Submitting to my Ex Uncle Novel – “I’m telling you, boys,” he laughed, “a week tops. She’s sweet, but not that smart. I give her a few more nights, and she’ll be begging me to put a ring on her finger. Easy win.” The words hit harder than a slap. Celeste Monroe stood frozen at the doorway of the private lounge, the soft clink of champagne flutes and muted laughter filtered around her when she heard those words. Her fingers trembled around the stem of her untouched glass, the strawberry she’d carefully garnished earlier now tasted so bad, just like her pride. They didn’t know she was there.
What was worse was that they weren’t even whispering. They were laughing without care, not caring who overheard them. Landon, the man she’d spent two years loving, was the man in there, laughing with his friends and saying those things about her. Hr was the same man who just last week talked about “forever” with stars in his eyes, and now, he was boasting about her like she was some joke between cigars and scotch. A bet? This wasn’t even a rumor. She heard it herself. She had been a bet.
She had been a bet for two years. Was this supposed to last forever if she hadn’t overheard them? Two years. He took this too far. “I mean, come on,” Landon chuckled, leaning back on the velvet sofa, smugness carved into every inch of his pretty-boy face. “She’s gorgeous, sure. But all heart. So easy to impress. Daddy’s gone, mom’s a wreck, and she’s just… waiting to be saved.” He raised his glass mockingly, and with a slow smirk, he added. “Guess who gets to play hero?” Celeste didn’t feel her heartbeat anymore. She felt a perfect crazy storm in her as she tried to second guess who said those words in Landon’s body. Her throat tightened.
She could taste the sour twist of humiliation already burning behind her eyes. Every memory of late-night talks, whispered I-love-you’s, every time she had believed in him, they all meant nothing. She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to throw the damn champagne in his smug face, and let him know that she heard him. That she stood there. Instead, she smiled. She stepped into the room like she hadn’t just overheard her entire soul being dissected for sport.