Chapter 5: A face no one recognizes

Celeste’s pov

The car dropped me at the side entrance of the Vale Estate, the one reserved for staff and guests who weren’t quite family.

Same iron gates, same stone lions,same long stretch of lawn leading up to a house I used to call mine, back when that word still meant something.

A young staff member carried my bag up the steps ahead of me. “You’ll be staying in the east wing,” she said. “Mrs. Vale prefers the surrogate kept separate from the main house.”

“Of course she does.”

Inside, the marble floors echoed the same way they always had, I passed the staircase where I used to wait some mornings for Gregory to come down, back when he still kissed me like he meant it.

“Dinner’s at seven,” the woman said, setting my bag down in a room smaller than anything I’d lived in as Amelia Vale. “Mrs. Vale requires all household guests to attend the first night. Family policy.”

“I’m not a guest.”

“You’re carrying the family’s future heir”, she said it flatly, like she’d repeated it to a dozen women before me. “That makes you a guest for now.”

At seven, I made my way down, my hands cold despite the warmth of the house. Helena sat at the head of the table already, and beside her, Evelyn looked up the second I walked in, her face arranging itself into practiced warmth.

“You must be the surrogate.” She rose slightly, extending her hand like we were strangers. “I’m Evelyn.”

I took it. It felt exactly the same as it always had.

“Celeste.”

“Pretty, it suits you.”

“Sit,” Helena said, not looking up from her plate. “We don’t wait on stragglers.”

I took the empty seat across from Evelyn, for several minutes the table stayed quiet except for silverware and Helena’s occasional orders to the staff. Then the door opened, and a woman I didn’t recognize walked in, sharp-eyed, dressed like a boardroom instead of a dinner invitation.

“So this is the surrogate everyone’s whispering about.” She pulled out the chair beside Helena but didn’t sit, leaning forward instead. “Tell me, Celeste, do you know what happens to women who get too comfortable in this house?”

“Vanessa,” Helena said, a warning in her voice. “Sit down.”

“I’m only asking.” Vanessa smiled, sliding into her seat, eyes still on me. “Gregory’s been talking about her all afternoon. That’s new.”

Evelyn’s fork paused halfway to her mouth. “Has he.”

“Apparently she fainted during her intake exam and he personally checked on her.” Vanessa reached for her wine, watching the reaction ripple across the table like she’d thrown a stone into still water. “Personally. Gregory doesn’t do personal.”

“He was being thorough,” Helena said. “Nothing more.”

“Of course.” Vanessa’s eyes flicked to me, amused. “I’m sure that’s exactly what it was.”

The door opened again before Evelyn could respond, and Gregory walked in, tie loosened, looking like a man who’d rather be anywhere else, he took the seat at the head of the table opposite his mother without greeting anyone, until his eyes landed on me.

“You’re settling in alright?”

The whole table went still. Helena’s jaw tightened. Evelyn’s smile didn’t move, but something behind her eyes did.

“I am,” I said carefully. “Thank you.”

“Good.” He held my gaze a beat too long before looking away, reaching for his glass.

“Gregory,” Helena said, “we were discussing the merger timeline before you arrived. I need your input, not your attention on the help.”

“She’s not the help, Mother. She’s carrying the family’s heir.” His voice was flat, but there was an edge under it I recognized, the same edge he used to defend me with, back before this house wore it down to nothing.

“Semantics,” Helena said, but she dropped it, turning back to her plate.

Evelyn reached across the table and refilled Gregory’s glass without being asked, her hand brushing his sleeve, light, practiced. “You work too hard,” she said softly. “You should let someone take care of you for once.”

“I’m fine, Evelyn.”

“You’re never fine. You just say you are.” She smiled at him the way she used to smile at me, warm enough to fool anyone who hadn’t already watched it curdle into something else. “Someone has to worry about you.”

I watched the performance from across the table, my hands folded tight in my lap to keep them from shaking. Four years of memory told me exactly how this scene ended. I’d sat in Evelyn’s seat once, believing every word of it.

Dinner dragged on another twenty minutes before Helena finally dismissed the staff and rose from the table, which in this house meant one thing, she wanted to speak to someone without an audience.

“Vanessa. A word.” Helena’s voice cut through the room like a blade. “Evelyn, walk our guest back to her wing.”

My stomach dropped, I didn’t want Evelyn anywhere near me alone, not yet, not until I had something to hold over her instead of just memory.

“Of course,” Evelyn said, already rising, already reaching for my arm like we were old friends. “Come on, Celeste.. let’s get you settled.”

She guided me out of the dining room, her hand light against my elbow, and the second we were alone in the hallway her entire posture changed. Not dramatically, just enough, the warmth in her voice thinned into something colder, more clinical.

“You should be careful,” she said quietly, not looking at me, “about how much attention you let yourself attract in this house.”

“I haven’t done anything.”

“That’s not what I asked.” She stopped walking, turning to face me fully, and for the first time all night I saw something behind her eyes that wasn’t performance. “Gregory doesn’t get attached, not to surrogates, not to anyone who isn’t useful to this family, if you’re smart, you’ll remember that before you start believing otherwise.”

“Is that a warning?”

“It’s advice.” She smiled again, the mask sliding back into place so smoothly I almost missed the seam. “I’d hate for something to happen to you before your contract’s even started.”

She turned and walked away before I could answer, heels clicking against the marble in a rhythm I remembered from a hundred nights she’d once used to comfort me.

I stood alone in the hallway, my pulse hammering, and that was when I heard it. Helena’s voice, low and sharp, drifting from the study down the hall, the door left open just a crack.

“…if the girl gets close to Gregory the way the last one did, we handle her exactly the same way.”

I didn’t move. I didn’t breathe.

Then Vanessa’s voice answered, quiet, certain.

“Already on it.”