Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 331

Chapter 331

“Today,” he had said when he first made the promise. “Today, and every day after. Nothing at work would ever be more important than having lunch with you.”

And now, on the very first day he was supposed to keep that promise after my divorce was finalized, he had broken it without a second thought.

Julian’s words echoed in my memory: Now that he has succeeded in making us get divorced, he is going to dump

you.

I shook my head, hard, as though the physical motion could dislodge the thought. No. Dominic loved me. He had proven it a hundred times over. One cancelled lunch did not mean anything. There was probably a genuine emergency. There was probably a perfectly reasonable explanation that he would share with me later, and I would feel foolish for ever doubting him.

But my hands were trembling when I got into my own car and started driving, and I could not make them stop.

I did not drive to Helix. I drove directly to a small electronics repair shop in a neighborhood that tourists never visited, a cramped storefront wedged between a laundromat and a pawn shop, where an old friend from my university days had built a reputation as the best audio forensics analyst in the city. His name was Roland, and he had testified as an expert witness in more cases than the district attorney’s office could count, and he owed me a favor from the time I had helped his daughter secure a scholarship to a private school that specialized in learning disabilities.

The bell above the door chimed as I walked in. Roland looked up from the circuit board he was soldering, his magnifying goggles pushed up on his forehead, his expression shifting from professional focus to surprise.

“Celeste. This is unexpected.”

After a few pleasantries, I went straight to the point. “I need you to analyze an audio file for me.” I placed my phone on his workbench. “I need to know if this is truly Dominic Ford’s voice. Or if it has been doctored. Edited. Manipulated in any way.”

“Of course. Give me twenty minutes.”

I paced the narrow aisle between shelves of disassembled electronics while he worked. The shop smelled of solder and dust and the particular metallic tang of old circuit boards, and the fluorescent lights buzzed overhead with a frequency that made my teeth ache. Twenty minutes felt like twenty hours. My heart was beating so fast I could feel it in my throat, and my palms were damp with sweat that had nothing to do with the temperature of the room.

Finally, Roland pushed his goggles up and turned to face me, his expression unreadable.

“It is authentic. The voice on the recording is Dominic Ford’s, and the audio has not been edited, spliced, or manipulated in any detectable way. Those words were spoken by him, in that order, at some point within the timeframe suggested by the file’s metadata.”

“Are you certain?”

“I am one hundred percent certain. I would stake my professional reputation on it.”

The world seemed to tilt.

I thanked him and walked outside. The afternoon air hit my face, but I barely felt it. I reached my car and leaned against the door, pressing my forehead against the roof as my chest tightened and my breathing became shallow.

Dominic had said those words.

1/2

+15 8gnus

He had really said them.

This is payback.

I am not going to stop until I get bored.

I closed my eyes, fighting the sudden wave of nausea.

Was Julian telling the truth? Had Dominic really been using me? Had every kiss, every promise, every tender word been part of a plan designed to destroy Julian through me?

I had fallen so deeply in love with Dominic that the thought of losing him felt like losing the ability to breathe.

I had believed I was finally starting a new life.

But if Dominic had been lying to me all along, what was left?

I opened my eyes and stared at my reflection in the car window.

For the second time in my life, I had trusted the wrong man.

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