Chapter 28: Explanations

Olivia and Adam rushed in. Abigail was so shocked, she couldn’t respond to what was happening fast enough.

“What’s going on?” Olivia asked, panicking slightly. “What’s wrong?”

The poor man, covered in absolutely nothing but Abigail’s bedsheets, having grabbed them during Charlotte’s minute long scream, cradled his head. Like he was nursing a headache too.

“Get out!” Adam bellowed at the man.

That seemed to wake him from his stupor, and he quickly gathered his clothing and was gone out of the door in a moment, taking Abigail’s sheet with him. That was poor acting on his part, Abigail felt. If he had truly been hung over, with the amount of alcohol scattered all around them, he wouldn’t have been able to move so fast or coherently.

“She snuck that man in last night!” Charlotte answered Olivia, but was really talking to Adam, while actually screaming at Abigail.

Olivia looked stricken, glancing between her mother and Abigail, and well and truly, didn’t look too well herself.

“I didn’t,” Abigail tried to explain, but her head had started throbbing worse than before. Her cheek was still stinging from where Charlotte hit her. “I woke up and found him here.”

“How much did you drink?!” Charlotte asked aghast, looking around and pretending like she was seeing the bottles for the first time.

But by Olivia’s face, she couldn’t have been the one to do this, and though the servants would help Charlotte with many things, something like this they wouldn’t have risked their jobs for. That meant Charlotte must have left all of these bottles here herself.

Abigail worried for a moment that her stepmother thought this amount of wine was even drinkable in one night.

Charlotte continued screaming at Abigail, but she really could not process what was happening in any way shape or form. Her father just stood there, watching silently as his wife hurled abuse at Abigail.

Abigail managed a single glance to Olivia, who looked, for the first time in her life, genuinely concerned and worried.

Olivia’s face was the last thing Abigail saw before she blacked out, and her sister’s words played in her head on repeat, warning her about poisoning.

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Abigail woke up for the second time having blacked out, and this time her headache was slightly less intense than before. But it was still very much there. She was at least clothed this time, and she blinked her eyes slowly, trying to get used to the light. It was very bright, so it had to be well into the morning already.

She must not have slept for too long after passing out again.

“So you’re finally awake,” Adam spoke from the other side of her bed.

Abigail turned quickly, making her head spin even more, the pain throbbing.

Abigail looked around her room quickly, but found only Adam there. Charlotte was nowhere to be found, not that she needed to be anywhere near here again. She had obviously already caused the damage that she needed to do.

“Dad,” Abigail began, sitting up slowly, she leaned against the headboard. “I can explain.”

“There’s no need,” Adam cut her off, his voice harsh and angry. “I understand everything.”

By the tone in Adam’s voice, Abigail really didn’t think that was anywhere near the truth. But she was so confused. She couldn’t understand why, when he could clearly see through Charlotte almost all of the time, he falling prey to her now? Could it be that he simply had turned against her now as well?

“Charlotte already showed me the video,” Adam said calmly. “This was hardly your first interaction with this man, or would you deny that, too?”

Abigail blinked, confused. What video? What video did Charlotte have of her? Was her room bugged? Or did she have someone following her all the time.

“What video?” Abigail asked her father, genuinely confused.

“Abigail, please don’t play innocent,” Adam begged. “Don’t make this worse on yourself than it already is.”

“Okay,” Abigail said, after a beat. “Then humor me, what video are you referring to?”

“The one of the first day in the office,” Adam folded his hand across his chest. “Of you, flirting with that man that was just now naked in your bed. Charlotte seemed to think you were sleeping with the CFO just to steal money from the company, I will admit, this seemed a little far fetched to me. But I can’t deny what I just saw with my own eyes. So just tell me, is this a habit of yours? To sleep with every high-ranking official in my company?”

Abigail felt her skin get hot. The man who dropped his papers. That was the man that was in her bed? And how is it possible that he was the second in command to the CFO? Why would he do something like this?

Abigail placed her hand against her head, though it was still throbbing, the pain had lessened since when she just woke up. But this whole confusing mess was only starting to make everything worse again.

“I don’t know what to say to you,” Abigail said to her father. “Because it seems like you’ve already made up your mind about me and everything, and you don’t really want to hear any other side of the story. But,” Abigail stopped him from interrupting with a hand held up. “I will say my part, and as my father, you would at least give me that.”

Adam said nothing, simply motioned for Abigail to continue.

“I feel sick,” Abigail said. “Not drinking sick, because I haven’t drank a drop of wine in my life. We could never afford it, and I knew the risks that could come with it. I was poisoned or drugged. Intentionally. You see all these bottles here, is it possible for anyone to drink this much in one night?”

Abigail didn’t give him a chance to intervene. “No, it’s not. You saw me late last night, did I look drunk? You saw me excuse myself because I wasn’t feeling well. Do you imagine I could have gone out after that? Or invited someone to sneak in to my room and party like this? No. But you have already made up your mind, haven’t you?”

Adam didn’t answer for a long moment, but when he did, his words shattered Abigail.

“I honestly thought you were better than your mother,” Adam told his daughter. “But it seems you can’t escape that part of your bloodline.”

Abigail’s face hardened as her father spoke, and she felt all traces of a relationship that they’d begun to cultivate disappear as the words left his lips.

At the end of the long tirade, Abigail was just tired of everything.

And as soon as he’d mentioned her mother, Abigail wanted to say nothing more to him.

“I am not kicking you out of this house,” Adam said eveutally, sighing into his hands as he made to get out of the chair. “And your inheritance has already been decided and one night of insanity doesn’t change that. And in my capacity as the CEO, I don’t think your professional work has been or could be, negatively impacted by this behavior. But in my personal capacity as your father, I have lost faith in you. I truly thought you were better than this.”

Adam said nothing more after that, simply got up from the chair he was sitting on, and left her room, closing the door softly behind him.

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Abigail refused to cry. She refused to even entertain what was going on. But she was definitely going to prove her innocence.

She’d been poisoned, she was sure of it. So, she was going to find her father’s doctor that he normally used, and have him do a toxicity scan on her. He would be able to find proof that she had been drugged, and since it was her father’s doctor, he would trust him absolutely.

So, Abigail gathered her things, and made her way downstairs. She would have to move quickly. She’d been poisoned last night, and most poisons only stayed in the bloodstream for twenty-four hours or less.

If she wanted to prove her innocence with a doctor’s report, she should do it now.

Abigail left her bedroom, rushing, she passed by the kitchen corridors. They were the back corridors, and neither her dad nor Charlotte ever used these, since they were designated to be for the servants. Olivia did sometimes, but Abigail thought she wouldn’t run into her sister, and if she did, it hardly mattered.

Abigail went down the flight of steps quickly, and caught herself on the last step, hearing voices just around the corner.

She could hear a male’s voice, but it wasn’t her dad or Lyall. She would have recognized them. It wasn’t any of the servants either, it sounded very new.

Abigail could also hear Charlotte, after the screaming match this morning, she was sure she would be able to recognize Charlotte’s voice anywhere. But she wasn’t screaming now, though. Her voice was hushed, soft, and very much gloating.

Abigail decided to, very slowly, peak around the corner, and her breath caught at what she saw.