“Joshua…” Stacy’s voice was softer, her eyes were resting on him with an innocent look.
“You have another three months, in these three months, you are going to help the nurses to take care of Granny, and there will be no maids to take care of your life. In three months, you are going to pick a place and a school, and you are going to wrap yourself up and learn how to take care of yourself!”
Joshua had requirements if she wanted to stay here.
Mrs. Caunter was released soon, but she moved back to the little wooden house in the back of their property, Stacy didn’t like that at all, but she had no choice than to move in with Mrs. Caunter and the nurses.
Abigail was still working in the backyard, always sweeping, putting all her heart into her work, her little soft hands were quickly growing calluses. In the time that she had nothing to do, she was reading in her room, her hand always on her baby bump, and she read stories to her baby.
Her voice was beautiful and sweet, she was able to add more color and emotions while reading. But whenever she finished one, her eyes were filled with tears.
The world of fairytales and their stories were so far away from her, her world was dark and without any future in sight. She wanted to show the best side of the world to her baby, but she couldn’t help but to think about her own sad and hard life.
It was a wrong decision to have this baby. Abigail regretted her decision a few months ago, but even though her baby was always joyfully kicking her from inside, telling her that while her child was growing, she would always feel happiness.
…
During lunch break, Joshua walked past Abigail who was sitting alone and eating her lunch. She didn’t act up this time, and only sat down beside her quietly. “You know what Bill wanted to see me for the other day?”
Abigail stopped eating, and looked at Stacy confused, she thought for a long time, before she remembered that day that Stacy got out of Bill’s car.
“Oh.” She nodded her head, but wasn’t very interested.
“He wanted to ask me about you and your situation.” Stacy’s eyes flashed, and Abigail looked at her questioning. In the past, Stacy had always cursed her and beat her up when Bill was asking about her, but what was different today?
“I told him that Joshua is good to you, and that you are pregnant with his child. Ha-ha.” Stacy laughed all alone, she didn’t even notice Abigail’s little pale face.
“You…” Abigail laid her hands on her tummy, scared, her lips were trembling from hearing what Stacy just said.
“I am smart right?” Stacy pointed to herself, and was very satisfied, “I just want him to stop thinking about you.”
“Hm? Why are you looking at me like that? Are you really pregnant?” Stacy’s eyes moved to her stomach, Abigail quickly took her hands away from there.”Oh, no, you are not.”
She said calmly, thankfully Stacy didn’t doubt her today.
Stacy was in a good mood today, she patted Abigail’s shoulder, and shook her body, before walking into the backyard.
…
“Mrs. Caunter, please wait!”
Abigail was holding a pair of scissors in her hands, and was about to cut the bushes in the yard, when she heard the voice of Mrs. Caunter’s nurse called. She hadn’t seen Mrs. Caunter for a long time, and she looked around for her.
Not far from her, the nurse was holding a bowl in her hands, running behind Mrs. Caunter, chasing her. She was fast enough to always catch up with her, but Mrs. Caunter pushed her away again.
The nurse was not only anxious, but also mad, she didn’t dare to hold Mrs. Caunter either, so all she could do was to try and hold the bowl in front of her.
“I don’t wanna eat! I want Silvia! I want Abigail!” Mrs. Caunter was waving her arms around, pushing the bowl away from her, and in many of those times, she almost knocked it over.
Stacy was standing further away, her face was cold, she didn’t want to be there, and pointed towards them, stomping her feet, cursing, then she folded her arms in front of her chest, and kept quiet.
“Where did you bring my Silvia and Abigail? Find them now!” Mrs. Caunter reached out her hand, who screamed on top of her voice and tried to get away, but at the same time she had to keep trying to get Mrs. Caunter to eat.
“I am not gonna eat!” Mrs. Caunter lowered her head, and kept on walking forward while pushing the nurses hands away.
“Granny?” Abigail’s eyes lit up, her little tired face was finally showing some life. Seeing Mrs. Caunter was like seeing her family, her mood immediately got better.
“Abigail, Abigail here you are!” Mrs. Caunter saw Abigail and started walking towards her, tears in her eyes, “Abigail, why do you not want me anymore? You told me you would take care of me, forever!”
The two of them were hugging each other, and Abigail patted on Mrs. Caunter’s back happily, she couldn’t put her feelings in words. After a long time, she pushed Mrs. Caunter away from her and looked at the nurse.
“This old woman is so much trouble, she doesn’t eat, she doesn’t drink, she’s only talking about Abigail, I guess that must be you. See how she is hugging you like her family, but to us she is really evil. If she’s not scratching then she’s biting, or she just completely ignores us. You can take my job, I am quitting.”
While speaking, the nurse handed the bowl over to Abigail, and before Abigail could react, the nurse was gone.
“Granny, why are you not eating?” Abigail looked at the bowl, there was soup and in it some meat and veggies.
“I don’t wanna eat, Silvia and Abigail all left me behind, I am not gonna eat.” Mrs. Caunter was behaving like a little child.
Stacy saw that scene and walked towards them, but she still kept enough distance. She was still crossing her arms, her lips pursed, and she looked as if she didn’t want to get close to Mrs. Caunter.
Abigail softly wiped the tears off Mrs. Caunter’s face, and dried her cheeks, she said lightly, “Granny, I still have a lot of work to do, so I can’t be with you everyday. But I do worry about you, so if I know that you aren’t happy, I won’t be happy either, and if you don’t eat, I won’t eat either.”
She handed the bowl to Mrs. Caunter, who nodded her head, “Alright, I will eat.”
Abigail found a cooler place, and fed her with a spoon bite by bite. The two of them looked so close, as if they were actually related.
Mrs. Caunter finished the bowl quickly, while Abigail sat beside her. While Abigail sat with her and convinced her, Mrs. Caunter finally agreed to go back.
Abigail supported Mrs. Caunter to where Stacy was standing, and she laughed when giving her the bowl, but she pretended as if she didn’t see it, and didn’t take it either.
“You managed to scare away another nurse, who is going to take care of you now!”
She looked at Mrs. Caunter and blamed her.
“Miss Caunter, don’t treat her that way.” Mrs. Caunter was so scared of her that she tried to hide behind Abigail, who couldn’t help herself but to say that.
“Humph, now let’s go back!” Stacy’s anger cooled down a little, she was still Mrs. Caunter’s granddaughter after all. She reached out a hand, and gestured Mrs. Caunter to go back with her.
“Go on.” Abigail tried to convince Mrs. Caunter again, who reached out a hand to take Stacy’s.
When both of them turned and left, Abigail suddenly remembered something, and called out for Stacy, “Miss Caunter.” Her voice was hesitating, afraid she might anger her, “Granny doesn’t like rice in soup, so in the future, it might be healthier for her to eat porridge.”
Stacy neither nod, nor shook her head, but she also didn’t start yelling at her. Abigail held her breath and gathered her courage and added, “Oh, and, Granny’s teeth aren’t the best anymore, she can’t chew the meat, it needs to be minced. The veggies shouldn’t be overcooked, she doesn’t eat anything that turned yellow…”
“Okay, you don’t need to care about all that!” She cut Abigail off, as if she couldn’t bear listening to her anymore, and forcefully pushed Granny towards the backyard.
Hmm.
Abigail sighed, and frowned, she was very worried about Mrs. Caunter’s future.
“What? You want me to take care of her all alone? Are you crazy, Joshua? You know exactly that I can’t do that!” There was a high pitched voice yelling in the living room, Abigail who was working in the backyard raised her head to look towards where the voice was coming from.
Stacy was standing there with her arms on her hips, she stared at her brother in disbelief and dissatisfied.
Joshua nodded his head, “That’s exactly the reason why I asked you to do that, Granny needs family to take care of her.”
“But, we don’t even…”
“She raised you since your childhood, isn’t that enough?”
When Stacy tried to tell Joshua what was on her mind, Joshua interrupted her.
“Our family has all the resources, we can absolutely hire someone to do it, and if really not, why don’t you ask her?” Stacy really didn’t want to back off, so she pointed her long fingers at Abigail who was out in the backyard.
Abigail lowered her head and kept on working, her ears were listening though, she wanted to hear every single work of their conversation. If she really was allowed to take care of Mrs. Caunter, then they could be together again.
She already saw Mrs. Caunter as her own family.
“That is never gonna happen!” Joshua destroyed not only Stacy’s daydreams with just one sentence, but also Abigail’s.
“But…” Stacy still wanted to refuse his demands with one last try, but Joshua turned a deaf ear to her, and his long legs had already stepped up the bright red stairs.
“Humph!” Stacy sighed and ran out of the living room, passing everyone on her way without even turning back,
Abigail looked at the empty living room, disappointed, as she lowered her eyelids, she couldn’t help but stare at Stacy’s back.
Stacy couldn’t even take care of herself, how could she take care of her grandma? A faint worry came to Abigail’s heart, the broom in her hand was tightly held.
…
“Miss Stacy was really angry again today, she said Mrs. Caunter wouldn’t listen to her, and only made trouble for her, she was so full of anger that she almost hit her!” In the maid’s dining room, Abigail listened to their conversations again.
It has only been three days, she hasn’t heard any good news, all she heard them gossip about everyday was Stancy being angry, and Mrs. Caunter not eating food. Abigail held her chopsticks tight, and couldn’t help but to worry about Mrs. Caunter.
“At least Mr. Caunter is strict, and he would never allow Stacy to even touch Mrs. Caunter, otherwise she would have started raising her hands long ago. Miss Stacy’s temperament is horrible, you all know, when she starts there is no end to it, who knows what she might do in her anger.”
“Yeah, imagine, if she hit Mrs. Caunter, she might either be dead, or at least disabled.”
“What else can we do, all those nurses have resigned because of Mrs. Caunter, even we don’t dare to get close to her. She bites!”
The maids were discussing about Mrs. Caunter, and Abigail who was still listening was feeling more and more uncomfortable.
“Let’s not talk about that anymore, I just suggest everyone to keep your distance to Miss Stacy, she might explode any day, just like a volcano.”
“Right, right.”
“Hm, you guys still have it good enough.” One of the maids sighed and said, “You can stay away from her, but I can’t. I really had bad luck to get this job. I bring their food everyday, and every time I’m there, this little missie yells at me every time, and today she was mad at Mrs. Caunter, and almost slapped me because of that. If it wasn’t for the high salary, I wouldn’t want to stay here anymore.”