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“You didn’t, and you’re not,” Mum said.
I huffed with frustration, set the empty bowl aside, and helped Seb take a sip of cooled, boiled water from his cup. “Have you been listening to a word I said?”
She smirked. “Oh, yes. And I have some information that’ll blow your odd little theory out of the water.”
I rolled my eyes. “By information, you mean gossip.”
“I say potay-to, you say potah-to.”
Delivered in her American twang, that little phrase always made me smile, and the fact that I could do so now made me realise that, somehow, Mum’s support had already shifted some of my gloom.
“Nobody says potah-to, not even Aussies.”
She flapped her hand. “Can’t understand a word you’re saying at the best of times, sweetheart. Now, do you want to hear this information or not?”
I shook my head but said, “Go on, then. Shoot.”
Mum took a slow sip of coffee, enjoying the change in my mood enough to torture me now.
“Her apartment was ready to move into weeks ago. As quickly as three days after the leak, or so I hear.”
“Bullshit.” I glanced guiltily at Seb, then lowered my voice. “Who told you that?”
Mum leaned towards me. “Dawn.”
I scoffed. I should have known better than to get my hopes up with gossip. “She’s got no idea what she’s talking about.”
“That’s what I thought, too, at first. She told me she was donating another box of items for the charity sale—”
“Jesus, are we still getting ready for that?”
“Yes. Anyway, she slipped inside Nancy’s house to drop off the box and accidentally overheard a conversation between Adam and his parents. You said he picked up Abbie last night?”
I frowned as the pieces came together. “Yes.”
“Well, he took her to the loft, where she packed up a few things, and then he drove her straight to her apartment. She told him it’s been ready for weeks, but she didn’t say anything to anyone.”
I was missing something obvious, but I couldn’t see it yet. “But… why not?”
“Why do you think?”
I thought a lot of things. I hoped for even more. An odd, happy twitch pulled at my mouth.
“And before you start wondering if Dawn got her wires crossed, I called Nancy immediately afterwards to confirm the details. It’s all true, William. Abbie’s been living with you because she wanted to, not because she had to.”
I couldn’t stop the tug on my lips. “Do you think so?”
“I think the Universe gave that girl a reason to live in your back pocket, and she grabbed it with two hands.”
I started to feel hopeful, but it wasn’t that easy to forget the events of the last twenty-four hours. Especially the moments that hurt the most.
“But last night, when I said she deserved better, she… she agreed with me.”
Mumtskedand shook her head. “Well, I don’t know about that, though I find it very hard to believe. What I do know is that Abbie loves you, and she adores this little boy. What’s more, you’re doing her a disservice by assuming she didn’t choose to be in your relationship. She’s a strong woman, William. Smart and fiery and passionate, and she knows her own mind. If Abbie wanted things to stay platonic between the two of you, I have no doubt she’d have moved out the minute she could. But she didn’t. She stayed.”
She stayed.
And last night, I’d told her to leave.
