Maureen Child - Saving His Blackmailed Lover

As they turned back toward the crowd, the people parted and Isabelle rushed forward to give Cecelia a hug. She looked radiant tonight in a shimmering bronze cocktail dress that brought out the copper in her hazel eyes. “Cecelia, you made it! I’m so glad.”

Cecelia accepted the hug and smiled as warmly as she could. Once she realized she’d been wrong about Isabelle’s gold-digging ways, she found she really did like her. Now she just had to fight off the pangs of envy where Wes’s fiancée was concerned. Soon, Isabelle would have the family that Cecelia had always wanted. She shouldn’t hold that against her, though. It was a long time coming, raising Caroline as a single mother, in part because of Cecelia’s meddling.

Turning to her date, Cecelia introduced them. “Isabelle, this is Deacon Chase. He’s building The Bellamy with Shane Delgado.”

Isabelle smiled and shook his hand. “I’m so excited for the hotel to open. It looks amazing from the outside.”

Cecelia could tell Deacon was nervous, but he was handling it well. “Thank you,” he said politely. “It looks amazing on the inside, too, thanks to Cecelia’s great designs. Congratulations on your engagement.”

“Thank you.”

“It looks like a great turnout,” Cecelia noted. “Even Teddy Bradford is here.” That was a surprise to everyone, she was certain. She knew the CEO of Playco had been in merger negotiations with Wes before Maverick outed him as a deadbeat dad. Teddy espoused family values and had dropped Wes’s Texas Toy Company like a rock when he found out about Isabelle and Caroline.

“I actually invited him,” Isabelle confided. “I haven’t given up on the Playco merger, even if Wes thinks all is lost. I’m hoping that when he sees us together he’ll reconsider the deal.”

Cecelia could only nod blankly at Isabelle’s machinations. The merger of Playco and Texas Toy Company wouldn’t be good news for To the Moon and its bottom line, which is why Cecelia had kept her mouth shut where that was concerned. Wes was her biggest business rival. However, the success of Luna Fine Furnishings would make her untouchable if she could compete in both the adult and child luxury design markets. At the moment, things were going well enough that she didn’t care if Teddy took Wes back.

“Good luck with that,” she managed politely. “And congratulations on the engagement.”

Isabelle crossed her fingers and said her goodbyes, slipping away to find Wes in the crowd. Once she was gone, Cecelia and Deacon continued to make their way through the room, saying hello and mingling appropriately. When they found the food, they each made a small plate and had a seat among some of the other guests. A long buffet had been set up for the party, with the centerpiece being a cake shaped like two hearts side by side with a third, smaller heart piped in pastel pink icing on top to represent their daughter. It was sweet.

They were perhaps an hour into the party, with no sign of Chip, and Cecelia was finally starting to relax. Maybe this event wouldn’t be such a nightmare. Being there with Deacon had changed everything. She felt confident on his arm, which was a far cry from the times she’d gone to events with Chip. She was always on edge with him, wondering if she looked good enough, if she was saying the right thing... Now that it was over, she couldn’t imagine a lifetime of being his wife. All she would have ever been was a prop he’d haul out at campaign rallies and fund-raisers. A Stepford wife in a tasteful linen suit with helmet hair and a single strand of pearls.

No way. Those days were behind her, and she’d never make that mistake again.

“I would like to propose a toast,” Teddy Bradford said as he took position center stage with the microphone to draw everyone’s attention. Cecelia noted that the boisterous old man was wearing his best bolo tie for the occasion. The crowd gathered around the stage to hear what he had to say. “Wesley, Isabelle, get on up here!”

The happy couple walked hand in hand to the stage and to stand beside Teddy.

“No one here is happier to see these two lovebirds tie the knot than I am. To me, and to the employees of Playco, family is everything. I had thought that perhaps Wesley felt differently, but I’m pleased—for once—to be proven wrong. Not only do I want to wish the couple all the happiness in the world, I want to wish it as Wesley’s new business partner.”

His words were followed by a roar of applause from the crowd. Wes turned to Isabelle with a look of shock on his face before he turned and shook Teddy’s hand. Cecelia could only smile. Isabelle seemed sweet, but she was shrewd, as well. She had managed to accomplish tonight what Wes had been unable to over the past three months. Bravo. Perhaps she had more competition in the Texas Toy Company than she thought with Isabelle behind the scenes.

Wes turned back to Isabelle, they kissed and everyone in the club went wild. Deacon held Cecelia tighter to his side as though he sensed tension in her.

“Is this bad news for your company?” he whispered in her ear. Clearly, he knew it was or he wouldn’t be asking.

“Perhaps, but I’m trying not to look at it that way. Those kinds of thoughts were what landed me such a miserable reputation in town. That’s a worry for another day. Tonight I’d rather focus on the happy couple.”

He nodded and pressed a kiss into her temple. “Then that’s what we’re going to do.”

Cecelia sighed contentedly in his arms while Isabelle and Wes cut the cake and pieces started circulating around the room. “They cut the cake,” she noted. “Cake is the universal sign at parties that it’s finally okay to take your leave.”

“Are you ready to go so soon?” Deacon asked. “I thought you were having a good time. And it looks like strawberry cake. We should probably at least stick around to have some. I love strawberry cake.”

“When did you get such a sweet tooth?” Cecelia asked.

“It started back in high school when I couldn’t get enough of your sugar.”

Cecelia laughed aloud and leaned close. “You don’t need any cake, then. You’re getting plenty of sugar once we get out of here. You’ve made it through the night with no complaints, and you should be rewarded.”

Deacon smiled. “I’m glad you agree. It wasn’t that bad, though.” His glance moved around the room at the club and the people who frequented it. “I think I’d made more of this place in my mind because I couldn’t be a part of it.”

“No one would dare keep you out now.”

Cecelia felt her phone vibrate in her purse, but she wasn’t going to get it out just yet. As they waited on cake, she noticed quite a few people pulling theirs out.

“Oh, my God, honey.” Simone ran up to her and clapped her hand over her mouth to hold back a sob.

Cecelia looked at her and again around the room in sudden panic. One person after another seemed to be looking down at his or her phone. The feeling of dread was hard for Cecelia to suppress. Especially when those same people immediately sought out Cecelia when they looked up.

Had Maverick’s deadline already come and gone so soon? She had consciously decided not to pay the blackmail money again, but she never dreamed it would come out tonight, while she was at the club with everyone else.

“What is it?” she asked as innocently as she could, although she already knew the answer.

Simone held up her phone, showing the screen to her and Deacon. An old newspaper article about the drug overdose of Nicole Wood was there. It even featured the photo of Nicole and her infant daughter, the same one Cecelia carried in her purse. The section was circled in red and accompanied by a note:

Cecelia Morgan? More like Cecelia Wood—a liar and the daughter of a junkie and her dealer. No wonder the Morgans hid the truth. The homecoming queen isn’t so perfect now, is she?