Chapter 55
Celestine looked thoughtful.
“This isn’t something I can decide lightly. Let me think it over.”
“Alright.”
The two of them left the police station together, only to be confronted by the pitiful wails of two battered men suddenly stumbling into view.
“Officer, we need to report a crime! Where are the police?”
Recognizing Bob and Jake–the same pair who’d stormed out earlier–Celestine and Denton both paused in surprise.
The two men were bruised and swollen from head to toe, barely a patch of uninjured skin between them. They were a frightening sight.
Denton raised his eyebrows, then grinned. “Looks like karma found them sooner than expected.”
Celestine smiled. “Seems someone decided to dish out a little justice. Let’s get
going.”
They parted ways at the police station entrance.
On her way home, Celestine stopped by the neighborhood grocery store, buying some essentials and fresh produce. She was planning a thorough cleaning and, later, a pot of comforting soup for herself.
As she was leaving the market, a thriving pot of lavender caught her eye.
She thought of the elderly gentleman next door who loved tending to his plants–she hadn’t seen him in ages.
So she paid for the lavender and took it along.
Downstairs at her apartment building, she spotted a couple arguing at a distance.
The woman was dressed head–to–toe in designer labels, her chestnut curls pinned back elegantly.
The man, looking worn and haggard, was kneeling on the pavement, pleading, “Carmen, didn’t you say you’d be with me if I got divorced? I did it–I left my wife and kid for you! I bought you a house, a car, all those gifts, and now you want to break up? You can’t do this to me!”
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Chapter 65
Carmen looked utterly exasperated, barking orders at him like he was a misbehaving child. “Conrad, don’t you dare put all the blame on me! I’m barely in my twenties, and I got tricked by an old man like you. If people found out, they’d say I was the victim! All those gifts? Consider them emotional damages! Now get out of my sight before I call the police!”
Celestine glanced over and couldn’t help a silent, inward sigh.
A man who abandoned his wife and child–a real piece of work.
And a gold–digging homewrecker.
She shook her head, quickening her pace to put the drama behind her.
No need to get involved.
Suddenly, a furious shout rang out behind her.
“Carmen! You knew I had a family when you got with me! Now I’ve lost everything, and you’re tossing me aside? I swear, you’ll end up just like my ex–wife–miserable for the rest of your life!”
He snatched up a brick from a nearby flowerbed and hurled it at Carmen.
With a scream, Carmen shoved the nearest person–Celestine–toward the danger and bolted into the building, heels clicking in panic.
It all happened too fast.
Celestine barely caught a glimpse of the object flying toward her before everything
went dark.
A hint of sandalwood and something unmistakably masculine filled her senses.
She realized she’d been pulled into someone’s arms–strangely unfamiliar, yet
somehow not.
The brick grazed her back, crashed to the pavement, and split in two.
The man, frustrated at missing his target, took off running.
Celestine’s heart pounded with fear.
She looked up from that unfamiliar embrace–and found herself staring into a face she knew all too well: distant, refined, icily handsome.
It was him.
“Mr. Shield?!”
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14:30
The name she’d always used for Gideon, never meant to say aloud, slipped out before she could stop herself.
Realizing what she’d done, she winced and furrowed her brows in embarrassment.
“Uh–my… bodyguard?”
Gideon repeated her words with a subtle, knowing smile, his gaze fixed on her delicate face. “Yes, it’s me, Miss Trouble.”
“Mr. Fordham, our complex now has a private swimming pool just north of the main building. Once Miss Sinclair moves in, she’ll have the freedom to swim . whenever she wants–even when she’s off set,” the realtor was explaining as she led Chester and Joanna around the neighborhood.
But Chester’s attention had wandered. He was staring at a man and woman embracing in front of a nearby apartment building.
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