Chapter 12 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW ABOUT THE AFFAIRCeleste Westbrook invited Arielle to tea.
Arielle nearly declined.
Then decided there were questions only Celeste could answer.
They met at Westbrook townhouse.
Celeste wore ivory.
Perfect posture.
No apology.
“Arielle.”
“Celeste.”
“I’m sorry about what happened at gala.”
“Which part?”
Celeste paused.
“Dorian’s behavior.”
“Not Cambria’s?”
“I did not see the fall.”
Good.
Careful.
Arielle sat.
“How long did you know Dorian slept with her?”
“Since late June.”
“How?”
“Cambria came to me.”
“Why?”
“She was distressed.”
Arielle almost laughed.
Cambria always became distressed near useful people.
“What did she want?”
“Advice.”
“About being your son’s mistress?”
Celeste’s lips tightened.
“She told me Dorian was unhappy.”
“Did you ask Dorian?”
“No.”
“Did you ask me?”
“No.”
“So you believed her.”
“I believed my son had not been himself.”
Arielle leaned back.
“You wanted us separated before the affair.”
Celeste did not deny.
“I never thought you suited him.”
“There.”
“You’re too independent.”
“You challenge him publicly.”
“I disagree with him.”
“Privately and occasionally in rooms where other adults have ears.”
Celeste’s tone sharpened.
“A husband should feel supported.”
“A husband should behave supportably.”
Celeste stared.
This was why she disliked Arielle.
No deference performance.
Arielle continued.
“You invited Cambria to Bellweather.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I thought Dorian should resolve feelings instead of pretending they didn’t exist.”
Arielle’s eyes hardened.
“So you facilitated your married son’s access to woman he had slept with.”
“I did not arrange intimacy.”
“You arranged proximity.”
Celeste looked away.
Then the pregnancy.
Celeste knew already.
Of course.
Cambria told her before Dorian.
Arielle smiled coldly.
“You really did choose her.”
Celeste sighed.
“If the child is Dorian’s, things change.”
“Not for me.”
“They change for family.”
“A child deserves love.”
“Cambria does not automatically deserve Dorian.”
Celeste looked surprised.
Arielle continued:
“Even if baby is his, adultery does not become romance.”
Celeste said:
“You may not understand because you and Dorian never had children.”
There it was.
Arielle’s face became still.
She and Dorian had tried for two years.
No success.
Only close family knew.
Cambria knew?
Likely.
“How does Cambria know about our fertility treatments?”
Celeste froze.
That answered.
“You told her.”
“I may have mentioned—”
“You told my husband’s mistress about my private medical life.”
Celeste’s composure cracked.
“Arielle—”
“No.”
She stood.
“You did not simply prefer her.”
“You gave her ammunition.”
Celeste stood too.
“I thought if she understood the sensitivity, she would be discreet.”
Arielle laughed.
“You told woman sleeping with your son that his wife was struggling to conceive.”
“And you thought she’d use it gently?”
Celeste paled.
Arielle suddenly remembered Cambria’s whisper:
From now on, he’s not yours anymore.
If pregnant, Cambria believed she possessed final advantage.
The one thing Arielle had not given Dorian.
A child.
And Celeste had shown her exactly where to strike.
Arielle’s voice remained low.
“You humiliated me before gala ever began.”
Celeste’s eyes filled.
“I never meant—”
“Intent is cheap.”
Arielle walked toward door.
Celeste called:
“If baby is Dorian’s, you should consider what refusing reconciliation means.”
Arielle stopped.
Slowly turned.
“What does it mean?”
“That child deserves a family.”
Arielle smiled sadly.
“Yes.”
“A healthy one.”
“And healthy families are not built by forcing betrayed women to marry men who lied to them.”
Celeste had no answer.
Before leaving, Arielle asked final question.
“Did you know Cambria planned to confront me at gala?”
Celeste hesitated.
Too long.
“Yes.”
Arielle’s heartbeat slowed.
“What exactly did she say?”
“That she was tired of hiding.”
“And?”
“That she intended to make you understand Dorian had feelings for her.”
“Did she say she would fall?”
“No.”
“Did she say she wanted Dorian nearby?”
Celeste looked down.
Arielle knew.
“She asked you to make sure he saw us.”
Celeste whispered:
“Yes.”
There.
Cambria had help with timing.
Not fall itself perhaps.
But Celeste knowingly positioned Dorian nearby because Cambria wanted confrontation witnessed.
“Why did you agree?”
Celeste’s voice broke.
“I thought if truth came out, everyone could stop pretending.”
Arielle stared.
“So you staged the room.”
“Cambria staged the rest.”
“I didn’t know.”
Arielle believed that.
Probably.
But Celeste still helped build trap.
As she left, Arielle received message from Cambria.
Photograph.
Pregnancy test.
Positive.
Then:
You can keep the ring if you want. I’m carrying what he actually needs.
Arielle stared.
Now she knew exactly where that cruelty came from.
Celeste had told Cambria too much.
May you like
But Cambria had chosen how to use it.
And Arielle was done letting either woman define her worth through a pregnancy.
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