Chapter 3

Abigail listened to the dead line after the call was abruptly cut off, and a dull sense of defeat settled in her chest.

A mother whose own child hated her this much probably had failed somewhere. Maybe she really had never been good enough.

The thought passed quickly. She packed up her things, took the ointment she had specially begged a dermatologist to help formulate, and headed to the hospital.

But the moment she got there, security stopped her at the entrance.

"I'm here to drop off medicine for Mr. Smith," Abigail explained. "I'll leave as soon as I hand it over."

The guard shook his head. "Sorry, this is a private hospital. Without the patient's permission, I can't let you in. Why don't you call Mr. Smith first?"

Abigail nodded helplessly, but whether she called Trent or Paxton, no one answered.

At the same time, the weather turned without warning. The bright sky darkened, and before anyone could react, heavy rain came crashing down in sheets, drenching Abigail where she stood with nowhere to hide.

Within seconds, she was soaked through.

Caught off guard, Abigail hurriedly called Trent again. "Sorry, the number you dialed..."

Her heart sank lower and lower, until the guard saw the state she was in and finally relented.

"Miss, why don't you go on in?" he said in a lowered voice. "But once you deliver the medicine, you need to come right back out. Otherwise, I'll get in trouble."

Abigail gave him a grateful smile and quickly walked inside.

She stopped and asked for directions more than once, and when she finally reached Paxton's hospital room, a voice drifted out from inside.

"Aunt Bianca, I called Mom and lied that I was sick. She'll definitely come bring medicine."

"It's raining outside right now. Maybe getting soaked will knock some sense into her."

Abigail froze.

A cold shock shot up from the soles of her feet straight to her scalp.

"What? Paxton, how could you do that? No matter what, she's still your mother." Bianca's startled voice came through the crack in the door.

"She deserves it!" Paxton snapped, his voice rising. "She bullied you."

Abigail jerked back to herself, her gaze inching toward the small glass window in the door.

Through it, she saw the child she had carried for ten months clinging to Bianca's arm, looking up at her with open devotion. He was acting sweet, playing innocent, doing everything he could to make Bianca happy.

And somehow, Abigail had become a tool in that effort too.

"I'm fine, really. Just tell Abigail to go home." Bianca lowered her eyes, her face full of practiced restraint.

Paxton gave a little huff. "No. Aunt Bianca, you rest. Dad and I are going to get you some soup."

He hopped off the bed and headed for the door.

Startled, Abigail instinctively stepped aside and hid.

Only after the footsteps faded did she come out from the corner, and the moment she did, she met Bianca's half-smiling face.

"You heard all that, didn't you?" Bianca's voice dripped with mockery. "Paxton made you stand out in the rain for me on purpose."

Her smile sharpened.

"You're as useless as ever. Your parents can't stand you, your husband's checked out of this marriage, and even your son would rather call someone else Mom than stay by your side."

"How do you even have the nerve to keep living?"

Abigail's head buzzed. It took her a moment, but then she managed a faint smile.

"You've got the nerve to be the other woman and a wannabe stepmother, so why wouldn't I?"

Bianca's expression changed instantly. Gritting her teeth, she shot back, "If you hadn't pretended to be me back then, do you really think you could've married Trent?"

Abigail's face stayed calm. "So what? At least he still hasn't kicked me out just because you came back."

That hit exactly where Bianca was weakest.

When Bianca first returned, she had been sure everything would fall back into place. But half a year had passed in the blink of an eye, and aside from taking care of her in every practical, attentive way, Trent had never once crossed into anything intimate with her.

Even so, Abigail had no right to mock her.

Bianca raised her hand as if to slap Abigail.

Then, in the next second, she changed direction and slapped herself hard across the face.

The crack rang through the room. A bright red handprint bloomed on her cheek almost instantly.

Abigail hadn't even processed what had happened when someone slammed into her, shoving her aside. The back of her head hit the wall, and pain exploded through her vision until everything went dark for a second.

"Abigail." Trent's eyes were sharp and furious. "It wasn't enough for you to bully Bianca at home? You had to come all the way to the hospital to hit her too?"

Paxton spread his small arms in front of Bianca like a shield. "It was my idea to make you stand in the rain. If you want to hit someone, hit me. Why would you hit Aunt Bianca?"

Abigail barely dragged herself back through the pain when she heard him shout again, "Say you're sorry to Aunt Bianca right now, or I'll make Dad divorce you!"

Something inside her went completely still.

She looked at Trent. "Fine. Then let's get divorced."

The room fell silent.

Paxton froze.

Abigail held out the ointment to him and curved her lips into a faint smile. "Once your dad and I get divorced, you'll finally get what you want. You can call Bianca Mom, and you won't have to go through all the trouble of having her take my place at your school events anymore."

Paxton's little face turned panicked. "How do you know about that?"

How did she know?

Abigail turned the words over in her mind, bitterly amused.

Paxton's school event had been not long after she was injured. He had secretly deleted the school notification from her phone, and on the day of the event, he'd suddenly burst into tears and insisted on eating a cake she had made with her own hands.

Abigail had no choice but to endure the pain and make it for him.

At the time, she had been happy, thinking Paxton was finally beginning to depend on her again. So the moment the cake was finished, she hurried it to the school.

Only to arrive in time to see him hugging Bianca and calling her 'Mom.'

The cake slipped from her hands and hit the ground, collapsing into a sticky mess.

Abigail hadn't gone over. She had simply turned around and gone home in silence.

"Enough." Trent frowned. "It was just a school event. Is it really worth picking a fight with your own child over something that small?"

The panic on Paxton's face vanished at once.

"Mom, I only asked Aunt Bianca to go because you were hurt," he said quickly. "You're seriously mad over that? You're getting more unreasonable every day."

"Paxton," Bianca said softly, as if scolding him. "How can you talk to her like that?"

Then she turned to Abigail with a strained look. "Abigail, he's just a child. Please don't take it to heart. How about this? Paxton wants to go to the amusement park this afternoon. Why don't we all go together?"

Abigail's gaze settled quietly on Paxton.

If she remembered right, she had suggested taking him to an amusement park before, hoping it might help repair their relationship. Every single time, he had refused.

"Places like that are so childish," Paxton had said with obvious disgust. "Can you stop being so boring?"

Apparently, whether a place was childish depended on who he was going with.

Abigail shook her head. "No. I have something to do. You all have fun."

With that, she turned and walked away, not bothering to look at the different expressions on the faces behind her.

It was already two or three in the afternoon by the time she got home. Abigail took a hot shower, and just as she was about to lie down and rest, her phone rang sharply.

"Abigail, something happened to Paxton!"