I press on. “He didn’t leave you because I came along. He left because he was already gone. Emotionally, mentally—done. I didn’t break you up. You were over long before I entered the picture.”
She swallows hard, and I watch her fingers curl around the edge of the tablecloth.
“And all of this—the way you show up at Soul Sync, those magically timed accidental run-ins, the white dress at our engagement party––you’re not making a statement. You’re making a scene.”
Her eyes flash, but I don’t let her interrupt.
“I don’t say these things to humiliate you, but I do say them so you’ll understand. It’s time you accept the truth.” I lean in. “He will never choose you. Can’t you see that?”
There. A tremor. The slightest tremble of her chin.
She blinks hard and looks away. And for a breath, she looks… breakable.
I hadn’t expected that.
My voice softens. “I’m not trying to be cruel. I understand what it is to love Alex Sebring.”
She cuts me off. “I don’t love Alex.”
The words land with a thud. Not because they’re harsh but because they make no sense.
I blink. “What?”
She exhales hard, and her sharp edges crumble.
“It’s Tyson,” she says, her voice low. Raw. “It’s always been Tyson. And you’re right about something—this ends today.”
My stomach drops, and my spine straightens. The name alone shifts something in the surrounding air.
I narrow my eyes. “What does Tyson have to do with any of this?”
Celeste swallows. “Right after Alex and I broke up, Tyson found me. I was vulnerable, humiliated… and he made me feel wanted. Needed. I was in a bad place.”
Damn. That sounds familiar.
She glances around the restaurant and leans in, voice trembling. “We dated for a brief time. I thought he was harmless. Until he wasn’t.”
I don’t breathe.
Fuck.
“He used me,” she whispers. “Every question, every compliment—he was only after one thing. Information about Alex. He wanted anything he could use.”
My lips part, but no sound comes.
“And then he started his collection. Nudes I sent, videos of us having sex—things I wasn’t aware he was recording. He’d ask me to send him videos of myself doing things, which I did because I’m stupid. I don’t even know everything he has on me. But it’s enough to destroy me.”
Disgust rises in my throat.
“He’s been blackmailing me ever since. Threatening to release it all if I don’t do what he says. He’ll ruin my name, destroy my career, humiliate me in ways I’ll never recover from.”
She looks me dead in the eye. “Everything I’ve done to you and Alex was because of him. He told me to get between you and Alex and stir up drama. Become a wedge between you.”
Silence falls between us. For a moment, I can’t speak. The entire script I thought I knew just got flipped.
Celeste Worthington: perfectly pressed, perfectly poised, and until now, perfectly loathed.
But the woman sitting across from me? She’s unraveling. Her mascara might not be smudged yet, but the armor she wears is cracking, splintering.
