Billionaire's Match novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Boy and the Juice

Celia sat on a straight chair in the old woman's drawing room with her hair down and her grey gown creased at the lap.

Two officers waited in the hall. The old woman stood at the window with her back to the room.

"I only have a minute," Celia said. She did not get up. "Thank you for coming."

"You asked."

"I want you to take Teddy."

Brittany did not move.

"Not for me. They'll put him in care, or leave him with her, and she is eighty-one."

Celia's voice shook, and for once nothing about it was arranged.

"You were kind to him on the first night, when he threw the juice. I watched you dry your face."

"I won't take your son."

"Brittany..."

"I'll see that he is never alone. I'll be at his school and at his birthday."

She said it flatly, because she meant it.

"But you don't get to hand him to me because you ran out of options."

Celia stared at her.

"I did it all for him," she said.

"You taught him to call me the maid. You gave him the juice to throw."

The officers came in then, and one of them read from a paper.

The charges were the adoption forms from Brightwater Home, the marriage certificate, and the signature on a university file.

Celia stood.

She looked at Brittany once more, with her whole warm face gone, and then she walked out between them without being touched.

The front door closed.

A moment later it opened again, and Dalton came into the room, between two more officers, in his ruined suit.

He wrenched free long enough to drop to his knees on the rug.

"Brittany."

She said nothing.

"I'll fix it. All of it. I'll sign everything over, the house, the shares, I'll say it was my fault in front of anyone."

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