Soon, everything was on a good flow for Abigail.She was living with her father, visiting her mother often, and spending time with Mark. She almost had a routine down, she almost had an adjustment to normal.So she woke up this morning like she had every morning so far, and expected everything to go the same.Abigail showered and dressed and arrived for breakfast as she normally did.She should have known, as soon as she went to breakfast, that things were not going to be going as smoothly today as she had hoped.Sitting at the breakfast table was her father at the head, as usual. Olivia was still at the table which wasn't too unusual. Sometimes her sister went to work earlier than either Abigail and their father, and sometimes she lagged a little and went to work when they did. This morning probably just happened to be one of her lazy mornings.But what was unusual at the table, was Charlotte. Sitting dressed in a near identical suit to her and Olivia.Oh. So today was a workin

There was a lull of peace in their household now. Abigail wasn't sure exactly how it had happened, or how long it was going to last, but she was grateful for it while it was here.Charlotte hadn't gone with them in to work again, not since she'd caused the disruption to Olivia's schedule that cost the company ten million, and Adam had banned her from setting foot on the company grounds.It hadn't really affected the company that much, financially, since Abigail's unintended information had garnered the company ten times that amount in the same time. But it had been embarrassing to Adam, and that had been where the blow had been felt the worst.Charlotte liked company and the attention it brought, and she very quickly learnt that Abigail, Adam and Olivia had just started leaving the room she was in whenever she made drama. So she had taken to passing small comments, and leaving the major things alone.Olivia had warned her that her mother was only ever still for a short period of ti

Abigail hadn't seen or heard from Mark for over a month. And that was entirely by her own choice.She had asked her father to see to it that he was never able to set foot on their grounds ever again, and her father had kept true to his word.Still, Abigail wandered the grounds, unsure herself what she was searching for. But she walked the parts of the garden that she had used to ignore, she wandered through the maze, through the labyrinth and often among the rose bushed.Lyall found her often now. Sometimes she found him. Lyall liked the other parts of the ground more, the more cultivated parts, which explained why Abigail had never seen him there before.He often walked alone. Olivia, Lyall had explained to her once, had sensitive skin, and couldn't withstand the sun much. She also had terrible allergies, often keeping her indoors.Lyall himself quite liked the labyrinth, he had explained to her on another chance meeting, since it gave him clarity of thought. Abigail had tried it

It was the day before the wedding. It hadn't taken them long to plan and had taken them even less time to put together. Amazing things could be done ridiculously fast when money wasn't an issue to consider.Abigail wanted to believe she hadn't thought of Mark that often, but the truth was, she had almost thought exclusively of him.She missed him in everything, thought of him in everything. He had never stopped calling her or messaging her. But Abigail hadn't responded to anything.He had shattered her trust in him entirely. He hadn't been who he had said he was, the entire person she had fallen in love with hadn't existed.And she had decided to move on with her life. Abigail knew she was never going to love Lyall, but then again, she didn't think she was going to love anyone else, either.Mark had shattered her heart, and more importantly, her trust. She didn't think she would be able to fall in love again.This marriage to Lyall solidified her position in the company. And righ

Abigail went to her bedroom, entirely drained from the events of the day. It was more than the one day, though. It was a backlog of emotion, of feelings she had refused to deal with, of quick solutions that had given her more heartache than soothed any real pain.And all of it came to the front now.Abigail wanted nothing more than to get into a hot shower, order some hot chocolate to her room with possibly a toasted cheese sandwich, and curl under her pajamas in her blanket. She felt she deserved a small amount of peace before everything that would happen tomorrow would happen. She still wasn't sure how everything would work out exactly, but she was sure it would.And because life was just not going to be easy for her, a hot shower wasn't all waiting for her in her bedroom."How dare you!" Charlotte seethed, as soon as Abigail stepped through her threshold.If she was being perfectly honest, Abigail wasn't even surprised that she was there. She was more amazed that her stepmother