𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐘𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐇- spencer reid ✔️

𝐎𝐍𝐄

𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐀 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 in her New York City office when she'd gotten the phone call. 

"Ms. Clairmont, I've got a call on line one for you!" Margot peeked her head in the door, adjusting the round glasses that sat on the tip of her nose. "It's your brother."

"Put him through," Celia instructed without a moment of hesitation. She leaned back in her chair and skimmed over some of her more recent designs, waiting for the phone to ring. The second it did, she picked up the phone before it even had the chance to ring again, reminding Celia that her brother was still on the other line waiting for her to pick up. 

"Hi, Seb," she answered.

"Hey, Cece," he replied, and even though she couldn't see his face, Celia immediately knew something was wrong. "I'm really sorry to bother you at work, but you need to come home."

To Celia, Sebastian was essentially the glue that held her family together. He was the one who got them through all the tough times without so much as a crack in his armour, because that was what he did. He was destined to take over the Clairmont empire, and Celia knew that there was no one who could do it better than him, including herself. That life was never what she wanted, which was why she used the entirety of her trust fund to uproot her life and move to New York in hopes of pursuing her dreams of being a fashion designer. Some may have told her it was risky, but it paid off in the end. She had once dreamed of selling her clothes in stores like Bergdorf Goodman's, and now at the ripe age of twenty-six, she had made that dream a reality and become one of the most famous designers when she was only twenty.

"What's wrong?" She asked immediately. For Sebastian to sound so distraught, it must have meant something had happened. Whatever it was, Celia was ready to spring into action immediately. As she spoke to her brother, she was already preparing to have the jet pick her up and bring her back to Connecticut. Because her brother needed her, and there was nothing that Celia wouldn't do for her family. 

"It's granddad," he replied. She could already guess the next words out of his mouth before he'd even said them. "He passed this morning."

"No," Celia whispered, more to herself than anything. Alastor Clairmont wasn't young by any means, but even at his age, he was healthy as a horse. She hadn't expected him to live forever, but she also wasn't expecting him to just die one morning unexpectedly. "How did it happen?"

"We don't know for sure, but the doctors suspect it was a heart attack." Seb sighed, and Celia could see him as clear as day in her head, running a hand down his face while wondering how he was going to handle this. It was clear that the family needed to present a united front, because once the press got wind of their grandfather's death, they'd start speculating about the Clairmont who would take over the dynasty now that Alastor had passed. "The maid found him this morning when he never came down for his breakfast."

"A heart attack," Celia ran over the details to herself quietly. "He was fine when I spoke to him last week. How did he manage to have a heart attack between then and now? He was perfectly healthy."

"He was also ninety, Cece," Sebastian pointed out. "He lived longer than any of us expected him to."

"How's dad holding up?" Celia asked. She'd been so focused on processing the death of her grandfather, that she hadn't stopped to think about the loss that her own father was suffering from, and the stress he was most likely under. 

"As good as you'd expect him to be," Seb answered vaguely. "Mom and Aunt Isa already started making arrangements for the funeral. Granddad was very clear about what he wanted."

"I'll call the pilot and make arrangements to be home by tonight," Celia announced. Her family needed her right now, and she was needed at home. 

"No need," Seb informed her. "I already handled that. Go home and pack enough clothes for at least two weeks. The driver will pick you up at four and bring you to the airport." Of course Seb had already been two steps ahead of her. He'd probably jumped right into action after getting the phone call this morning, making sure that everyone was taken care of, all the while he forgot to take care of himself. He was so worried about making sure that everyone else was okay, that no one but Celia seemed to think about how he was doing, and how it must feel to carry the weight of their entire family on his shoulders alone.  Celia tried to relieve some of the pressure from him, but he had the notion that it was his responsibility to handle it since he was older.