Chapter 36
Violet's POV:
Celeste Morrison wanted to meet tonight. I stared at the preview, feeling something cold twist in my chest. How did she have the nerve to reach out after everything with Daemon?
I typed a brief agreement to meet at Moonlit Diner at seven and forced myself back to work, though the numbers on my spreadsheet blurred into meaningless columns.
When I arrived at the diner after sunset, Celeste was already waiting in a back booth. Her honey blonde hair caught the warm light, baby blue eyes wide and clear. She wore a cream cardigan over a simple dress, managing to look both modest and subtly alluring. This was what Daemon wanted, I thought with detached clarity. Fresh-faced, uncomplicated beauty. They were well-suited—his dark intensity balanced by her light warmth.
"Thank you for meeting me," she said, her voice holding no discomfort or guilt. She spoke as though we were simply friends catching up, as though she had never spent evenings texting my mate.
I smiled politely. "Of course. What did you want to talk about?"
She pulled out her phone. "I wanted to return the money for that wedding dress. I returned it. It didn't feel right to keep it."
My phone buzzed with the transfer notification. I accepted it, then added with a brittle smile, "You're right. It would be more appropriate for Zane to buy you a wedding dress when the time comes."
Something flickered across her face. "Zane and I have mutually rejected our bond. We're not together anymore."
Her eyes glistened with tears that looked real enough, pooling along her lower lashes. "I'm sorry to hear that," I said neutrally. "Do you want to talk about what happened?"
She shook her head quickly and reached for a napkin. "No, it's still too fresh. I just wanted to clear this up and return the money."
She stood abruptly. "I should go. Thank you again, Violet."
Then she was gone, leaving me alone with more questions than answers. I remained in the booth for several minutes, turning over what had just happened. Celeste had shown no embarrassment at seeing me, no awkwardness about her relationship with Daemon. She had looked me in the eye and talked about returning a dress as though there were no secrets between us.
When I finally reached my car, I sat with the engine off and followed the threads of logic to their conclusions. Celeste clearly had not told Daemon that she knew me, that we had met before the university ceremony. If she had, Daemon would have warned me away from her or confronted me. Her silence meant she was keeping our acquaintance hidden, maintaining the illusion that their meeting had been pure chance.
More tellingly, she had not told Zane that his mysterious rival was Daemon Blackwood. Zane would have said something to me if he knew. Celeste was carefully compartmentalizing all of us, keeping each relationship sealed off from the others. This was not the behavior of the sweet, naive girl I had thought I was protecting. This was calculated concealment.
I found myself reaching for my phone and calling Evan almost without conscious thought.
"Violet," he answered, clinic sounds in the background. "Is this about your physical therapy appointments?"
"Yes. I need to talk to you about something else. Are you free tonight?" I glanced at the dashboard clock. "I'm near Silverpine Grill. Can you meet me there in thirty minutes?"
He sighed. "Fine. Thirty minutes."
Evan arrived looking tired, his usual polish slightly rumpled. He declined the menu and ordered sparkling water.
"Three emergency cases this afternoon," he said shortly. "What did you need to talk about?"
I laid it out for him—the meeting with Celeste, her calm demeanor and lack of guilt, her break with Zane, the money transfer. I described how she had looked at me with those wide blue eyes that held no acknowledgment of the complicated web connecting us through Daemon, through Zane, through Ruby.
Evan listened without interrupting. When I finished, he leaned back and studied me analytically.
"She's in love with him," he said with certainty. "With Daemon. She wouldn't have rejected her bond with Zane this quickly otherwise. The fact that she's already cut ties suggests she's feeling that pull toward Daemon and acting on it."
I reached for my wine glass, using the motion to cover the tremor in my hands.
"What are you planning to do about it?" Evan asked sharply.
I set down the glass carefully. "I'm going to wait and see how long she can maintain this act. How long she can look me in the eye and pretend she's not involved with my mate"
"And you're not going to tell Daemon that you know her?" Evan's eyebrows rose.
"No," I said firmly. "I'm not going to shatter that illusion for him."
Evan studied me intently. "You're enjoying this. Watching them navigate around you without knowing you can see every move they make."
"Maybe," I admitted. "Or maybe I'm just tired of being the only one who doesn't know what's happening in my own marriage. At least this way, I have information."
"This girl has you questioning everything you thought you knew about her," Evan said seriously. "Now you're wondering if it was all an act."
I felt something tighten in my throat. "If she were really as innocent as she seems, she would have told me the truth tonight. She would have admitted there's something between her and Daemon. Instead, she acted like none of that existed."
"People compartmentalize when they're conflicted," Evan offered, though he did not sound convinced.
"Or," I countered, "she's exactly the kind of person who can look someone in the eye and lie without flinching. The kind who can manipulate multiple people at once and make each of them think they're the only one who matters."
I stopped myself, suddenly aware of how much I sounded like a jealous mate.
My phone buzzed. Lily's name appeared.
"How was your first day at the office?" Lily's voice came through cheerful. "Did Daemon work you too hard?"
I smiled despite everything. "It was fine. He's working late tonight, but he didn't make me stay."
"Well, I have news," Lily said with barely contained excitement. "Connor has been agonizing over that Blackwood Dynamics offer all day. He kept asking my opinion about whether he should actually quit his job and take it. The salary is three times what he's making now, plus stock options, but he was worried about the risk of leaving a stable position."
I caught Evan's eye and saw his expression sharpen.
"So I told him," Lily continued, her voice dropping to something more intimate. "I told him I'm pregnant. Six weeks along. His parents have been waiting for grandchildren for years—he's their only child—and when I told him, he broke down crying. Happy tears. He said it was a sign, that this was the universe telling him it was time to step up, to take the better job so he could provide for our family. He made this huge dinner tonight to celebrate both the job and the baby. Double blessing, he called it."
Cold, sharp satisfaction settled in my chest. "So he's decided to take it?"
"He's giving his notice tomorrow," Lily confirmed. "Two weeks and he's done. He can't stop talking about how this is going to change everything for us, how we'll be able to afford a bigger place, how the baby will have everything they need."
I looked at Evan and let myself smile. "That's wonderful news, Lily. Really."
We said our goodbyes and I ended the call. Evan was watching me with an expression between concern and grudging respect.
"He quit," I said simply. "In two weeks, Connor will have nothing but a fake offer letter and the ruins of the life he threw away."
Evan exhaled slowly. "Remind me never to get on your bad side, Violet."
I picked up my wine. "He hurt someone I love."
Evan nodded, understanding that there were no more words needed.
As we stood to leave, he caught my arm gently. "Be careful, Violet. With Celeste, with Daemon, with all of it. You're playing a very dangerous game."