34. Magnolia Steel
Chapter 34
Magnolia Steel
The office is unusually quiet, the typical hum of voices and ringing phones replaced by a calming midday stillness. As I sink into my chair, the rare solitude feels like a reprieve—a chance to breathe.
But quiet moments like this come with a cost: they leave room for the thoughts I’ve been trying to outrun all morning. Only two days remain in Sydney, and the time I’ve shared with Alex feels like grains of sand slipping through my fingers—no matter how tightly I try to hold on, it’s slipping away too quickly. The thought of leaving, of returning to Charleston and pretending this never happened, is a truth I can’t bring myself to face.
I need clarity—someone who truly knows me, someone who can help me sort through the mess of emotions I can’t seem to untangle on my own.
I pick up my phone, scrolling to Violet’s name. Each ring stretches longer than the last, fraying the edges of my resolve. Just as I’m about to hang up, her familiar voice cuts through the line.
“Mags!” Violet’s unmistakable Southern drawl wraps around me like a hug. “You caught me just in time—I was about to head out and meet a guy I matched with.” Her laugh bubbles through the phone, light and teasing. “Lord help me if he’s anything like the last one.”
I laugh despite myself, shaking my head. “Meeting up with a stranger? Bold move. Don’t you remember how the last time ended?”
Violet’s laugh is carefree, brimming with her usual confidence. “Oh please. Like you’ve got any room to talk, Miss Charleston-Dating-Julius-Caesar. ”
I can’t stop the grin that pulls at my lips. “Touché. But, for the record, my guy’s not much of a mystery anymore.”
She hums, her amusement clear even through the line. “All right, fair enough. Now spill it, darlin’. What’s goin’ on with Mr. Bazillionaire?”
I take a deep breath, letting the words tumble out in a rush. “I love Alex so much it scares me. I didn’t expect any of this, and now the thought of leaving him feels impossible. I’ve never felt this way about anyone. He sees me—truly sees me—in ways no other man ever has. But he wants more than I think I’m ready to give. What if I never feel this way again, Vi? What if he’s the one, and I walk away?”
“Oh, honey. It sounds like this man has shaken your whole world. And yeah, that’s terrifying, but love like that is so rare. It doesn’t happen every day.” She pauses, her words deliberate. “So let me ask you this, Mags. Are you letting fear run the show? Because it feels like you could be holding back to protect yourself.”
Damn if she doesn’t know me to my core.
“If this is real—and it sure sounds like it could be—you owe it to yourself to see where it leads.”
I swallow hard, Violet’s words striking a chord. “But Vi, he wants a life here in Australia— marriage, a family, roots. And I don’t know if I’m ready for all of that.”
“Magnolia Steel, if anyone can find a way to be both wild and rooted, it’s you. Just because he’s ready for all that doesn’t mean he’s expecting it from you tomorrow.”
“But it wouldn’t be fair to lead him on when I don’t know if I can ever get there.”
“How are you going to know if you don’t try?”
“That’s going to be hard to pull off with nearly 10,000 miles between us.” Talk about redefining long-distance relationships.
“You sound like you’ve already got one foot out the door, but from where I’m sitting, your heart hasn’t budged an inch.”
“And my heart won’t budge. It’ll always be with him wherever he is, no matter the distance between us.”
“Come on, Mags. You can’t let something this good slip through your fingers because it doesn’t fit the picture you painted. If he’s worth it—and it sure sounds like he is—you’ll figure it out.”
A shaky laugh slips out, the tension in my chest easing—just a little. . “I swear, you’re too good to me, Vi. I don’t know how I’d survive without you.”
“Lucky for you, you’ll never have to find out. And don’t you dare let fear make your choices for you. This is your life, Mags. Make it one you’ll look back on with no regrets.”
I manage a soft laugh, even as my throat constricts. “Thank you, Violet. Truly. I needed to hear that.”
And now I’ve got a lot to figure out.
“Just don’t forget, if you end up miserable because you played it safe and didn’t even try, I’ll be right here to say, ‘I told you so.’ But also, I’ll be armed with a tub of rocky road ice cream.”
A genuine smile tugs at my lips, her words easing some of the ache inside me. “I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.”
We exchange goodbyes, and as I tuck my phone into my bag, a strange blend of comfort and unease settles over me. Violet’s words echo in my mind, simultaneously steadying me and stirring up the storm of emotions I can’t escape.
Oh, Alexander Bjorn Sebring III.
What are you doing to me—making me question everything I thought I knew? My plans, my rules, the neat little boxes I put my life in… you’ve gone and turned them all upside down, and worse? I don’t even know if I want to put them back in their places.
I exhale, shaky and uncertain, and then… movement catches my eye. My stomach drops like a stone.
Celeste is standing there, her expression an enigma, her sharp gaze trained directly on me. Her smile, poison wrapped in politeness, sharpens. “Unfortunate, isn’t it? My overhearing your little heart-to-heart about Alex. I’d apologize for eavesdropping, but we both know I’m not sorry.”
I lock eyes with her, forcing my nerves to steady. “Your lack of remorse isn’t exactly surprising.”
Her gaze hardens, and her smug smile deepens, gleaming with satisfaction. “Still, you might want to be more cautious about spilling your heart. You never know who’s paying attention.”
A prickling unease rises under my skin, the feeling of exposure tightening like a vise around my chest.
Her expression sharpens, her words laced with venom. “What you’re doing with Alex? That’s called crossing lines. Sleeping with a client is unprofessional and unethical. Honestly, it’s disgraceful—taking advantage of him like that.”
I know how this game works—there’s only one rule: deny everything.
My pulse thunders in my ears, but I inhale deeply, drawing strength from the quiet resolve inside me. Raising my chin, I meet her gaze with a calmness I don’t entirely feel. “You’re grasping at straws, Celeste. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Her sharp laugh pierces the air, cold and cutting, while her smile drips with triumph. “Oh, but I do. Your little arrangement with Alex? Crossing professional lines, indulging your whims? It’s reckless. And it’s all about to come crashing down.”
Her words dangle in the air, bait disguised as certainty, and my thoughts spiral into overdrive. Celeste is ruthless—she doesn’t just play the game; she rewrites the rules to suit her. If there’s one thing she excels at, it’s exploiting weakness. For all I know, she’s recording this, her claws ready to seize on any slip, any word she can distort into a weapon.
The idea knots my stomach, but I force an outward calm. My muscles tense as a sobering truth crystallizes: Celeste isn’t fishing for information—she already knows too much. Far more than she should. But how has she pieced this together? And, more importantly, what’s her next move?
I maintain a composed facade, forcing calm even as every nerve in my body buzzes with the need to proceed carefully. This isn’t just a conversation. It’s a high-stakes game, and Celeste is playing for keeps.
A flash of an idea takes hold, and I decide to shift gears, probing for any cracks in her armor. My tone lightens, turning casual, as though the conversation is nothing more than idle banter. “If Alex were a client here—and I’m not saying he was—how exactly would you know? Soul Sync’s entire business hinges on discretion. Privacy is the whole point.”
My eyes are fixed on her for any sign of a reaction. For the briefest moment, something glimmers in her expression—a slip so fleeting it might’ve gone unnoticed if I weren’t looking for it. Her mask snaps back into place almost instantly, and she arches a brow with an air of calculated indifference. “Maybe I just pay attention. Something you might want to consider doing more often.”
Her voice carries the sharp edge of a veiled insult, but I focus on the crack I saw, however brief. It was there—a sign that my words hit closer to home than she intended to let on. She’s hiding something, and her deflection only confirms it. Celeste is playing her game well, but now I know where to aim.
Her features smooth into a mask of cold composure, her lips curling into a tight, thin smile. Without a word, she turns and strides away, the sharp click of her heels echoing against the tile with practiced precision.
Shit.
I’m frozen with unanswered questions bouncing around in my head. Lots of them.
Celeste knows something—too much—and the silence she leaves behind feels deliberate, almost weaponized. The entire exchange only heightens my unease, the tension sharpening every unanswered thought.
Familiar voices echo from the hallway, breaking through the tension like a sudden wake-up call in the dead of night, jolting me back to reality. Sophie, Whitney, and Elijah return from lunch, their laughter spilling into the quiet, disrupting the unease Celeste left behind.
I straighten my posture, willing my expression into something calm, unaffected.
Sophie’s smile falters as her gaze sharpens, zeroing in on me. “Hey, you good? You look a little rattled.”
I force a half smile. “Oh yeah. I’m fine.”
Whitney arches a curious brow. “Maybe you should’ve joined us for lunch. Looks like you got stuck dealing with Cleopatra this time.”
The words make my pulse stutter. “ Cleopatra? ”
Sophie nods, her expression half amused, half exasperated as she gestures toward the lobby. “Yeah, we saw her out front. Not gonna lie, I caught a glimpse and immediately hid behind a plant.”
Whitney laughs. “Was she here to stir up more drama because Julius Caesar dumped her?”
The world tilts, their words slamming into me with brutal force, leaving my breath caught in my throat.
Celeste is Cleopatra.
The realization crashes over me like a tidal wave, leaving me reeling. My breath catches as I try to piece together this new reality. Celeste isn’t only a jilted ex or a meddler sniffing around for drama—she’s Alex’s assigned match. The one Soul Sync paired him with. The one who was supposed to capture his attention, his heart.
But how? None of this feels like a coincidence.
She must have orchestrated it. Somehow, she’s manipulated the system to her advantage.
A sickening clarity settles over me as the pieces align, each one worse than the last. Celeste’s calculated disdain, her veiled threats, her unshakable confidence—it all clicks into place now. She has more than a personal grudge; she’s playing a game with the stakes stacked entirely in her favor. And with her insider knowledge of Soul Sync, she’s more dangerous than I ever could have anticipated.
Sophie’s and Whitney’s laughter hums distantly in the background, their casual chatter completely eclipsed by the storm in my mind. How much does Celeste truly know? Has she been plotting all along, or is she simply biding her time, waiting to strike?
And the most terrifying thought… what will this mean for Alex and me?