Chapter 29: Truth

Abigail blinked, not believing the scene in front of her. Charlotte was speaking to the man that had been naked in her bed.

The man was dressed now, and how Abigail couldn’t believe, because her bedroom floor was still littered with the stranger’s clothes. So, he had a change of clothes here, then. Since she hardly believed her father would have given some of his to the man found naked in his daughter’s bed.

How much of this plan had been given such explicit detail, Abigail wondered. Where had this man been hiding?

“That wasn’t easy,” the man complained, running the back of his head. “You could have given me an easier way to get into her room, you know. And I didn’t sleep the entire night, in case she woke up. You gave me absolutely no directives to work with. What if she had woken up? At least she was already naked and in bed when I got there. Who did that part? You?”

“Of course me, who else was going to do it? You worry too much,” Charlotte said. “She wasn’t going to wake up. I drugged her with enough to last for days, she’ll fall in and out of consciousness for the next two days, and at the end of it, she won’t know what hit her.”

“Good lord, woman,” the man said, staring at Charlotte in shock. “You could have killed her with that amount. And the amount of bottles you placed everywhere, no one drinks that much and lives, lady.”

“I didn’t ask for your advice!” Charlotte snapped at the man. Then managed to calm herself before she spoke again. “Now, thank you for good work. We’re officially even,” Charlotte spoke softly, though nowhere near appreciative. “Now get out before someone sees you.”

The man nodded and disappeared through one of the servants corridors, no doubt having been told the way in explicit detail by Charlotte.

Abigail felt anger bubbling inside of her, even though she’d known this was exactly what Charlotte must have been doing, seeing the confirmation ignited a fury inside her.

She would confront her stepmother about this. She would have her admit this to her, word for word, from her own lips.

Just before Abigail could step forward to confront her stepmother, Olivia rounded the corner, striding to her mother.

“I knew it!” Olivia hissed at her mother.

“Keep your voice down!” Charlotte berated her daughter, not even surprised or ashamed that her daughter had caught her in the act. “Do you want the whole house to hear?”

“I didn’t know who that man and what his connection to Abigail was, but I just knew you had something to do with it.” Olivia crossed her arms.

“Really?” Charlotte sniffed. “And just how did you know that?”

“Because you poisoned me too!” Olivia shrieked.

And Abigail bit back a gasp.

“We ate the same food!” Olivia yelled at her mother. “You knew dad wouldn’t eat that, so he was safe, and of course you weren’t going to eat your own poisoned food, but what about me? You knew that I loved that, you knew I was going to have from it!” Olivia ranted. “I had a headache immediately after I ate dinner. I was in the shower when I passed out! I’m lucky to be alive, I’m lucky that one of my servants found me.”

“Oh, please,” Charlotte waved her hand, like her daughter was the one being dramatic. “I managed to give you the antidote, didn’t I?”

Olivia stared at her mother with horror and disgust. “And if you hadn’t? I would be in the same place she is right now. Or I would be dead. You know what,” Olivia waved her hand. “I don’t know why I’m bothering with this, you don’t care. Just give me the antidote.”

“What?” Charlotte asked her daughter, confused and outraged. “Why? What do you need it for? I already gave you a dose.”

“For Abigail!” Olivia shrieked. “She’s still got the poison in her system! It will last for three days! She could pass out again!”

Abigail felt her heart soften. For all of her bad traits, her sister wasn’t truly evil, at least.

“So? That’s the point.” Charlotte said. “Its easier to drug her once with a lasting drug that will cause multiple session of blackout. If I give her the antidote now then I just have to drug her again.”

“You are absolutely insane.” Olivia told her mother. “Do you want to go to jail? Do you want to kill her? Give me the antidote. Or I go to dad right now with what you’ve done.”

Charlotte seemed to regard her daughter. “She will take your inheritance.”

“I don’t know how many times I have to say this before you’ll hear it,” Olivia told her mother. “Dad was never going to give me the company on my own terms. And I will not be a carbon copy of him. Give. Me. The. Antidote.”

Charlotte turned to her purse, and dug out a small vial. “If I give this to you,” Charlotte said, pulling it out of Olivia’s grasp. “You tell your father nothing of this, and you leave him to think right now what he does of the little b*stard.”

“Mother,” Olivia growled.

“Or you don’t get it, and have a fun time proving that I poisoned her,” Charlotte gloated. “You are the one that gave her that food, after all.”

Charlotte folded her arms, gloating like she had just won an amazing victory over her own daughter.

Olivia glared, “You hateful woman. Fine, I agree,” Olivia said, as she grabbed the antidote out of her mother’s hand.

Abigail was truly astounded at the length Olivia was willing to go for her, just to make sure that she got the antidote. It was a bit less than what any decent human being would do, but for Olivia, it was bordering on sacrificing her life.

“But I don’t,” Abigail said, rounding the corner. “I don’t agree.”

Charlotte and Olivia both turned to find Abigail watching them.

Charlotte schooled her expression neutral. “What are you talking about?”

“I heard everything,” Abigail said, turning to her stepmother. “I heard you just tell him you were both even. Don’t bother denying anything.”

For a beat, Charlotte held her indifferent expression. Like she was trying to decide what to do.

“Oh well,” Charlotte said, “It hardly matters. All the damage is done. Your reputation is entirely ruined for your father and even if you go to him to explain everything and try to pin it all on me, there is just no way he is going to believe you now.”

“Don’t be so sure, mother,” Olivia said, turning to her mother. “This will hardly be your first poisoning attempt, remember? You think dad won’t listen to her, when she details all of this, when she tells him exactly what you did. And you used the CFO, that was just plain stupid. Of course dad’s going to question him, of course the board is going to get involved. Your little story is going to fall apart with the slightest amount of investigation.”

Charlotte stared at her daughter in shocked silence.

Olivia then left her mother’s side and walked over to Abigail. She grasped her sister’s hand with her own.

Olivia placed the small vial in Abigail’s hand. “Drink it, drink all of it, and it will eliminate the poison in your system. Don’t drive for at least twelve hours, stay at home. It will take time to work.” Olivia spoke softly, but without any emotion, not looking at her sister.

Abigail understood the humiliation Olivia herself must be feeling. Her own mother had poisoned her. Risked her own daughter’s life, just to get rid of someone else she hated.

Something told Abigail that this wasn’t the first time, either.

“Deal with this however you want,” Olivia told her sister, her words sounding both painful and sincere, her hazel orbs finding Abigail’s matching ones for the first time today. “If you need me to corroborate anything to dad, you know where to find me.”

Olivia then left through one of the servant’s passages, no doubt to lie down, having just recovering from a poisoning herself.

“Ha,” Charlotte sniffed. “Even if the two of you team up to tell Adam anything, he won’t believe you. He won’t believe I poisoned Olivia just to make sure I could poison you. He won’t believe I set up your room like that, and he definitely won’t believe that the CFO and I were working together. So go, run along, tell your daddy whatever you want. He won’t believe you.”

Abigail thought of arguing with her stepmother, but she knew that would get them nowhere. She now knew that this woman was far beyond reasoning, and so far beyond logic of any kind.

“He will believe me, and though I have no need and no intention of dragging her into this as well, he will believe Olivia, too,” Abigail said, taking her phone out from behind her back. “Because I’ve been recording everything.”