Chapter 57: Are You Testing Me?

Gabriel wore a black shirt today, collar slightly open, sleeves casually rolled up to his forearms, revealing his smoothly lined wrists.

"Mr. Westbrook, breakfast is ready." Everett's voice came from outside the door.

As I pushed him out, he suddenly asked, "Want to go view some properties today?"

I paused. View some properties?

Back then, I'd suggested viewing some properties just to make sure the statue incident got discovered. After that goal was achieved, I'd completely forgotten about it.

My marriage to Gabriel was now a done deal, so we definitely needed our own place.

After all, I couldn't keep living in that side room forever—it was just too inconvenient.

I nodded. "Sure."

As soon as we got off the elevator, I could smell oatmeal porridge in the air.

I pushed him to the dining room. Having just finished Anastasia's funeral, the atmosphere throughout the Westbrook family was rather somber. The servants in the dining room all kept their heads down carefully, even trying to lighten their footsteps.

Even Selene, who normally didn't like me, had a somewhat melancholy look on her face.

Well, that made sense—any normal person would find that way of dying rather tragic.

In this short time, Jack seemed to have aged tremendously, as if he'd lived through countless hardships.

He sat at the head of the table looking rather tired, then turned his head to the side and coughed several times. The sound was particularly clear in the quiet space.

Seeing this, I quickly reached out with both hands, patting his back while handing him a glass of warm water.

In the Westbrook family, relationships were complicated and people's hearts hard to read. At least Jack genuinely cared about me.

I suppressed the urge to call him "Grandpa" and said softly, "Dad, have some water."

Jack's eyes flashed with a hint of comfort when he heard me.

He said with emotion, "You're so thoughtful. Every time I see you, it's like I'm seeing..."

His words stopped abruptly, as if touching on some unspeakable memory.

He sighed and adjusted his emotions.

"Sit down. See if there's anything on the table you like to eat."

"Okay."

I first asked about Gabriel's preferences and was pleasantly surprised to find his tastes were quite similar to mine.

So I ladled some steaming oatmeal porridge and picked up some side dishes to place in front of him.

Selene looked at Layla with concern and asked softly, "Layla, you didn't run into any trouble at the police station, did you?"

"Mom, really don't worry so much. Julian and I just told them everything we knew, that's all."

"Anastasia's death was so bizarre, it's only natural the police want us to provide some useful clues."

Just as I'd expected, Layla had been pulling strings behind the scenes, so on the surface she had nothing to do with it.

Without solid evidence, the police couldn't do anything to her—there was no way to give her a hard time.

Julian had been silent the whole time, his gaze occasionally sweeping across my face.

I didn't know if he was simply looking at me, or looking through this face at Anastasia.

I calmly met his seemingly affectionate gaze, but my mind kept replaying images of him tangled up with Layla beneath my sculpture.

Even though I kept telling myself he had amnesia, that he'd mistaken who he loved and given his love to the wrong person.

Just thinking about those scenes still made me feel sick!

I quietly looked away and picked up a piece of salmon, bringing it to Gabriel's lips.

"Gabriel, this pan-seared salmon is pretty good. Try it."

Gabriel frowned slightly, his indifferent eyes glancing at me with an unfathomable depth.

Across from us, Julian's lips curved into a cold smile.

"Aunt Samantha, you just married Uncle Gabriel so you might not know yet—he's never liked eating fish or shrimp."

Hearing this, I froze in embarrassment. But then Gabriel turned his head slightly, parted his thin lips, and took the salmon I'd brought to his mouth.

His movement was natural, as if he was simply accepting food normally.

He chewed carefully and nodded. "Tastes pretty good."

The smile on Julian's face froze—he clearly hadn't expected this outcome.

This move was like a slap in Julian's face. I felt secretly pleased and looked at Julian with a smile, raising an eyebrow. "Julian, seems like you're not entirely right."

Julian opened his mouth as if to argue, but in the end said nothing and stuffed a big spoonful of oatmeal into his mouth.

Gabriel finished eating and turned his gaze back to me. "If you want anything for lunch, just tell the servants directly."

I didn't have strong preferences and casually replied, "I'm fine with anything."

As soon as I finished speaking, Gabriel asked, "Can you eat spicy food?"

He spoke while quietly watching me.

Seeing I didn't answer immediately, he calmly explained, "The Westbrook family has always preferred strong flavors, so I'm a bit worried you might not be used to it."

Hearing this, I quickly answered, "I can handle it."

Sunset Ridge Town was famous for producing all kinds of peppers—basically everyone there ate spicy food.

But as soon as I said it, I started to regret it.

Because I'm Samantha now!

Thinking about how Gabriel had asked about my breakfast preferences this morning, a chill ran down my spine.

Was Gabriel testing me?

Although my behavior was definitely different from the real Samantha's, thinking about it again, he and Samantha had never met before, which is why I'd been so reckless earlier.

He shouldn't be this observant, right?

Maybe because I'd already died once, I was now especially guarded.

Whether Gabriel was simply concerned about me or really testing me, I had to be extremely careful.

In this house, I couldn't show any flaws, or it would definitely trigger a series of unpredictable consequences.

"I've been abroad for so long, I'm tired of the food there. I still prefer local flavors."

"Gabriel, don't worry about me. My tastes should be pretty similar to yours."

Gabriel's gaze lingered on my face for a few seconds. He didn't ask more questions, just gave a light acknowledgment and continued eating.

Maybe I really was overthinking it.

If I hadn't experienced it myself, I would never have known that something as bizarre as rebirth actually existed in this world.

Gabriel didn't know what had happened—how could he possibly think in that direction?