Written in the Stars

Chapter Fifteen

The room was full to bursting when they got there. Izabela had chosen a meeting room available for hire in a hotel about 20 minutes outside of central London. It wasn't that she didn't want anyone to know about this meeting, it was more that they didn't want Astrid and Jean to know until the time was right. Because if it didn't go well then they were going to leave shame faced. But if it did, well, things were only going to get worse for their rivals.

Celeste could see every single person that she had hired to work for them. Some of them had been with them for at least 50 years. That was the benefit of faeries. They had long life expectancies. Made them good investments. She knew at least four of the faeries they had hired had grandchildren. She hoped that would help win them over. Of course Astrid and Jean did too, but Astrid had not been as involved as she had been recently, in reality for a long while she had wanted nothing to do with the syndicate and it had just been Jean and Celeste running it. All of this was good and would hopefully play into their favour. Of course Izabela was new to the crime scene this side of the channel, but she did have a great reputation as head of the Italian crime families, with ties to the US and elsewhere. Wherever the crime families had their people, she was in charge. Nothing was done without her. She had all the power. And every single person in this room knew that. None more than their international relations officer. He was most definitely going to come to their side. He knew the risk if he didn't and Celeste knew he had a new baby. So there was no way in hell he wasn't going to be joining them for their new venture.

He was the first to come to their side when the room was asked who would be willing to join them without needing to be sold. A couple other people, who he had spoken to and managed to convince also joined them.

But still the majority of the room appeared to need some convincing. This was where Izabela came in. Celeste had shown her face and the fact that she was loyal to Izabela and told them all that there was more power on this side of the table than with her sister and ex husband. She needed to call him her ex husband for this meeting as a sign of strength with Izabela, but it didn't make her feel good. She almost wanted to call him and apologise. But Izabela came first and always would. She was her future and past and no one could ever come in between that ever again. They had a history that trumped anything. She was her sire and for that alone Celeste owed Izabela love and loyalty.

Izabela made a grand speech, which likely had a decent impact on them. And she offered a great benefits package, which probably had an even greater influence. Money was key in this economy and Celeste knew that her sister and Jean had had to make some salary cuts due to the lack of black market income which will have hurt them. After all, many did have families to care for, some with too many children and grandchildren in Celeste's opinion. But then she had never been one for children, even though it had once been her duty to have at least four. That was the one blessing from those days having passed. She was no longer expected to bear children. Not that she even could if she wanted to. But that wasn't the point of this meeting. She was not here to judge the people she had hired life choices regarding this insistence on reproducing.

Celeste guessed that by the end of the hour - that was how long they had rented the room for - they would have most of the employees on their side. She had a small hope that a few would remain loyal to her sister and Jean. She had thought that she had hired people loyal to the family and not just to her. She hoped to be pleasantly surprised.

She wasn't. She was disappointed. Which meant that Izabela was ecstatic. She had gotten everyone who had decided to come to the meeting. The benefits package was just too good. And by Celeste's account, that was everyone she had ever hired. Which meant that even though Celeste had signed over the syndicate to her sister, she had the most important part. The people.

They walked away from the meeting gaining everything they could have hoped to and yet Celeste was not as happy or celebratory as she should have been. She just hoped that Izabela wouldn't notice.

Celeste knew she shouldn't be here. She knew she was betraying Jean and all the promises she had made. But she also knew she had no choice.