The Broken Vows: Zane and Celeste’s Story (The Windsors)

“What the fuck is this?” I ask, irritated when I find my brothers waiting in front of my house. I’m not sure why I even bothered asking when I know exactly what this is — it’s a fucking intervention, one I should’ve seen coming.

Lex tries his best to grin as he holds up the latest prototype of his portable poker table, his usual cheer notably absent. “I made some upgrades to the table’s design, so I thought we’d try it out.”

I stare at my brothers and take in their forced smiles, the worries they fail to hide. “Right,” I murmur, indulging them. “On a Wednesday, after a long day at work, when our official monthly poker night is scheduled three days from now?”

They exchange looks, their smiles wavering for a moment. “Why not?” Ares says, shrugging.

I sigh as I let them in. I should’ve expected this after the spectacle The Herald turned Celeste’s engagement news into. It’s been five years, and simply hearing her name fills me with barely containable rage. Even in the years we waged war against each other as children and then teenagers, I never hated her the way I do today — with every shattered piece of the heart that used to belong to her.

“Zane?” I look up to find my brothers seated at my dining table, Lex’s contraption placed on top. Luca straightens his back and holds up an expensive bottle of whiskey. “Seemed like the night for it,” he says.

I try my hardest to smile for them and sit down just as Luca pushes a glass toward me. I knock it back, and he tops me up without words. Dion sighs as Ares begins to shuffle our bespoke deck of cards — courtesy of Sierra, who printed our faces on the joker cards when she found out we had a monthly get-together she wasn’t invited to.

“I’m thinking of calling this the Poke-It Poker Table,” Lex announces, breaking the heavy silence in the room. “Because you poke it, and it sets itself up.”

I stare at him blankly, and Luca rolls his eyes — a habit he picked up from Val, his wife. “No,” Ares says. “Absolutely not.”

Dion nods in agreement. “It was embarrassing enough The Herald found out about your dumb Lex-Board. You’re lucky they let you bribe them. Not that it helped, since they made it so obvious you paid them off in their retraction.”

A hush falls over the room at the mention of The Herald, and Dion’s eyes widen, remorse written all over his face. I take another sip of whiskey and place my glass down harder than intended. “I’m fine, you know? It’s been five years. I don’t give a fuck who she marries, so long as she stays the fuck away from me.”

My body recoils as the words leave my lips, my subconsciousness telling me it’s a lie. Out of everyone, why the fuck did it have to be Clifton? He’s the one Celeste’s mom envisioned her with before me. It hurts to know he’ll have Clara’s kind smiles and her weekly phone calls. Fuck, he’ll probably drink my whiskey with George and play cards with Archer. He’ll take Celeste to bed in the same room I used to sneak into, and he’ll be by her side in her parents’ kitchen on Saturday mornings. He’ll have everything that used to be mine, and they’ll welcome him with open arms.

“What happened between you two?” Lex asks, his voice pained. The memory of her still haunts him too — before Raven, Val, and Faye officially joined our family, she was the one he thought he’d have as his first sister-in-law. He loved her the way he loves all of our girls. My heart wasn’t the only one Celeste broke. Does she realize how much she’s hurt my family, how they’ve grieved the loss of her, of us?

I run a hand through my hair and look away. “We broke our vows, Lex. One after the other, until there was nothing left to hold on to.”

The boys exchange glances at my cryptic answer, our cards forgotten. “Was she the reason you were arrested?” Ares asks, his voice betraying his torment.

I’ve always refused to explain what happened, almost like a small part of me still wants to protect her, despite everything. That never stopped my brother from wondering, though.

Luca leans in and sighs. “Must have been,” he says to no one in particular. “But why?”

“Because she wanted me to understand what it’s like to lose everything I hold dear.” I smile humorlessly and shake my head, seeing the irony in it now, in hindsight.

I thought there was nothing we couldn’t withstand, but we came down like a house of cards. Lily’s death was the end of our relationship too. I didn’t see it, not straight away. Didn’t notice the way she’d linger in odd places of the house, the way her questions about my business became more pointed.

I didn’t put things together until the police showed up in front of my house with an arrest warrant, accusing me of corporate espionage and attempting to harm Harrison Developments. Celeste built a case that would’ve been impenetrable if I hadn’t been a Windsor. She’d been planning to put me behind bars, and all the while, I’d been planning to propose.

For years, I’ve wondered when her deception started, but each answer I find just results in more questions. Did she betray me because of Lily, or was it payback for the way I treated her when we were younger? Perhaps it was both, and I just failed to see the signs from the very start.

The moment Celeste realized I’d walked away scot-free following my arrest, she moved the rest of her chess pieces, leaking confidential information and causing Windsor Hotels such huge losses that my grandmother had to step in to salvage the situation. I still don’t understand why Grandma supported me without breathing a single word about it to my brothers, without even reprimanding me. I suppose she’d always seen it coming and had tried to warn me countless times. I should’ve heeded her words.

The sound of my front door slamming closed reverberates through the house, and I raise a brow as I look over my shoulder. “Zane? Are you home?” Sierra calls, moments before she walks in with Raven, Val, and Faye in tow. The latter three all exchange looks with their husbands, and fuck, I don’t have it in me to witness this tonight. This is what Celeste and I should’ve had together, what we did have.

Sierra holds up a shot glass and tries her best to grin, but her eyes are filled with the same pain I saw in Lexington’s. “We brought our own glasses. I know we’re not allowed to join your boys’ night and whatever, but I have it on good authority that this isn’t an official boys’ night.”

She slams her glass down on Lex’s poker board, and I narrow my eyes. It reads Anti-Poker Night, with her name engraved underneath it. Val pulls a bottle of that strong Mexican stuff she likes out of her bag, and I groan. Every time we have that shit, I lose hours of my day to oblivion. “None of you have any respect for your work, do you?”

Val shrugs. “What’s the point of being the boss if I can’t take a day off?”

Luca grins, his eyes twinkling. “Good girl,” he says, his voice gravely. Sierra rolls her eyes in obvious disgust, and I can’t help but smile in response, genuinely, for the first time in days.

“Are you okay?” Raven asks, her voice soft.

I study her face, noting her distress. Raven and Sierra were so close to Celeste that her betrayal hit them nearly as hard as it hit me. They’re the only ones other than Grandma who know what she did to me, and the fact they haven’t spilled a word about it to the boys is something I’ll always be grateful for.

“I’m okay, sweetheart,” I promise her. “Are you?”

She sighs, her eyes meeting Ares’s for a moment. “I’m not sure,” she admits, and fuck, she might well be the only honest person in this room tonight.