Chapter 8
She didn’t expect Brian to walk around to the other side. “Just your period? Then what about all the vomiting and nausea these past few days?”
Jessica shut her eyes, deciding to just ignore him altogether.
Brian moved closer, reaching out to pick her up. “I’m taking you for a pregnancy test.”
“Brian.” Jessica shoved him away furiously, her voice icy. “Are you really not going to stop until I drop dead?”
“Mr. Atkinson, Jessi probably just got her period. Her mood swings these days might just be PMS,” Madeline said.
She had been standing at the door with Jacob, eavesdropping for quite a while. The moment she heard Brian mention taking Jessica for a pregnancy test, she couldn’t hold back any longer. She immediately walked in, pulling Jacob along with her.
Madeline thought, “There’s no way Jessica is pregnant. If she were, with the way she’s clung to Brian all these years, she would’ve run to get a pregnancy test the moment she found out.
She wasn’t sure what Jessica was trying to pull this time, but she was happy to watch it play out.
With Madeline stepping in to explain, Brian didn’t press the pregnancy test any further.
He thought, ‘So all that nausea and vomiting these past few days were fake? Now that I said I’d take her to get checked, she’s scared? She must know she isn’t pregnant,
huh?
His face darkened even more as he felt that Jessica had taken things way too far. He immediately said, “If there’s nothing wrong with you, then gather your stuff and get discharged. I don’t have time to waste sitting around this hospital.”
“Sir, the patient really shouldn’t be discharged. She needs-” the nurse said, trying to stop him, but Jessica quickly shook her head at her.
“I’m fine. Resting at home will be the same.” Jessica gave the nurse a grateful smile, though her face was pasty and that forced smile made her look all the more pitiful.
She changed back into her own clothes and walked out of the room, while Brian had already stormed ahead, several yards in front of her.
shifted slightly. She sent Jacob ahead and deliberately lagged behind, smiling sweetly as she asked the nurse, “Miss, is Jessica
Madeline’s eyes pregnant?”
She smiled with that innocent, harmless look, but the nurse had seen enough people to read the situation in one glance.
She pegged Madeline as the side piece of Brian. With a look of disdain, the nurse shot Madeline a glance and turned away without a word.
Madeline’s expression twisted for a second.
When they got back to Atkinson Villa, Jessica went straight upstairs to her room. She faintly heard Jacob asking Madeline what they were having for dinner.
Jessica couldn’t help but feel disappointed. From the moment she fainted until now, her heartless son hadn’t shown even a bit of concern for her.
The next morning, even though she wasn’t feeling well, Jessica still woke up on time like clockwork. She got out of bed to make breakfast for Jacob.
Over the years, this had become a habit she never broke. Even now, with her decision to leave already made, she still planned to carry out her responsibilities for the last dozen or so days.
She pushed through the discomfort to get up and made her way downstairs to prepare breakfast, only to see Brian, Jacob, and Madeline already sitting together at the dining table, eating.
Brian glanced at the burn blister on Madeline’s hand and said, “You don’t need to bother with chores like this. Jessica will take care of it.”
Jessica froze slightly. Then she heard Madeline reply, “It’s really fine. Jessi’s not feeling well. It’s only right I help her out with a few things.”
Jessica sneered internally, ‘So in Brian’s eyes, cooking for them is just something I’m supposed to do?‘
She looked at Madeline’s delicate hand and thought, ‘Wasn’t this the same woman who once cried in front of me, saying she grew up standing on stools cooking for her whole family?
‘Now she could get a blister from frying a couple of eggs? She’s seriously playing the helpless damsel who’s never lifted a finger, just to look fragile in front of Brian?‘
Jessica looked away and turned around. Then her phone buzzed.
1/2 \
Chapter 8
She glanced down and saw the countdown–twelve days left.
Her finger slid across the screen, and she dialed a number she hadn’t called in a long time. “Simon,” she said.
272
