Chapter 6

When Celeste woke up, her eyes were still wet with tears as she scanned the room. Her gaze finally landed on the clock-it was nearly ten. She couldn't believe she'd slept that late. Grabbing a simple set of loungewear from the closet, she pulled the collar up to hide the marks on her neck from yesterday. As she made her way downstairs, she silently prayed she wouldn't run into that disabled eldest son. To her relief, Ethan was nowhere in sight. Liam wasn't there either. The living room was buzzing with activity. Sophie was hovering over Grace Shaw, showing her how to make dumplings. Mr. Shaw sat on the couch, glasses perched on his nose, eyes fixed on the finance channel. "Mom," Celeste greeted softly as she walked in. Sophie's face immediately turned cold. She glanced at the wall clock, eyebrows raised. "Do you even know what time it is? First day back and you're already slacking off. What, you think you're some pampered princess now?" Grace, lazily shaping a dumpling, chimed in without looking up. "Must've been tough in prison. Poor sister-in-law's probably so wiped out, she forgot breakfast was even a thing." Breakfast was her job? So basically, Celeste's role in this house was daughter-in-law slash housekeeper? "What's wrong, did jail fry your brain?" Grace smirked, arching her thin brows when Celeste stayed quiet. Snapping out of her thoughts, Celeste offered a polite smile. "Not at all. If breakfast's what you want, I'll go make something right now. I promise it'll be just how you like it." Ignoring the way Sophie's and Grace's expressions soured, she calmly turned and headed toward the kitchen. "Is she for real? Totally nutty. Look at the time, who even wants her breakfast?" Grace grumbled under her breath. Before, Celeste would just silently take the hits with that pitiful, wronged look of hers. Now she was smiling like nothing could get to her? "Guess the prison guards knocked something loose in her head." Sophie took one of the dumplings from Grace and frowned. "This one's a mess. You gotta fold it like this, see?" In the kitchen, staring at the rows of oils, sauces, and veggies, Celeste's head started pounding. She seriously had no clue how to make breakfast. Back when she was living with the Goodwins, not setting the kitchen on fire already counted as a success. Still, she bit the bullet, grabbed a steak from the fridge, tossed in some chopped scallions and an egg, and tried to fry it up. She vaguely remembered the maid used to cook it this way. Trouble was, she totally messed up the heat. By the time she picked the steak up from the pan, it looked like a chunk of charcoal-pitch black and crispy. Panicking, she tried to make it look better by dusting it with a little flour and covering it with some cumin and chili powder before bringing it out. Grace took one bite, and her face instantly twisted. That delicate, doll-like expression collapsed in a second. "Ugh!" She spat it out like it was poison, slammed her fork on the table, and snapped, "Seriously, sis-in-law, you did this on purpose, didn't you? Trying to poison me like your whole ‘accidental death' thing again, huh?" "That bad?" Sophie looked skeptical. She had thought Celeste at least knew how to cook. To check for herself, she picked up the knife and fork, took a bite-and her face turned from pale to purple in seconds. Celeste looked sincerely apologetic. "Oh no... was it that bad? Sorry, I guess my hands shook a bit. Got my head bashed in pretty bad while I was locked up, needed stitches. Fingers got broken too, so maybe I went a little heavy on the seasoning." Her tone was so genuine, like she had no idea she'd done anything wrong. No matter how furious Grace looked, Celeste kept that calm, sweet smile on her face, like a breeze on a spring day. Sophie's eyes flickered with something unreadable. "You totally did that on purpose! If you didn't want to make breakfast, just say so! Don't go pulling some stunt like this!" Grace practically exploded. She'd always hated how Celeste was all meek and quiet-how was someone like that even worthy of her brother Ethan? So she didn't bother hiding the sharp edge in her words. She'd already made up her mind to kick Celeste out of the Shaw family someday. "But Grace, that's not fair... I really tried. I just... I'm not good at this," Celeste said, eyes slightly red-rimmed as she looked like she was holding back tears. "You-!" Everything was about to blow up in the living room when-