Chapter 10
Sylvie replied with a bright smile, “Yes, ma’am. I’ll go get started.
Jessica didn’t notice the complicated look in Sylvie’s eyes and headed straight upstairs.
She stayed in her room until noon. Then Brian sent her a message: [I won’t be home for lunch. No need to wait for me.]
Jessica glanced at it and didn’t reply.
She’d had coffee in the morning and didn’t have much of an appetite for lunch. She only took a few bites.
Pregnancy fatigue hit hard, and she ended up napping until about three in the afternoon, woken by the landline ringing in the house.
“Jessica, what the hell are you doing all day? Why is your phone off?” Brian yelled on the other end of the line. As soon as she picked up, his cold and sharp voice made her chest tighten.
She started wondering when exactly he began talking to her with this much impatience.
Letting out a self–deprecating laugh, Jessica glanced at her phone before answering, “Battery died. My phone was off. What’s going on?”
What’s going on?” Brian’s voice on the other end sounded like he was about to laugh in anger. “Jessica, what kind of mother are you? Jake’s in the hospital. He got hurt. Get over here now.”
Jessica was shocked. “What? Jake got—”
The line went dead before she could finish. Brian had already hung up. Jessica didn’t waste another second. She rushed to get changed and anxiously hurried to the hospital.
Inside the hospital room, Jacob sat with his back to Jessica. His knee was wrapped in gauze. Jessica couldn’t see how bad the injury was.
The nurse told her Jacob had fallen while playing at preschool and hurt his leg.
“Jake, does it hurt a lot?” Jessica leaned in and asked, but Jacob immediately turned the other way.
Worried he’d aggravate his injury by moving around, Jessica didn’t press him.
The room fell silent. Jessica truly wanted to ask what she had done as his mother to make him hate her this much.
As she remained silent, the hospital room door opened.
Brian walked in, his presence laced with a cold edge. “Jessica, this is how you act as a mother? When Jake got hurt and ended up in the hospital, where the hell were you?”
Jessica frowned, thinking, Am I supposed to watch over Jacob twenty–four hours a day?‘
“I wasn’t feeling well. I fell asleep and didn’t realize my phone had died,” Jessica explained as she looked at Jacob’s injured leg. In her mind, missing the call was her fault.
“You fell asleep because you didn’t feel well?” Brian let out a cold laugh. His expression darkened as he asked icily, “Jessica, when did you become such a liar? You lie as easily as you breathe.”
“What are you talking about?” Jessica questioned.
Staring at her with mockery, Brian made her cheeks flush with anger. She thought, ‘Did he already forget I was rushed into the ER yesterday because of an allergic reaction?‘
“Asleep, huh?” Brian’s expression grew even grimmer. Suddenly, he pulled out a stack of photos and threw them in front of Jessica.
He added, “Were you sleeping because you were unwell, or sleeping with another man? You didn’t feel well, yet you still had the energy to flirt with someone else.”
Jessica froze in shock and looked down. Scattered at her feet were photos of her and Simon at the café.
In one, she and Simon were smiling at each other. In another, he was tapping her forehead, scolding her with a chuckle. There was even one of him staring at her with what looked like affection.
The angles were calculated. Someone had clearly taken them on purpose.
Brian demanded, “Say something. Jessica, this is what you meant by your phone dying? Our son got hurt and was taken to the hospital, but you had time for a date? Suddenly your phone worked fine with him, huh?”
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5:58 AM
Chapter 10
He was furious now. His eyes were gloomy, stripped of all warmth. “Jessica, you’d better explain. What’s going on between you and that man? Is he the reason you’ve been acting out these past few days?”
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