Thorns Grow After Betrayal (Celeste and Chester) novel Chapter 300

“Do you even know who you’re talking to, you insolent little brat?”

Dahlia slapped away the tissue Celestine offered her with a loud smack.

As if she needed that kind of pity!

She’d always known women from small towns like Oceanview were crude and completely lacking in manners. From the day her son brought Celestine home, Dahlia had sensed this day would come.

And here it was—just as she’d predicted. Sanderson, true to his name, was hopelessly naive for thinking she’d ever stoop so low as to appease someone like this!

Celestine tilted her head, feigning confusion. “You mean to say you’re my mother-in-law? Mrs. Fordham, you really do have a selective memory. On the day I married your son, you didn’t even bother to accept the traditional welcome. Not a single cup of tea from your daughter-in-law.”

Back when she and Chester first got together, Dahlia had been scouring all of Portside for a socialite worthy of her precious son. Her favorite candidate was the daughter of the city’s leading jeweler—a match she’d nearly arranged before Chester brought Celestine home instead.

In the end, Chester had married her—a wife with no fortune and no connections.

When Alistair insisted Celestine’s shares be equal to his, Dahlia had been even more furious than Chester.

Celestine spent years swallowing her pride, desperately trying to change how Dahlia saw her, always hoping to win a little approval. All she got for her trouble was a mess of heartache and humiliation.

To Dahlia, she was nothing more than a convenient, ever-available maid.

Those heartfelt online posts about mothers-in-law being kinder than your own mother? She’d never experienced anything close.

On her wedding day, Dahlia had made a scene and walked out, feigning illness halfway through the ceremony.

In the end, it was Sanderson, her father-in-law, who quietly doubled the customary “welcome gift” to smooth things over, urging her not to take it to heart.

As if she dared complain.

But the lesson Dahlia taught her—some people only respect the powerful—would stick with her forever.

“Why are you bringing up ancient history?” Dahlia snapped, her face growing even more sour.

She’d gotten a petty thrill from snubbing Celestine at the wedding, but Sanderson had torn into her for it afterwards—she still remembered the humiliation. And he never once took her side!

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