Chapter Two

Becoming Celeste

Isla POV

The black SUV door shut with a heavy thud the moment I slid into the back seat. I didn’t look back at the hospital. How could I? Naomi was still in there fighting and I had just walked away with a stranger.

“You really think this is going to work?” I asked, my voice rough from screaming earlier.

Vivienne didn’t even glance up from her phone. “It will work because you will make it work.”

The driver pulled away smoothly. City lights blurred past the tinted windows as I pressed my bandaged shoulder against the cool leather.

“That’s it? I just leave her there?” 

“Her care has already been arranged,” Vivienne answered, still typing. “Private room. Best specialists. She will be moved within the hour.”

“I want to see her. Just once before I disappear.”

“No.” Her tone was sharp and final. “Isla Virelli died tonight. Celeste Voss does not visit patients in public hospitals.”

I turned back to the window. “You’re asking me to abandon her.”

“I’m giving you the only way to save her,” Vivienne continued. “And I promise you this…the moment you step out of this car, Naomi’s care ends.”

The car stayed quiet. Vivienne reached into her bag and pulled out a thick folder and a single formal document with two signature lines at the bottom.

“Read it carefully,” she said.

I flipped through the contract. The words were cold and exact. I would become Celeste Voss completely. Attend every family event, every public appearance. Play the devoted fiancée until Vivienne decided otherwise. In return, Naomi gets full medical coverage for as long as I kept up my end.

“The duration you deem necessary,” I said without looking up. “That’s not a timeline. That’s you owning me.” 

“It is a guarantee. Your friend receives everything she needs for as long as you hold up your end.”

I tapped the paper. “And when this is over? When your son recovers?”

“We will discuss your exit then. Not now.”

Something cold moved through my chest. My stomach twisted. I picked up the pen. My hand hovered for a second.

Naomi’s face flashed in my mind. Pale. Bleeding. Eyes fluttering shut in the car.

I signed.

Vivienne signed right after without hesitation, like she had already practiced this moment a hundred times. She slid the document back into her bag before I could ask for a copy.

“I’ll need my copy,” I said.

“You won’t need it.” She glanced at me. “I remember every detail. That is enough.”

She said it like a promise. It felt like a threat.

I opened the folder instead. Photos spilled out first. Celeste standing close to a man with warm blue eyes and a gentle smile. He looked at her like she was his whole world. She laughed in the picture, hand on his arm, completely at ease.

I studied her face. My face. 

Same eyes. Same jaw. The same small scar beneath the left ear that I had carried since I was nine. A scar no one had been able to explain.  It unsettled me in a way I couldn’t name.

“That is Elias,” Vivienne said. “He is the only one that matters right now.”

I kept flipping through the file. Pages of habits, favorite foods. Every detail of her life reduced to bullet points and rehearsed memory. I had memorized entire lives before walking into rooms that could ruin me. But this one felt different. 

“This feels wrong,” I muttered. “Living as someone else completely.”

“You have done it before,” Vivienne said. “Many times. This is just another job.” 

The car turned onto a private road. Iron gates opened without a sound. The estate appeared slowly, wide lawns under soft golden lighting, stone fountains glowing faintly in the dark and then the mansion itself rising at the end of the drive like something from another world. 

“Damn,” I whispered. 

“Language,” Vivienne corrected sharply. “Celeste does not speak like that. Fix it now.”

I bit my tongue as the car stopped.

——————————————————————

Inside the mansion, the air felt different. Heavy. Expensive.

A young woman waited at the bottom of the grand staircase. She stood straight. Hands clasped tight. Eyes careful.

“This is Lila,” Vivienne said. “She will help you settle. I have other matters to attend to.”

Vivienne disappeared down a hallway without another word.

The bedroom was larger than anything I had ever lived in. Silk sheets. Soft lights. A closet already full of clothes that matched my size perfectly. Photographs of Celeste and Elias placed around the room like reminders. 

Lila cleared her throat. “She wore this every day.” She picked up a thin gold bracelet and held it out. “Mr. Elias gave it to her. You should wear it.”

I took the bracelet. The metal felt cold against my skin as I fastened it around my wrist.

“You knew her?” I asked.

Lila hesitated. “I worked for the family before the accident. All I can say is she was quite different from the rest of the ladies I had met in this house.” 

Stylists came in shortly after. They worked fast, fixing my hair, covering every mark from the night before. No one spoke much. When they finished and left the room I crossed to the mirror and studied the woman looking back at me.

She looked expensive. Calm. Like someone who had never run through a parking garage with blood on her hands.

I turned to Lila . “Do I look like her enough?”

Lila studied me for a long moment. “The resemblance is… exact. Almost unnerving. But you need to soften your eyes. Celeste smiled like the world was gentle. Try that.”

I forced a small, gentle smile at my reflection.

“Better,” Lila said quietly. “But it will take practice. He’s been waiting a long time.”

I sat on the bed once she left and opened the folder again, memorizing every detail until my eyes burned.

Later, when the house grew quiet, I used the new phone Vivienne had given me and called the hospital despite her instructions.

“Naomi Thompson,” I said when the nurse picked up. “How is she?”

“She came through surgery,” the nurse replied. “Stable but still critical. She’s sedated right now.”

My throat tightened. “If she wakes up tell her Isla loves her. Tell her I’m coming back as soon as I can.”

I hung up fast before my voice broke completely.

Tears came anyway. I pressed my hand over my mouth and cried without sound, shoulders shaking in the middle of Celeste’s perfect room.

Naomi was alive because of this.

But she was alone because of me.

——————————————————————

Morning light came too soon. Lila entered with clothes already laid out. Soft cream fabric that felt too nice against my skin.

“He asked twice already this morning,” she said while helping me dress.

“Who?” I asked, though I already knew.

“Mr. Elias. He wants to see Celeste.”

I touched the gold bracelet on my wrist. It felt heavier now.

I looked at the stranger in the mirror one last time.

“Then let’s not keep him waiting.”

Lila gave me a sympathetic look. “Be careful with him. He’s been through a lot.”

My pulse raced as I stepped into the hallway. The lie was about to begin for real.