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Celeste Kane felt the corner of her lips lift as she pressed the top-most button of the Kane Enterprises elevator. As much as she hated surprises in her own life, she had to admit that springing them on others always made her pulse race. Still, that was no reason to mess her carefully applied make-up with a lot of unnecessary facial expressions. She turned to face the mirrored wall at the rear of the elevator and assured herself that her stunning ensemble was as perfect as it had been when she’d left home. Her eyes met those in the mirror and found in them the smile that she did not allow to stretch her face. Jake would never know what hit him.
It’s not that their marriage needed saving. Not really. But a little spice, a little romance — that was the exactly what they needed. The children were growing up so fast, developing their own lives. She wanted to reconnect with her husband. She’d breeze in and whisk him away from his late work night. The limo would take them to the private dinning room at Pierre’s, and then…
Celeste allowed her lips one twitch at the thought as she turned to answer the elevator’s arrival bell. Before she could move to the front of the elevator and exit, a small blonde woman spun into the cramped chamber.
Her hair was wild, her skirt askew, and Celeste could smell the brandy on her breath across the short distance. As Celeste gripped the guide rail on the side of the wall and worked to formulate words, she watched as the slattern made cow-eyes at someone just down the hall. The dirty-blonde blew this person a certainly flammable kiss and backed into the elevator, pushing the ‘door close’ button as she went.
The hiss of the elevator doors as they sealed her in with her worst enemy finally roused Celeste from her stupor, just as it pierced the woman’s clouded mind that she was not alone. Before the other woman could react, Celeste rushed forward and slammed the emergency stop button so hard, one of her nails broke. Neither the pain nor the sound penetrated her consciousness as she moved into the woman, backing her against the rear wall of tiny room.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Celeste opened her mouth to screech again, but caught sight of her face in the mirrored surface beyond that shaggy blonde head. She looked half crazy. She hated what this woman could do to her.
‘Three. Breathe.’
The hideous furrows of her forehead smoothed out.
‘Two. Breathe.’
Her lips lost their snarl.
‘One.’
And Jake had said those meditation classes were worthless.
‘Jake.’
Celeste moved her gaze from her now calm reflection and took a controlled survey of Lianne Mars. She had never understood what Jake saw in her. But she could no longer deny that he was still seeing her. Lianne’s eyes darted to the four corners of the small compartment and finally settled back on Celeste.
“I wasn’t -.”
“Save it.” Celeste held up a warning hand. “It’s obvious. You’re obvious.” The last was said as she swept Lianne’s body with a disdainful once-over. “I guess you didn’t think I was serious the last time, did you? I wasn’t fooling around. I will destroy you. Stay the fuck away from my husband, you drunken whore.” The hard words fell from Celeste’s lips like chill statements of fact and she took pride in her control over the situation.
Lianne pressed away from the glass wall and, suddenly, she was looking Celeste in the eye. “Or you’ll what? You’ve got nothing Celeste. You may have convinced me for a while that Jake didn’t want anything to do with me, but he was quite vigorous in demonstrating his desire to continue our acquaintanceship ten minutes ago when he had me bent over his de-.”
The sound of the slap echoed in the confined space. Celeste stared at her hand in confusion, and the red handprint on Lianne’s face warred with the flush of anger rising from her neck.
“Oh that’s it,” Lianne marveled as she shook her head in amazement. “You had better think long and hard before you try and get in my way, Celeste. I’ll sue you for millions if you don’t leave me and Jake the fuck alone.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Celeste tried to infuse her voice with boredom even as she fought down the wretched sick awareness crawling up her throat.
“Veronica.”
Lianne declared the name of her daughter as if she were revealing the ultimate weapon and the smugness in her voice made Celeste dig her remaining fingernails into the flesh of her palm.
“Veronica? I can’t stand the girl, but Duncan will get over her eventually. I don’t see -.”
“She’s not Keith’s daughter.”
The bottom dropped out of Celeste’s world and she could see Lianne crowing silently as she collapsed against a side wall and fought to remember to breathe.
‘Three. Breathe.’
“Get in my way and I’ll take you for all you’ve got.”
‘Two. Breathe.’
“Your money, your house, your status...”
‘One.’
“Your husband.”
‘Jake.’
Fuck meditation.
Lianne had deactivated the emergency stop and the elevator was heading down. The doors slid open with a faint chime and Lianne breezed out with her head held high and barely a wobble in her step.
She apparently thought this was over.
Celeste pulled herself up with the guide rails and turned again to face the mirrored back wall. Her appearance was barely altered. It would take more than a soused bitch like Lianne Mars to take down Celeste Kane. In fact, the idiot had already solved one problem for her. At last, she’d be able to get Duncan out of the clutches of that golden-haired social-climber. And as for Lianne, well… there was more than one way to save a marriage.
Celeste pressed one of the intermediate buttons and waited as the elevator began to rise again. The door opened and she finally left the small elevator behind and made her way down a darkened corridor towards a lighted office. She knocked once and then disappeared behind the door of her new partner.
Clarence Wiedman.