Chapter 13

Celestine's POV

I pick at my meal while trying to ignore the strained silence between the four of us. Lorenzo keeps filling his glass with drinks. Cade is going through something on his phone, and mom keeps asking questions and bringing up conversations to make the evening bearable, all to no avail.

The stuffed sweet potatoes have a hard time going down my throat with all this tension in the room.

Cade drops his phone on the table, turning the screen face down and faces me. "Celestine, what do you think of my home so far? I hope you are enjoying your stay here."

I take a sip of my water, swallowing the food down my throat to free up my mouth. "You have a very beautiful home here, there is no way I would have any complaints."

"What a well-mannered girl. You raised her well." He takes my mom's hands, their joined hands resting on the table in between their plates.

Moments like this still baffle me. They just seem so unreal. I never thought I would ever see my mom this close with