Chapter 291

Chapter 291
Rosalind

Celestina's nails raked across my cheek as she slammed into me, her perfectly applied makeup now streaked with tears of rage. I let her knock me backward, stumbling just enough to make it look convincing while I managed to hit the record button on my phone.

"You destroyed me!" she shrieked, her hands now wrapped around my throat. "You and that monster husband of yours turned me into a drooling animal!"

"Did we?" I asked, my voice slightly strained but deliberately calm. "Or did we simply give you exactly what you deserved for what you did to me? What's wrong, can't bring yourself to admit it?"

Calloway lowered his phone slightly, his face showing the first hints of unease. "Celestina, maybe we should—"

"Shut up!" she screamed at him without taking her eyes off me. "Oh, I'm more than happy to admit what I did! Yes, I arranged to have you kidnapped! Yes, I hired those men to take you! And yes, I enjoyed every second of planning your suffering!"

Perfect. The admission was clear, unambiguous.

"Why?" I asked, genuinely curious despite her hands still pressed against my windpipe. "What did I ever do to you besides exist?"

"You took him!" Celestina's voice cracked with years of suppressed envy. "You got to have Beckett Montgomery! The most powerful, most dangerous, most incredible man in this city, and you didn't even deserve him!"

She was spiraling now, the careful composure she'd maintained crumbling as her true feelings poured out.

"Do you know what it was like watching you waltz into our world and capture the one man I'd been dreaming about? Watching him choose some pathetic nobody over someone who actually understood his power?" Her grip tightened viciously. "I hated you so much I would have done anything to see you destroyed!"

"Celestina," Calloway said again, his voice carrying a note of warning now. "That's enough."

But she was beyond hearing him, lost in the cathartic release of finally telling the truth.

"I hired those men to take you," she continued, her eyes bright with manic satisfaction. "I wanted them to break you, to torture you, to ruin you so completely that Beckett would see what a weak little mouse you really were. I wanted him to realize he'd made a mistake choosing you!"

Her hands moved back to my throat, squeezing harder this time. I could feel my airway closing, black spots dancing at the edges of my vision.

"And when they were done with you," she hissed, her face inches from mine, "I was going to be there. I was going to look Beckett in the eyes and tell him exactly who was responsible for your suffering. I wanted him to know that I was the one strong enough to eliminate his weakness!"

"Celestina, stop!" Calloway dropped his phone completely now, finally moving toward us. "You're going to kill her!"

"That's the point!" she screamed, her grip becoming savage. "I should have told them to finish the job the first time! But I wanted her to suffer longer, wanted her to live with the fear before I ended it myself!"

The room was starting to fade around the edges as oxygen became a distant memory. Celestina's face above me was twisted with years of accumulated hatred and jealousy.

I could see Calloway wrestling with the implications of what he was hearing, the reality of what his family friend had been capable of hitting him like a physical blow.

"That's... that's insane, Celestina," he stammered, but I could see the horrible understanding dawning in his eyes.

Celestina laughed, the sound sharp and brittle as breaking glass, never loosening her death grip on my throat. "Oh, you sweet, naive boy. Did you really think I was just some perfect little princess? I'm taking what's rightfully mine, and I'll destroy anyone who tries to stop me!"

Her hands moved back to my throat with renewed fury. My windpipe felt like it was being crushed, and panicked gasps came out as silent, desperate attempts for air. The black spots at the edges of my vision began to merge into complete darkness.

I tried to fight back, scratching at her hands, trying to break her grip, but she seemed to have found some inhuman strength in her madness. Her fingernails dug into my neck as she pressed her full weight into strangling me.

"Die!" she hissed, spittle flying from her lips. "Die so I can finally have what should have been mine from the beginning!"