I can't believe we are at 50 chapters. WOW Thank you so much for reading. Soooooo what do we think about Ethan?
Turning onto the dirt road to her house, Celine’s head was full of her date with Ethan, and her feelings about Sebastian. She resented having to “move on”. That’s how it felt, she guessed, to be the one who didn’t end the relationship. Sebastian had moved on, but she was stuck still loving him. Wasn’t that the entire reason she was, “Getting out there?”, to snap her out of her lovesick state?“Stupid lying asshat.”, Celine yelled and hit her steering wheel. She didn’t want to move one. She just wanted Sebastian. Hot mournful tears rolled down her cheeks, and the dirt road blurred. Why did he do this to her? He lied to her, and now she had to live life without him. “I hate him.”, she sobbed.Turning the bend, she saw her house and she accelerated planning to hit the brakes hard at the last minute in a satisfying act of pointless violence. At the last second, she saw a car parked in the road, blocking the way and she screamed and slammed her foot down hard on the brakes. Her body rocked
Beaumont Equestrian Center spent a lot of money on a fire system that was tested and maintained several times a year, but the one, and only time they needed to use the system, the fire raged undeterred. Where were the wet sprinklers and the alarm? Why hadn't the fire triggered anything? Was the system defective? Celine realized she was going to have to turn the sprinklers on manually. There was a lever on the side of the building, where she could turn the sprinklers on and hopefully put out the fire.Coughing and gasping from the smoke, Celine ran the length of the stables. The beam of her flashlight bounced across the ground until she found what she was looking for, the manual release. All she needed to do was pull the lever. Where was the lever? Did she have it wrong? No, she was positive this was the place, but there was no lever. Looking closer, she saw the lever had been torn off. What the hell was going on? Had someone accidentally done this and not reported it, or was this int
Celine was awake thinking when Collette came in with her cheery Mary Poppins voice. “Good morning.”, she sang, and Celine gritted her teeth. Instead of answering she closed her eyes. People went away if they thought she was sleeping.“Time to wake up, sleepy head.” Celine heard her bustling around the room, tidying up. “It’s so gloomy in here, no wonder you sleep all the time.”, Collette twittered like a happy little bird. Celine fantasized about finding a rock and throwing it at her. All that would be left was a puff of feathers littering the air.Suddenly, there was light glaring behind her eyelids, ruining her self-indulgent ambiance of depressive despair. Collette had drawn the curtains, that traitorous little harpy.“You’re going to have a visitor today.”, Collette chirped. “Look I got you some flowers. Aren’t they pretty? Here smell.”, She practically stuck the bouquet in Celine’s face who was lying on her stomach so the burns on her back could heal properly, and she had an oxyge
Smiling reassuringly at Celine, Ethan took the empty glass of water, set it down, and then turned in his seat to face Sebastian. “My name is Ethan Sommer. You must be Sebastian.” Dismissing Sebastian, Ethan turned toward Celine, a gentle smile lighting up his eyes. “Better?” Ethan asked.Celine nodded, grateful someone in this insane asylum was staying levelheaded. She, too, was trying to stay calm, and she took slow, shallow breaths. She didn’t want to start coughing again, but the tension in the room made her anxious, making it difficult to control her breathing.“Celine, we are going to take this outside so you can calm down, okay?” Ethan said and handed her the call button in case she needed help.He gave some kind of look at Collette, who sighed heavily. “He’s right, let’s take it outside.” Ethan and Collette walked outside leaving Sebastian standing there looking down at her.Sebastian reclaimed his seat next to Celine. Having him this close to her made her fingers twitch to tou
Paper covered Celine’s Desk like a coat of failures—bankruptcy documents, court documents, insurance documents, police reports, bills, bank statements, repossession notices, and loan documents. Most of them had giant red letters that said overdue, in arrears, and collections.At least her medical bills had not been added to the sizeable debt pile. While Celine lay convalescing, Collette had allowed Sebastian to take care of Celine’s medical bills, and after Celine mulled it over, she agreed.He also offered to rebuild the stables and arena, and she might have taken that money too, but it would not have solved their problems in time. The Beaumont family was so deep into debt that Carly from Smith, Carson & Associates Legal Firm recommended liquidating their assets and paying everything back. By assets, she meant everything they owned: land and home. They would have nowhere to live and no way to earn an income.Her father blamed himself; if he had been transparent and hadn’t taken those
When Celine lost everything, it altered her focus by clearing away the distracting clutter that her avarice wrought until what remained were her priorities, well-defined and finite—her father, sister, and herself. Clinging to all she had left in the world, Celine had no illusions that she could safeguard her most precious people. Therefore, she needed immediate access to power to protect herself and her family. Her mom used to say the best way to take down a colossal power was to undermine it from within, meaning infiltrate and ingratiate, gather trust and power, and then turn on those who bestowed it. The fastest way to do this was to marry a billionaire.Celine was a phoenix rising from the ashes of her scorched barn, reborn and remade into a vessel of justice. Her first step in her quest for vengeance, catch herself a billionaire, which was why she sat on Sebastian’s desk, swinging her lovely bare leg. Trying to remember everything Kim had taught her about flirting.Down with the
Sebastian placed the contract face up on the coffee table between them. “This is what you came up with? Do you think you are living in a K-drama?” Sebastian snorted.Celine looked at her manicured hand and said, “It’s perfect, and you know it.”Sebastian sat back and relaxed on the couch. “How is marrying you going to solve my problems?” Sebastian asked.“If you’re married to me, you can’t marry Grace.” Celine put her hand down and glanced across at Sebastian with a bored expression on her face.“Wow, Ms. Beaumont. Why didn’t I ever think of that oversimplified solution?”“Because you lack imagination. Mr. Gale.”Sebastian barked out a laugh and then said, “Please enlighten me.”“Marry me, then call a board meeting without your mother. Discredit Grace and present me as your wife. My selling points are my perfect conduct, discretion, and loyalty. I believe that is well documented, thanks to Phillip." Celine puffed out a little laugh at the irony."Since the marriage would have already
Silk and sequence hugged her curves in a dazzling silhouette. She knew the dress was beautiful, but now that she was out in public, she wished she had selected something that blended into the crowd. She could feel the unwanted attention of lingering eyes like phantom caresses as she strained the slit in her floor-length dress, gliding around the dancefloor in Sebastian’s arms. Celine prayed she wouldn’t twist an ankle; it wasn’t a lack of agility on her part. She was a decent dancer. The concern was Sebastian. He was distracting her.It started in the backseat of the car on the way to their first event as a couple. He took one look at her and closed the gap between them. “You look amazing, wife.”, Sebastian said.Celine could smell whisky on his breath. She raised an eyebrow and wondered if he would be a problem. “I’m not your wife yet, Mr. Gale.”She reached for her seatbelt and fastened it. “Are you going to sit here?” He was inches from her in the center seat instead of the customa
The street outside Sebastian’s penthouse was packed with the hustle and bustle of New Yorkers getting off work. Usually, she liked to spend rush hour seated by a window with a nice cup of coffee, watching the flow of people go by. Far better than joining in the crush of humanity that made her pulse pound and her chest constrict. But today, avoiding what chased her outweighed her fear of crowds, and she looked forward to the obscurity of losing herself in a sea of people. Stepping off the landing, she merged into the current of bodies and let them carry her in the direction of her hotel and hoped one would notice her shame or the hot tears she reluctantly shed.At least, that was the plan. She hadn’t counted on Sebastian’s determination not to let her escape. She screamed when hands grasped her from behind and turned her around. She caught a brief look at his face and saw anger in his eyes. Then he crushed her against his body, encircled her with his arms, and held her while she sobb
As soon as Celine saw the two gorgeous men stepping out of the elevator, she realized what Kim was up to and had to fight the urge to turn and run. She wanted no part of Kim’s revenge hookup because that was what this was. Kim was implementing the classic strategy of what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.However, Celine would be lying if she said she wasn’t tempted to see Sebastian and Matteo’s faces when they saw the two drop-dead hotties that had just walked into Sebastian’s penthouse. Maybe there was some merit to Kim’s plan…No, nope, just no. A nice bath and a text message update on the paternity test were what she needed, not a demonstration of large predator mating competitions.Unfortunately, it was too late to run because they were here, and Kim was exchanging cheek kisses. “Hello. Coucou, comment tu vas ?” One of Kim’s hidden talents was that she spoke fluent French, and always had her pick of French hotties. Kim was going nuclear, poor Matteo.One of the men had
They say, “Money can’t buy you love.” but it does buy same-day results of a paternity test, especially if you have a phlebotomist waiting in the hall outside the courtroom to draw blood and a medical courier at the ready to transport your samples directly to a reputable private lab. A lab that was being paid to expedite the paternity test as soon as the biological samples were received.And that was precisely what happened minutes after Grace said, “I’ll take the deal.”Sophia yelled, “What deal.” The Judge beamed at Grace. The bailiff gallantly helped Grace down from the stand, and Jameson looked like a genie had just told him, ‘Of course, you can wish four more wishes.’It was complete chaos as they followed Grace and Sebastian out of the courtroom, and Celine couldn’t believe their plan had worked. But she saw it with her own eyes, and there was no doubt about it. Grace was submitting to a blood draw right there in the hall, behind a portable privacy screen.The next thing Celine kn
After Sebastian’s lawyers finished, Celine thought all there was left to do was watch the death throes of Grace’s case. They had a recording of Grace threatening blackmail, for god’s sake. They should be watching the closing credits on this fiasco of fake paternity, but that was not how the law worked. There were always special circumstances or loopholes to get around or to delay a decision, and all Grace needed was a delay.When Grace’s attorneys began their case to quash the court order for the paternity test, they didn’t even bother to rebut the horrible things she said on the recording. Instead, they argued that Grace had a religious or moral objection to the paternity test.Grace’s attorney painted a picture of her as a devout Orthodox Christian from a family with a long, illustrious history with the Greek Orthodox Church on her mother’s side. In Orthodox culture, there is a lot of emphasis on family reputation and privacy, especially for families with ties to the church and thei
It is not often that family court law protects the rights of a father, or in Sebastian’s case, the alleged father, except when it comes to paternity. No mother has the right to obstruct a paternity test. It becomes fuzzy if the paternity test is requested during pregnancy. Then the mother can say no—her body, her choice. At least, that was what Grace and Sophia believed. It turned out that Sebastian could request a court order to compel Grace to have a Non-Invasive Paternity Test if he was disputing paternity and Grace was publicly claiming he was the father, thus ruining Sebastian’s reputation and pressuring him into fatherhood.Apparently, Grace and Sophia’s ploy was so unoriginal that laws were already in place to prevent them.After Grace dropped her fake pregnancy bomb at the ice skating rink, Sebastian’s lawyers went to Family Court the next day and got a court date to ask a judge for a court order to force Grace to take a paternity test. Grace was notified of the court date i
It took Celine a great deal of self-control not to pace the length of the hotel lobby. Of all days to be late, she thought as she squirmed in an uncomfortable but aesthetically appealing, overpriced, modern accent chair and reread the same page in her digital book.Today, Sebastian was taking Grace to an OB-GYN of his choosing to get some answers. The first thing he wanted to know was if she was pregnant. If yes, he would ask Grace for the second time to take a Non-Invasive Prenatal Paternity test to prove he wasn’t the father. So far, when he asked her to provide a blood sample for the test, Grace had refused, stating Sebastian’s accusations were baseless and she would not be humiliated.They fully expected Grace to refuse a second time, and if she did, they were prepared.Celine’s phone vibrated.SebastianHereCeline hurried outside, and Sebastian’s driver, Greg, waited to open the car door for her. “Good morning, Greg.” Celine said, trying to smile through her nerves. How is the n
“Excuse me, what?”, Celine asked. Her heart was hammering, actually hammering so hard that she felt a twinge in her calf and then a burst of warmth. Did she tear a stitch? But she couldn’t be bothered to look because she needed to make sure she had heard correctly because surely, she had not.Looking at Sebastian did nothing to help her stay calm. He looked so woeful. She had seen that look before. When she was in the hospital after the fire, he had come to visit her. That was the day she realized that no matter what she said or how she was willing to fight, he was going to marry Grace anyway. The day she asked if he had slept with Grace. He never did answer her, but she guessed from his dark face and how he wouldn’t look at her that he probably had. She didn’t want to relive that horrible day.“She said she was pregnant.”, Sebastian breathed out.The room went still, and she heard a ringing in her ears. The warm spot on her calf grew. She absent-mindedly touched her calf to see if it
With a chair, rolled-up towels, and choreography worthy of a Cirque De Sole act, Celine lowered herself into the bubble bath while keeping one leg dry. The doctor had been adamant that she could not get her stitches wet and had prescribed sponge baths. To hell with that. Nothing was going to stop her from getting a bath. So, what if having one leg out of the tub was awkward and uncomfortable, and she had no idea how she was getting out?She groaned in pleasure. She needed this. She could feel her aches and pains melting away, and the cold that had settled in her bones was gone. All that remained was a luxurious cocoon of heat and well-being.Except there was this niggly wiggly annoying memory of how she had acted like a whiny little jealous bitch, got stabbed in the calf by someone’s ice skate, stormed off bleeding everywhere, and then having to depend on Jameson, of all people, to help her.Shit, Celine, get it together. Where was the phoenix that rose from the ashes? Where was the w
She only fell twice when she skated the rink's perimeter to the secluded spot where Sebastian sat with Grace. By the time she got there, she was so exhausted that she could hardly summon a spark, much less the fire of indignation and anger that had fueled her impulse to give Sebastian a piece of her mind. If she hadn’t needed to skate back the way she had just come, she would have given up right then and there and gone home to have a nice bubble bath.She was here now. What was she going to do? She couldn’t cling to this wall forever. Why hadn’t she just sent him a text like a normal person? She looked over to where Sebastian and Grace were sitting. Sebastian’s back was to her, but she could see Grace, and her eyes were red and swollen. It looked like she had been crying.Sebastian was a sucker for tears. He had probably held her hand or hugged her. He never could stand to see a woman cry. She wanted to punch him in his stupid nose.Suddenly, she realized she could hear them talking.