Hidden Abuse

Before she even took 5 steps into the foyer, a bucket of cold dirty water was thrown at her.

Splash!

Immediately, her white hair and dress were immediately stained black with filthy, disgusting-smelling liquid.

"Oh look, a dirty ghost has appeared." A voice called out.

"Ah that filthy mixed blood thing has appeared back in the house."

"Why do you keep coming back here, you know that nobody wants you."

Celeste looked up with an expressionless face as the owners of the voices appeared.

Naturally, it was three out of her four half-siblings. Celeste liked to call them the three musketeers since they were always together.

The first to show up were the identical twins, Bella and Callista. They were twenty-nine years old and looked just like their mother with long straight black hair that fell to their waist, bright blue eyes, and soft features. Unlike their petite mother, they were close to Celeste's height and had fuller figures than her as well. They were well-known socialites in the aristocratic circles and were very popular among both sexes.

Following after them was the youngest son and the one closest to Celeste in age Liam Valentine who was 27. He was around 6'2, with a slender build, and an unhealthy pallor to his skin. Like the twins, he also had black hair, pale blue eyes, and thin lips surrounded by a sparse beard. He generally spent his days drinking, racing, and getting in trouble around the capital with his deviant friends.

Celeste just stared at the three of them without saying anything. This wasn't the first time that they had done something like this, and it wouldn't be the last. The best way for her to quickly get through the situation was to pretend she was a rock. She couldn't respond, she couldn't fight back. She just had to get through it.

"Hey disgusting ghost, where have you been? Father was looking for you earlier. He was wondering when a useless slug like you would finally close out the Cross-family contract." Liam asked her.

"I went out to handle the contract," Celeste replied in an emotionless tone.

"Well, what is taking you so long? You know that you spent the whole quarter securing one measly contract while the rest of us have done 3-4 contracts a piece." Bella stated while laughing.

"Well, what can you expect from someone with inferior breeding? Dad's genes are doing all the heavy lifting. I mean look at how bad she smells."

As they all laughed, Celeste just coolly looked over them while imagining beating them up in her head. First, she would throw Liam into the twins and knock them over like bowling pins, before jumping on them and beating them with her fists. After that-

"-looking for you."

"What?"

"Filthy ghost, I said eldest brother is looking for you. Are those ears of yours just for decoration" Liam asked in an angry tone.

"Got it." Celeste decided to let his insult fly through one ear and out of the other. If she listened closely, it would just make her angry and anger would not serve her well here.

"Hey ghost, who's car was that? That's a limited-edition Bugatti. Have you finally decided to start whoring yourself since you have no value?"

"Just some person who happened to give me a ride." Celeste didn't even bother looking back while ignoring the mocking voices behind her. She walked to her brother's office which wasn't too far. As he was the eldest at 31, his office was close to the Valentine's family's patriarch.

Seeing that the door was closed even though he had asked for her to come, Celeste rolled her eyes at the unnecessary posturing before knocking.

"Come in."

When she entered the room she saw her brother looking down at the papers in his hand.

"Don't approach me, the stench on your body is disgusting."

Celeste impassively stared at her brother – Edward Valentine Jr. Similar to the rest of his siblings, he had the same black hair and blue eyes but unlike Liam, he took care of himself, and his body was lightly filled out with muscle containing an impressive figure.

Ignoring the disgust on his face, Celeste simply asked, "What do you want?"

"Who was the person that brought you back? I thought I told you not to interact with others in our circle, so you don't sully our family name and reputation?" Edward glared at the woman standing in front with disgust and a hint of suppressed fear. Ever since his he was young; he had been following his mother's orders and suppressing Celeste as instructed.

Despite his and his sibling's attempts to keep her down, she had continued to thrive like a weed growing in concrete, disrupting their carefully laid plans. His grandfather had firmly protected her while growing up and had taken her away from the main house to live with him after an incident when they were younger.

Now that the old man was falling sick due to old age, Celeste had moved back to the main house and had become part of the company. She had dismantled his carefully laid plans of becoming the family heir and had even made his siblings believe they had a chance at becoming the family heir as well, turning his sure inheritance into a four-way tug of war.

The only thing Edward Jr. and his full-blooded siblings agreed on was keeping Celeste out of the running. They spread rumors in high society, made sure to keep her isolated both at work and events and used all their connections to make her role at the company inherently difficult. By keeping her isolated, she would not be able to get any outside influence to change her situation. In the year that she had returned, they had kept from attending any influential business dinner or banquets of different families. That way nobody could challenge the rumors that had been spread about her.

But Celeste kept thriving.

He had received a call earlier from Andre Cross that he could no longer delay the signing of the contract and he had even given Celeste extra bonuses which was the complete opposite of what they had previously agreed to do.

And now Celeste had shown up back at the house with a man dropping her off.

And it was not just any man, but an influential person. Although he had only seen the man's face for a brief frame, he recognized the car or rather he recognized the license plate.

[1]

A single white digit on a black plate. There was only one such family that had that license plate on all of their vehicles. Carrington. The power that their family had couldn't be imitated or plotted against. He hoped he was horribly mistaken and had ordered Celeste into his office as soon as she arrived to verify the situation.

Edward Jr. stared at Celeste who silently stared at him with a small smirk on her face. As if she wasn't taking him or his authority seriously.

"I asked you a question. Who? Was? That? Man?" Edward could feel his volume increasing as his anger almost boiled over.

Celeste jokingly tapped her face with one finger before snapping her fingers as if she was enlightened.

"Oh, you mean the man who dropped me off? He was just some random man I met at the bar who was nice enough to drop me off. Why is he somebody important, brother?" Celeste mockingly asked while staring at him as if was a joke.

"You disgusting thing; how dare you call me brother and mock me! You were warned not to interact with anyone outside of the confines of home and work. It seems you don't respect father and mother's words. As your elder brother, it's my duty to educate you in their place unless you answer my question."

Celeste looked at him before bursting out laughing while shaking her head, "You're truly as dumb as you look and very incompetent as well. Didn't you just ask me not to call you brother yet you want to act like one? Tsk tsk, no wonder your younger siblings have been so easily coming for your birthri-"

Before she could finish her words, Celeste's head snapped to the side, and she could taste blood inside her mouth. Edward had quickly approached her and backhanded her across the face.

"Celeste Giselle! Answer my question; Who was that man?" Edward Jr. angrily asked as he towered over her.

"Don't forget the Valentine part of my name. Elder. Brother." Celeste mocked him with a glare in her eyes, "And if you have to ask who he is, you're more incompetent than I thought."

Slap!

Celeste's head snapped to the side again.

"Watch your tone when you talk to me! And lower those disgusting eyes of yours before I pluck them out." Edward Jr. ordered. Even though her face had been hit and was swollen on one side, Celeste's face was still enchantingly beautiful. He could feel the fury emanating from her and if looks could kill, he would have evaporated on the spot.

Wanting to break down her stubborn will, he slapped her across the face again.

When Celeste continued to glare at him viciously, he continued.

"The only reason you're here is because of that old fart. Otherwise, I would show you a world worse than death."

"Or is it that you want that old man to have a heart attack and fall even more ill than he currently is?"

Hearing his words, Celeste gritted her teeth and looked away from his face.

"Good, you're finally behaving as a dog should behave. Even if you don't speak I'll have somebody investigate your whereabouts today. You think you're so clever hiring someone to impersonating someone from the Carrington family, our family can't afford to carry this crime and tarnish our good name. Somebody, come and lock this filthy thing up and teach her a lesson." Edward Jr. called out.

Moments later, two large men in black suits came and grabbed Valentina's hands on both sides.

"Lock her downstairs for the next three days with no food or water. Seize her phone and that bag she's holding."

As the men dragged her away, Celeste gave Edward Jr. one final look before saying,

"Prepare yourself because I'll make sure you regret doing this sooner than you think."

Edward Jr. simply snorted before ordering, "What a pretentious little bitch. Knock her out."