CHAPTER 12
Celeste’s POV
The seatbelt pressed against my chest, but it wasn’t what was making it hard to breathe.
I sat rigid in the passenger seat, my hands on my lap, but my mind wasn’t here–it was still back in that hospital, tangled in Damien’s presence.
Beside me, Theo drove in silence.
I was still lost in my thoughts when he finally reached out and touched my hand. “Are you okay?”
Jumping a bit, I gave him a startled look. “I… I, uh… I don’t know. I’m not sure.” I looked away, gazing outside and mindlessly
watching the people we passed by.
“Celeste, you know you can tell me anything,” he began gently. “Is it because we saw Damien?”
He knew how deeply I had once loved Damien–probably still did. He wasn’t asking just to be polite. He genuinely wanted to know if I could handle this. If I was truly ready to walk away.
I swallowed, pushing down the tangle of emotions inside me. Then I exhaled slowly. “I’m not the same person anymore…
Theo’s brow furrowed slightly, his fingers tightening on the wheel. “What happened to you in that place, Celeste?”
I didn’t answer right away. Instead, I reached for my sleeve and slowly pulled it up, revealing the scars and wounds that marred
my skin.
Theo inhaled sharply. His knuckles turned white against the steering wheel.
I took a deep breath, steadying myself. The words felt foreign on my tongue, like they belonged to someone else’s story, but they were mine.
“They drugged us,” I said finally, my voice quieter than I intended. “Every day. High doses. Enough to keep us docile, to make sure we didn’t fight back.”
Theo’s jaw tightened, his eyes dark with barely restrained fury.
Tears filled my eyes as I ran my fingers over the raised scars. “If I let myself slip under, if I let the drugs take over, I knew I’d lose myself. I saw what it did to the others. Hollow eyes, slack faces, people who forgot their own names.” I swallowed hard. “I couldn’t let that happen to me. So, I did the only thing I could think of–I hurt myself. The pain kept me awake. It reminded me I was still alive.”
A heavy silence filled the car. Theo’s hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly I thought it might snap in half.
“““Those bastards,” he muttered under his breath.
“Damien put me there,” I said in a whisper. “He and Genevieve did this to me.”
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Theo’s hands jerked against the wheel, and the car swerved slightly before he corrected it.
“I’ll handle this,” he said, his voice dangerously low. “They don’t get to walk away from this.”
12
“No, Theo.” I said. “I don’t want anyone else to know about it. It’s too painful. I don’t want to be ridiculed, especially by Damien
and Genevieve.”
“But-“Theo’s eyes snapped to mine. But I interrupted him.
“I don’t want anyone to know. Especially Damien. He might think I’m craving his attention again or just begging for mercy!”
A muscle in his jaw twitched, but after a beat, he took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down
“Fine,” he said at last. “Then I’ll make sure there’s no trace left. I can erase the surveillance footage from the asylum–every
record, every shred of evidence that you were ever there. No one will know unless you want them to.”
I stilled, his words sinking in. I nodded, fresh tears coming to my eyes. “Thank you,” I whispered.
“We’ll keep it a secret until the time that you may need all of it again.”
After that, we were quiet for a long time. Then to my surprise, he suddenly uttered, “I should’ve fought harder…”
“What do you mean?” I asked, searching his face.
Theo didn’t look at me, keeping his eyes trained on the road. But there was something in the way his fingers drummed tensely
against the wheel, in the way his throat bobbed like he was trying to swallow down something he didn’t want to say.
“I should have stopped you from marrying him,” he continued, different emotions reflecting on his face. “You wouldn’t have
suffered like this.”
“Oh, Theo…” was all I could say. “It was my decision. It’s not
your fault.”
“No, Celeste. I should have stopped you from walking into hell.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but he shook his head.
“I can’t change the past,” he continued. “But I can damn well make sure you’re never put through something like that again.”
My breath caught.
“I’m going to protect you,” Theo vowed. “No matter what it takes. No matter who I have to go against.”
I stared at him, my heart pounding. Theo had always been reliable, someone I could turn to when the world felt like it was falling
apart. But this… this felt different.
This was a promise.
The next days blurred together, passing in a haze of restless nights. Every morning, I woke up in a cold sweat, the remnants of nightmares clinging to me like a second skin.
CHARITETE
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But today, I woke up feeling better, the golden morning light filtering through the curtains of my temporary apartment. I still found it strange waking up in a place that wasn’t the Vaughn estate.
But this place was all mine.
I ran my fingers over the thick stack of documents in front of me, my heart unusually calm as I flipped through each page.
Divorce pan
papers.
There it was in black and white. The end of everything.
My phone buzzed against the table, breaking the silence. I glanced at the screen–Nathan Carter, my lawyer.
I picked it up immediately.
“Celeste,” he greeted, his tone as professional as ever, but there was something cautious underneath. “I wanted to update you on
the status of your divorce papers.”
I sat up straighter. “Yeah, I’m looking at my copy now… Did he sign them?”
A pause.
“They were sent to Damien yesterday,” Nathan confirmed. “But he hasn’t signed them yet. My office followed up this morning, but… well, he’s ignoring us.
I exhaled sharply, rubbing my temple. “I sent them myself too. I emailed him last night.”
“And?”
“No response.”
Nathan sighed. “I had a feeling. He’s stalling.”
My jaw tightened. Damien had been the one who humiliated me, who announced our divorce in front of everyone. Now, when I was ready to sign, he was the one dragging it out?
“I’ll handle it,” I said firmly.
And before I knew it, I found myself standing in front of Vaughn Enterprises later that day, the tall glass building towering before
- me.
I stepped into the grand lobby, eager to accomplish what I came here for. The moment I approached the reception desk, all eyes were on me. I felt them.
The whispers.
The judgment.
They all knew who I was. The scandal had painted me as a pathetic wife, an adulteress and a thief!
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The receptionist looked up, but it was the woman beside her that I recognized immediately. Eloise Holt, Damien’s long–time
secretary. She crossed her arms and smirked at me with that same air of superiority she always had around me.
“Mrs. Vaughn,” she greeted, her voice dripping with mock sympathy. “Or should I say, Miss Monroe? It’s hard to believe that an
orphan like you even had a maiden name. Anyway-“Her brows arched high, her smirk deepening. “Have you finally come
crawling back?”
I held my ground, unmoved by her condescension. I knew this routine all too well. Almost every time I came to Damien’s
company, Eloise made sure to humiliate me in some way. Back then, I never understood her hostility.
But now? Now I knew exactly why. She wasn’t just another cold, overzealous secretary–she was Genevieve’s shadow. Her most loyal confidante ever since they had started working together a long time ago.
I should have seen it before. The way Eloise always followed Genevieve’s lead, how she hung onto her every word, always quick to dismiss or belittle me in any way she could.
But I am not the Celeste she used to step on. Once, this would have shaken me. I would have second–guessed myself, shrank back
in shame. But this was all nothing compared to what I’d been through inside that asylum
“My Auntie gave me that name,” I replied steadily, unaffected. “And allow me to remind you–your former superior, Genevieve,
was also an orphan with a surname. Or did you forget?”
The smirk wiped clean from her face. Her eyes widened, as if she hadn’t expected me to strike back.
But the shock didn’t last long. It melted into something uglier–rage.
“How dare you compare yourself to her?” she hissed. “Genevieve found her family. You have no idea how powerful and wealthy they are ”
“I don’t care.” I cut her off, my voice sharp and emotionless. “I need to see Damien. Now.”
Eloise’s jaw tightened. For the first time, she was the one caught off guard. She took a second too long to react.
But I didn’t wait for her response. I stepped past her, heading straight for Damien’s office.
“H–Hey! You can’t just-!”
I ignored her and confidently strode toward the elevators, unbothered by the hushed murmurs behind me.
If Damien refused to acknowledge me or sign the papers, then I’d make him.
Soon I reached his office. The heavy double doors were shut, but the sleek glass walls surrounding the room had curtains-
curtains that weren’t fully drawn.
I halted.
Through the narrow gap, I caught a glimpse of movement inside.
Damien was standing near his desk, his back turned to me. And in front of him, leaning into him, was Genevieve.
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My breath stilled.
The scene unfolded like a slow–motion nightmare. Genevieve tilted her head up, her hands resting lightly on his chest. Damien
didn’t move away. And then-
She kissed him.
A cold, electric shock jolted through me, rooting me to the floor.
