2

Celeste

For a whole month my life has been nothing but a dead, it’s like I’ve been moving through a thick fog the world had lost its color, its sound, its smell.

Everything was muted, gray.

My father’s funeral had been a quiet terrible affair. Just me, a priest and a hole in the ground.

I walked out of the automatic doors and New York City hit me like a wall The air wasn’t exactly fresh—it was a mix of car exhaust hot concrete and something else, something spicy and alive.

It was loud.

Horns blared people shouted into phones and a thousand footsteps created a chaotic soundon the sidewalk.

I stood there for a moment my small suitcase at my feet feeling incredibly small in crowd.

My eyes roamed around in search for my best friend Lisa, that is to pick me up.

“CELESTE!”

A shriek so high-pitched and full of pure joy that it cut through all the noise my eyes instantly finding hers

She was jumping up and down her wild curls bouncing her arms waving frantically over her head like she was trying to land a plane.

“CELESTE! OVER HERE!”

A slight smile, the the first real one in a month touched my lips.

Lisa was always so energetic… she felt everything at a hundred percent.

I walked to her while she ran dodging people with so much ease, something I could never do slamming into me, her arms wrapping around me so tightly I could barely breathe.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!” she chanted into my ear squeezing me. “You’re here! You’re actually here!”

I hugged her back clinging to her. “I’m here,” I whispered my voice thick.

She pulled back her hands on my shoulders, her eyes shining. “Look at you! I missed you so much! So so so much you have no idea!”

“I missed you too Lisa,” I said and I meant it more than she could ever know.

It’s been five whole years since I last saw her, aside the phone calls and text messages, that was the only thing keeping us together and keeping me sane for the past one month.

“Come on let’s get out of this zoo,” she said, looping her arm through mine and pulling me towards the curb. “Dad’s driver is waiting he wanted to come but he had a last-minute conference call. You know how it is.”

I nodded my throat suddenly tight.

Dad.

The word sent a fresh wave of heat through me.

Lisa’s face fell her endless energy dialing down to a soft hum of sympathy. She squeezed my arm. “Celeste… I am so so sorry about your dad. I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there for the burial”

“It’s okay,” I said and it was she had called me the second she heard crying harder than I was. “You were there for me. That’s what mattered.”

We slid into the back of a sleek black car.

“So,” Lisa said, turning to me. “Are you… are you okay? I mean I know you’re not but… you know what I mean.”

I looked out the window at the blur of buildings. “I don’t know what I am Lis. It’s been a month and it still doesn’t feel real.”

“Well don’t you worry, we’re going to make up for all the past years…it’ll be great! We’ll be living in the same house It’ll be like a permanent sleepover”

After Lisa’s dad got a job promotion they left Seattle and now he’s one of the most successful businessmen in New York now.

The car drove through massive iron gates and up a long winding driveway causing my jaw to drop. “Insane” was an understatement.

It was a mansion.

A real honest-to-goodness palace made of pale stone with more windows than I could count.

“You live here?” I whispered.

“I know right?” Lisa giggled.

We got out of the car and I followed her feeling like a peasant visiting a queen up the grand steps to the huge double doors.

The slipped open the maids helping me with my things, as we walked in fresh smell of warm, rich, comforting smell of food.

“We’re home!” Lisa called out her voice echoing in the vast foyer.

A moment later a woman walked out of a doorway I assumed led to the kitchen wiping her hands on a towel.

She was beautiful there was no denying it. She looked like she was in her late thirties with smooth blonde hair pulled back in a chic ponytail wearing a simple but expensive-looking cream-colored sweater and tailored pants.

She looked polished and perfect..

“Lisa darling,” the woman said her voice smooth and warm. “You found her!”

She turned her smile on me It was a perfect white smile. “And you must be Celeste.”

Lisa nodded. “Celeste this is Genevieve. My dad’s… fiancée.”

Fiancée.

The word was a physical blow.

Jared was engaged.

Genevieve walked forward her heels clicking softly on the marble floor pulling me into a hug.

“Oh my dear,” she said her voice soft in my ear. “I’ve heard so much about you from Lisa. I am so terribly sorry for your loss.”

Her words were right her tone was perfect but something felt off. I forced myself to hug her back my body stiff.

She pulled back holding me at arm’s length her hands on my shoulders as she scanned my face“You are even more beautiful in person. Jared has told me so much about you too.”

My breath hitched. “He has?”

“Of course,” she said, her smile never wavering. “You’re like a second daughter to him.”

The words were a bucket of cold water.

A second daughter.

“Thank you for having me,” I managed to say my voice barely a whisper.

“Our home is your home,” she said, and it sounded like a line from a movie.

Lisa sensing the tension grabbed my hand. “Okay, enough chatting! I’m gonna show Celeste her room and help her unpack. Come on Cece!”

She pulled me away from Genevieve and towards a sweeping staircase.

Jared Harlan a man I had tried so hard to forget was now the center of my new unwanted life.

He was engaged to a perfect woman and I was the charity case the “second daughter” he had to take in.

Surviving my father’s death and Ethan’s betrayal was one thing and survivingliving under the same roof as Jared Harlan was going to be a whole different battle.