
She had been so convinced he was using her that she'd never considered she might be wrong. Never thought to ask.
She clutched the teddy bear to her chest and cried. She cried for her grandmother, for Adrian, for the love she'd been too scared to recognize until it was too late.