Thorns Grow After Betrayal (Celeste and Chester) novel Chapter 172

Memories from the past were like sugar-coated poison.

Even just a hint of sweetness was enough to leave Celestine longing for more, the aftertaste lingering far too long.

She'd even—absurdly—let that faint hope stretch into this present darkness.

The restaurant was plunged into a pitch-black void, broken only by the furious shouts of angry diners.

Chaos reigned, voices overlapping and chairs scraping as people panicked in the dark.

Celestine felt awful.

Swallowed by shadow, her head spun until she was dizzy, her body beginning to tremble uncontrollably.

Then a large, warm hand found hers, steady and reassuring, and someone gently rubbed her back. "Don't be scared. I'm right here."

The instant the lights failed, Chester had remembered—almost instinctively—that Celestine was afraid of the dark.

Trusting his memory, he made his way toward her table.

"Chester, don't move, please. I'm scared," Joanna's voice quivered beside him.

He felt her shaking in his arms and hesitated, unwilling to go any farther. Instead, he wrapped her in an embrace, murmuring, "Don't worry, Joanna. I'll protect you."

It had been years. Chester thought surely Celestine's fear of the dark would have faded by now.

But when the lights finally flickered back to life, he caught sight of her—Celestine's eyes wide with despair, tears trembling on the brink.

A sharp, suffocating ache twisted in his chest.

Why?

The sensation unsettled him so much that his scalp prickled with alarm.

How could he—how could anyone—feel that kind of pain for a woman like Celestine?

If she was afraid of the dark, well, that was her own fault.

He looked away, forcing his gaze to rest on the woman in his arms. But in the corner of his eye, he kept glancing back at Celestine—and at Gideon, who had somehow slipped into the empty seat beside her.

Gideon's eyes, fixed on him, were cold and venomous, like a snake ready to strike.

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