Chapter 5 - Celeste’s Betrayal and Panic
While Daniel was being escorted out of the building by security, his assistant and secret mistress, Celeste, sat on the forty-second floor in her glass-walled cubicle, frantically clearing her browsing history and shredding financial documents.
She had spent the last eight months playing the sycophantic subordinate, convincing Daniel that she was his true intellectual equal while quietly milking him for expensive gifts, designer handbags, and promises of a permanent promotion once he divorced his "useless, quiet wife."
The door to her office burst open.
Celeste jumped, nearly knocking over her iced macchiato as Daniel stumbled into the room, his hair disheveled, his jacket unbuttoned, looking like a man who had just survived a shipwreck.
“Celeste! Thank god you’re here,” Daniel breathed heavily, rushing toward her desk. “The system locked me out. Security is insane—they’re claiming the company belongs to Mara, and—and they’re accusing us of embezzlement!”
Celeste stood up slowly, backing away from him as if he carried a contagious disease. Her eyes were hard, cold, and entirely devoid of the warmth she had faked for months.
“Us?” Celeste repeated sharply, her voice dripping with venom. “There is no us, Daniel. You told me your wife was a penniless nobody living off your charity! You told me you controlled the family trust!”
“I—I thought I did!” Daniel stammered, grabbing her arm. “Celeste, listen to me, we have offshore accounts, we can—!”
“Get your hands off me!” Celeste shrieked, ripping her arm away and shoving him hard against the filing cabinet. She grabbed her designer tote bag from the desk. “I don't know what kind of delusional fantasy you’ve been living in, Daniel, but I have nothing to do with your embezzlement scheme. Every gift you bought me? I’m returning it to HR with a signed statement confirming you forced me to accept them under threat of termination!”
Daniel stared at her, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. The woman who had whispered sweet promises of loyalty into his ear just forty-eight hours ago was now looking at him with pure, unadulterated disgust.
“Celeste... please,” Daniel whispered, the last remnants of his pride finally shattering into dust. “We planned this together...”
“You’re finished, Daniel,” Celeste hissed, walking past him without a backward glance. “And if you ever mention my name to investigators again, I’ll personally make sure you spend the next twenty years sharing a cell with real criminals.”
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The heavy glass door swung shut behind her.
Daniel stood alone in the empty office, looking out at the glittering New York skyline through the floor-to-ceiling windows. For the first time in his life, he was completely, terrifyingly alone.
