Chapter 82: Ethan Again

Celeste's POV

I stared at the laptop screen until my eyes burned. The cursor blinked at the end of the last sentence I'd typed, mocking me. How do you even begin to process finding out your missing father might be connected to something bigger? How do you wrap your head around the fact that Damien's mother might be involved in it all?

And then there was Margaret's revelation that hit like a punch to the gut. Damien knew. He'd known I was digging into my father's disappearance all along. While I thought I was being so careful, so secretive, he'd been watching, waiting, probably laughing at how naive I was.

The worst part? I couldn't tell if he was genuinely trying to help or just managing the situation to protect his family's interests. With the Kanes, it was always impossible to tell where the help ended and the manipulation began.

The apartment felt too quiet. Too still. Like the walls were holding their breath, waiting for something terrible to happen.

I closed the laptop and rubbed my temples. The headache that had been building all day was getting worse, pounding behind my eyes like a drum.

"Get it together, Celeste," I muttered to myself. "One crisis at a time."

The pregnancy result sat on my nightstand, still in its envelope. I hadn't told Damien the result yet, so I could pretend everything was normal for just a little while longer.

The front door slammed so hard the windows rattled.

"Olivia?" I called out, getting up from the couch. "That you?"

Footsteps in the hallway, but no answer. That was weird. Olivia always announced herself when she came home, usually complaining about work or asking what was for dinner.

I walked toward the living room and stopped dead. My sister was standing by the window, still wearing her jacket, her face pale as paper. Her hands were shaking.

"Liv? What's wrong?"

She turned to look at me, and I saw something in her eyes that made my stomach drop. Fear. Real, bone-deep fear.

"Celeste." Her voice came out as barely a whisper. "We need to talk."

"Okay." I moved toward her slowly, like she was a wounded animal that might bolt. "What happened? You look like you've seen a ghost."

She laughed, but it sounded more like a sob. "Maybe I have."

"Sit down." I guided her to the couch. "I'll make some tea."

"No." She grabbed my wrist. "Don't leave. Please."

Her grip was tight, desperate. This wasn't just about a bad day at work or some guy being a jerk. This was something else entirely.

"I'm not going anywhere." I sat down next to her. "Talk to me."

She took a shaky breath. "Remember the other night? When I was missing and said I'd been stuck?"

"Yeah."

"I lied."

My heart started beating faster. "What do you mean you lied?"

"I mean I wasn't stuck. I was..." She closed her eyes. "God, Celeste, I don't even know where to start."

"Start at the beginning."

She nodded, opened her eyes, and looked at me with an expression I'd never seen before. Guilt mixed with terror mixed with something that looked almost like relief.

"I was kidnapped."

The words hit me like a physical blow. "What?"

"That night, I didn't come home late. I didn't go to anywhere. I was taken. By Ethan."

"Ethan Kane?" My voice cracked on his name. "Damien's brother?"

"He thought I was you."

The room started spinning. I gripped the arm of the couch to steady myself. "He thought you were me?"

"We look alike from behind, you know? Same height, same hair color. It was dark, and I was walking to my car after getting groceries. He just... grabbed me."

"Oh my God. Olivia, why didn't you tell me?"

"Because he offered me money to keep quiet. A lot of money, Celeste. More money than we've ever seen." Tears started rolling down her cheeks. "And I thought... I thought maybe we could use it against him somehow. Turn it into something good."

"Money?" I felt sick. "He tried to pay you off?"

"Thousands of dollars. Just to pretend it never happened."

"Jesus Christ."

"I know. I know how it sounds. But you have to understand, after everything we've been through, after all the bills and the struggles... I thought maybe this was our chance to finally get ahead."

I stared at her, trying to process what she was telling me. My little sister had been kidnapped by Damien's psychotic brother, and she'd been carrying this secret for days.

"Where did he take you?"

"Some warehouse on the outskirts of town. He had this whole setup, like he'd been planning it for a while. When he realized I wasn't you, he just... he seemed almost disappointed."

"What did he want with me?"

"I don't know. He didn't really explain. Just kept asking questions about you and Damien,"

My blood ran cold.

"And then what happened?"

"He let me go. Drove me to within a few blocks of here and told me to forget it ever happened. Said if I told anyone, especially you, there would be consequences."

I felt like I was going to throw up. "Olivia, why didn't you call the police?"

"With what proof? It would have been my word against his. And you know how much power that family has in this town."

She was right, and I hated that she was right.

"But tonight..." Her voice got smaller. "Tonight he found me again."

"What?" I grabbed her shoulders. "When? Where?"

"I was at Joe's Coffee, and when I came out, he was waiting for me. He cornered me in the parking lot and told me to keep my mouth shut. Said if I told you or anyone else about what happened, he'd make sure I regretted it."

"That son of a bitch."

"There's more." She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "I wasn't alone tonight. I was meeting Thomas."

"Thomas? Thomas from high school?"

"Yeah. He's been trying to reach you for days, but you haven't been returning his calls."

I felt a stab of guilt. Thomas had been calling, but between work and everything with Damien, I'd been ignoring pretty much everyone from my old life.

"He wanted to meet with me to plan something for your birthday next week. A surprise party or something." She managed a weak smile. "Sorry for spoiling it, but I was too shaken up to keep pretending."

"My birthday." I'd completely forgotten. With everything that had been happening, my birthday had been the last thing on my mind.

"He noticed you'd been avoiding his calls, so he reached out to me to see if everything was okay. I told him it was just work stress, that you'd been really busy with your new job."

"And then Ethan showed up."

"Right after Thomas went back inside to get something I'd forgotten. Ethan must have been watching, waiting for me to be alone."

"What happened then?"

"Thomas came back out and saw what was happening. He got between us, told Ethan to back off. They had words, and Thomas made it clear that if Ethan bothered me again, he'd call the police."

I felt a surge of gratitude toward Thomas, mixed with terror at what could have happened.

"Celeste," Olivia said, grabbing my hands. "I can't do this anymore. I thought I could handle it, thought I could use the money somehow, but I can't. I'm scared. Every time I leave the house, I'm looking over my shoulder. Every shadow makes me jump."

"You should have told me sooner."

"I know. I'm sorry. I just... I didn't want to make things worse for you. You seemed so happy with Damien, and I knew this would complicate everything."

Happy. The word felt foreign now. Had I been happy? Or had I just been caught up in the excitement of dating someone rich and powerful?

"This changes everything," I said.

"I know."

"I mean everything, Liv. I can't stay with Damien knowing his brother did this to you. I can't work for him, I can't pretend like we're some normal couple when his family is full of criminals."

"What are you going to do?"

I looked at my sister, really looked at her. The fear in her eyes, the way she kept glancing toward the windows like she expected someone to be watching. This was my fault. I'd brought the Kane family into our lives, and now Olivia was paying the price.

"I'm going to end it," I said. "All of it. Tomorrow."

"Celeste—"

"No arguments. I should have done this weeks ago, the first time I realized how messed up that family is."

"What about your job?"

"I'll find another job. There are other companies, other bosses who don't have psychotic brothers."

"And whatever you have with Damien?"

I thought about Damien, about the way he made me feel, about the complicated mess we'd gotten ourselves into. It wasn't love, we both knew that. It was attraction, chemistry, maybe some misguided attempt to feel something real in the middle of all this chaos.

"What I have with Damien was a mistake from the beginning. Mixing business with pleasure never ends well."

Olivia nodded, relief flooding her face. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me. This is my mess to clean up."

We sat in silence for a few minutes, the weight of everything settling between us. Finally, Olivia spoke again.

"There's something else."

"What now?"

"The pregnancy test. Did you tell him..."

I shook my head. "Not yet. I've been too scared to tell him."

"Maybe you should. Olivia said. When you talk to Damien tomorrow, one less thing to worry about."

The situation with Damien had been complicated enough without adding a baby to the mix.

"So what's the plan?" Olivia asked as we walked back to the living room.

"Tomorrow morning, I march into his office and quit. I tell him exactly what his brother did to you, and I make it clear that if Ethan comes near you again, I'm calling the police."

"And after that?"

"After that, we figure out how to move forward. Maybe it's time to leave this town altogether, forget about father and start fresh somewhere else."

"What about Thomas's surprise party?"

I almost smiled. "We'll have to tell him the surprise is canceled. Unless..." I looked at her. "Unless we use it as a going-away party instead."

"A fresh start party."

"Exactly."

Olivia curled up next to me on the couch, and for the first time in weeks, I felt like I could breathe again. Tomorrow was going to be hell, but at least I knew what I had to do.

At least I was finally choosing the right side.