Two Can Play Recap Part 23: My Treasure

This Two Can Play recap part 23 covers chapters 551–582, the latest chapters in our copy, with spoilers. Romantic scenes stay closed-door.

The proposal, again

The estate is lit and the whole world is watching the live feed. The iron gates open and Celeste steps out of the limousine in green silk, and Dominic forgets the cameras exist. "I am memorizing," he tells her.

Inside, the MC gives a warm speech and Celeste's mother gives a tearful one. Then the lights go out, a single spotlight comes on, and Dominic kneels. There's no written speech. He tells her she walked through his walls as if they weren't there, and: "I wanted to tell you, from my knees, in front of everyone who matters, that I am yours."

Celeste can barely get the words out through her tears, but she manages: "Yes, Dominic Ford. Yes, I will marry you."

Two guests later sneer that the bride is "a nobody, a divorcee who got lucky". Celeste tells Dominic they're not worth it, so Dominic lets Sparrow walk them out, and then announces he is cutting all business ties with their husbands' companies, effective immediately. "That was excessive," Celeste says, smiling.

Granny finds out

Sparrow congratulates Celeste: "Welcome to the family. For real this time." Dominic pulls him into a hug.

Then Granny arrives, blesses Celeste, and turns on Scarlett: where is your wife, Alexander? Sparrow sends Scarlett away and tells his grandmother everything. Tasha is a contract wife. "Scarlett is the one I love… Scarlett is permanent." There will be no great-grandchildren from him. Granny turns to Celeste in despair, and Celeste smiles: "It is in our plans."

The party moves to a yacht, where the MC quizzes the couple. Who approached whom first? "I did," says Celeste, and Dominic refuses to say what she asked. What does nobody know about him? "He hums." Then Dominic points to the highest house on the ridge, the one only they can enter, and carries her all the way up the hill.

Scarlett's story

Scarlett stays ashore; she has avoided water since a childhood near-drowning. Sparrow stays with her. She tells him about Lynette, the sister who sold her company to pay for seven-year-old Scarlett's heart surgery, cleaned offices for five years, and then trained Scarlett to find her stolen daughter before illness took her. For Tasha, Scarlett says, there is nothing she wouldn't do to anyone, Sparrow included. "It's a good thing I am not one of your enemies," he answers.

"You are my treasure"

At home, Sparrow sees the hotel's pool footage and explodes. Why would Scarlett kneel to anyone? Then he drives off to his empty office tower. She follows him, and he says it: "I am in love with you, Scarlett."

She says she can't afford it. Tasha comes first. He takes that on too: after Dominic's wedding in two weeks he'll hunt Big Bryan down, end the contract and set Tasha up for life. Then she tells him about the man who once called her trash, and says he was right.

"You are not trash, Scarlett. You are my treasure."

She says yes.

The hospital

As they're leaving, Scarlett collapses. Her blood pressure is dangerously high, and she'll be kept in hospital for up to a week. Sparrow never leaves her side.

Tasha arrives in a turtleneck, crying, and drops to her knees: "Lucia is a terrible person… you were right." Scarlett pulls out her drip, kneels beside her and demands to know what "that snake" did. Sparrow walks in with a tray: "What the hell do you think you're doing, Tasha?"

That's where our copy of the book ends, at chapter 582.

What we noticed

• Dominic and Sparrow give their big speeches in the same night, and both are about choosing someone publicly.
• Scarlett's heart surgery as a child and her collapse now look like a thread the book intends to pull.
• Tasha's turtleneck is a quiet, frightening detail. Whatever happened in room 20, she hasn't said it yet.

Previous: [Part 22](/posts/two-can-play-recap-part-22-the-test) · Next: [Part 24](/posts/two-can-play-recap-part-24-the-paris-proposal) · Read the [review of chapters 501–582](/posts/two-can-play-review-chapters-501-582).