SHE WAS HIRED TO COMFORT A DYING MAFIA BOSS—THEN A STRAY CAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

Chapter 5: Three Faces

That afternoon, Dorothy introduced her to the rest of the house. Bianca — glossy red hair, a peach silk dress, a smile calibrated down to the smallest detail — greeted her with perfect warmth, then, in an unguarded half-second, ran a cold, measuring glance over Celeste like she was solving for a dangerous new variable. It vanished before Celeste could be sure she’d seen it at all.

Finn arrived next — tall, warm, open in a way that felt almost naive after Bianca’s polish — and shook Celeste’s hand with genuine gratitude that his brother looked better already. He adored Bianca with an unguarded devotion that made Dorothy sigh quietly after they left, an old grief Celeste didn’t yet understand.

In the hallway afterward, Priscilla caught her arm. Fifty-five, platinum-haired, gray eyes like steel. “You should know your place in this house, Miss Harlow. You are hired help. Don’t ever forget that.” Then she was gone, heels striking marble like hammer blows.

Three faces, three warnings. Celeste filed them away with the same precision she used for Elias’s symptoms, because she was beginning to suspect that in this house, people needed diagnosing as much as disease did.