Please Come Back, My Love novel Chapter 266

Chapter 266

Elena: POV

The next morning, I drove to Celeste’s house with Lila chattering happily in the backseat about her upcoming school play.

My sister had invited us for lunch, and I’d accepted grateful I needed to be somewhere that felt real, somewhere that wasn’t haunted by Alexander’s carefully constructed fantasy.

Celeste opened the door with a warm smile, immediately scooping Lila into a hug. “There’s my favorite niece! I made chocolate chip cookies this morning.

Want to help me frost them?”

“Yes!” Lila squealed, wriggling free and racing toward the kitchen.

Celeste turned to me, her expression shifting to concern. “You look exhausted. Come in. I’ll make tea.”

I followed her inside, the familiar warmth of her home washing over me. Unlike Alexander’s pristine Mayfair townhouse, Celeste’s place was lived-in and comfortable-books stacked on tables, family photos covering every surface, the faint smell of vanilla and coffee always lingering in the air.

While Lila settled at the kitchen table with frosting and sprinkles, Celeste led me to the living room. We sat on her overstuffed sofa, and she pressed a cup

of Earl Grey into my hands.

“What’s wrong?” she asked quietly.

I took a sip of tea, using the moment to gather my thoughts. “I found a photograph among Alexander’s things. Of a woman named Elisa Hunt. She looked

exactly like me.”

The teacup slipped from Celeste’s fingers, clattering against the saucer. Tea sloshed over the rim, but she didn’t seem to notice. Her face had gone

completely white.

“What did you just say?”

“Elisa Hunt,” I repeated, confused by her reaction. “That’s what was written on the back of the photo. Do you know that name?”

Celeste set down the cup with shaking hands. “Elena. That was our mother’s name. Elisa Hut.”

The room seemed to tilt. I gripped the armrest of the sofa, my mind struggling to process what she’d just said. “That’s impossible.”

“It’s not impossible. It’s the truth.” Celeste’s voice was barely a whisper. “Our mother’s maiden name was Elisa Hunt. She became Elisa Moreau-Hunt when

she married our father.”

My stomach lurched. “So Alexander… he wasn’t in love with some random woman who looked like me. He was in love with our mother?”

“It would seem so.” Celeste stood abruptly, pacing to the window. “When you first came to live with him, when he pulled you out of that river four years ago,

I tried to dig into his background. I wanted to know who this man was, why he’d taken such an interest in you.”

*And?”

I hit walls everywhere I turned.” She wrapped her arms around herself, staring out at the quiet street. ‘Alexander Sterling is a ghost, Elena. No childhood records, no school transcripts, nothing before he appeared in London’s financial circles about fifteen years ago with enough money to buy half of Mayfair.

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2:00 pm P PPW

Chapter 266

It’s like he didn’t exist before that.”

I thought of the photograph, of the way Alexander had looked at it with such desperate longing. “How old was our mother when she died?”

“Twenty-three,” Celeste said quietly. She died twenty-four years ago, in 1999. You were taken away from us when you were only two, so you wouldn’t

remember her death.”

My heart clenched. I’d always wondered why I had no memories of our mother’s death, why that traumatic event seemed completely absent from my mind.

Now I understood-I hadn’t been there.

“And how old is Alexander now?”

“Thirty-five, I believe you said.”

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