Chapter 47 She Knew All Along

Chapter 47 She Knew All Along
Her words sank into me like little barbed needles—sharp, calculated, and cruel. I felt the sting immediately, the ache blooming somewhere beneath my ribs, but I forced myself to breathe slowly. My hands went instinctively to my hair, fingers sliding through the messy, still-damp strands. It was the only thing grounding me, the only thing stopping me from snapping right there in the middle of the hallway.

“You just decided to waltz away from him,” Nina continued, her voice swelling with faux emotion, “just because you still couldn’t stand his marriage to me?”

There it was—the performance. Her eyes glistened with a perfectly timed sheen of hurt, her posture shifting like she wanted to appear fragile, misunderstood. If I didn’t know better, if I hadn’t lived under the weight of her manipulations for weeks, I might’ve taken the bait. I might’ve felt sorry for her.

But I knew her too well. And I was too tired, too scared for my father, too crushed by everything to care about maintaining peace anymore.

My voice came out before I could stop it—shaky, but steady enough.

“Whose daughter in her right mind would accept a psychopath for a stepmother?”

The words hung there, heavy and sharp, and for a moment even I was shocked I’d said them. Maybe it was anger. Maybe guilt. Maybe fear. Maybe just the exhaustion of carrying everything alone for so long. I didn’t know. All I knew was that something inside me had finally cracked enough for the truth to slip out.

Nina’s scoff was instantaneous—sharp, disbelieving. Her lips curled in a way that made my skin crawl. She turned slowly, almost theatrically, until her eyes landed on Jordan.

“Jordan,” she said sweetly, dripping venom disguised as civility. “Can you please excuse I and my stepdaughter for a moment?”

The word ‘stepdaughter’ rolled off her tongue like something sour, something she wished she could spit out. And that smile—the disgust in it was impossible to miss, even though she tried to hide it behind a mask of tight politeness.

I felt Jordan hesitate. He didn’t say anything, but I felt the weight of his gaze settle on me—checking, questioning, concerned. It made my chest tighten in a different way. I didn’t want him involved in this. I didn’t want him dragged into Nina’s twisted games. The last thing I needed was more chaos.

So I didn’t stop him. I didn’t even look at him.

He finally exhaled softly, a resigned breath, and walked away down the hallway. His footsteps echoed for a moment before fading into the hum of hospital machines and distant conversations.

And once he was gone, the air shifted.

Nina’s smile vanished—melting off her face like warm wax—leaving behind something colder, sharper, and far more familiar.

Something that made the hairs on the back of my neck rise.

Now it was just the two of us. And the atmosphere felt suddenly claustrophobic, like she’d sealed us into an invisible cage.

I swallowed hard, bracing myself.

Because whatever she had to say next, I already knew it wouldn’t be anything good.

"Why do you think your father collapsed in the first place?" Nina's scary gaze returned to Abby. "I'll tell you..." Nina stepped closer to me and I took a step back.

"because he couldn't stand how irresponsible his lovely daughter can be." Nina said with a sarcastic tone.

"you believe I don't know you eavesdropped on my phone conversation the other day?" Nina said as I froze.

"i know everything stepdaughter..." Nina reached out and slyly tucked my hair behind my ears before she leaned in to whisper into my ears. "including the fact that you're sleeping with my son!"

I almost let out a frustrated cry.

The sound that tore up my throat wasn’t loud, but it felt violent from the inside—like something ripping through me too fast to contain. My whole body jerked as if I’d just been burned. I stumbled back a step, but the wall behind me stopped me before I could go any farther.

My skin crawled where her fingers had been a second ago. I swiped my hand over the spot instinctively, like I could wipe away the poison she left there, but it didn’t help. If anything, the panic spread. It seeped into my chest and lodged there, pulsing hard enough to make me shake.

I wanted to speak—deny it, scream at her, push her away, anything. But my tongue felt useless in my mouth, like it was glued to the floor of it. All I could do was stare at her with my heart banging so loudly it drowned out the sterile hospital sounds around us.

She knew.
Nina knew everything.

Of course she did. Of course Nina would slither her way into the cracks of my life and pry until she found whatever would break me the most. And here it was—my worst fear served back to me with her sickening smile, her voice dripping with triumph.

My throat tightened as if invisible hands were closing around it. Heat pooled under my eyes, not the soft kind of crying heat but the sharp, stinging type that comes when humiliation hits harder than physical pain. I blinked rapidly, not wanting her to see a single tear fall. Not one. She didn’t deserve the satisfaction.

But God, it hurt. It hurt so much I felt nauseous.

The way she said ‘sleeping with my son’ made it sound cheap, disgusting, and something shameful I dragged out of the shadows. She twisted it—twisted me—in a way that made my lungs collapse in on themselves. She didn’t even care if it was love or heartbreak or something I couldn’t even name yet. To her, it was filth and an ammunition.

And she aimed it right at me.

I pressed my palm flat against the wall, trying to steady myself, but my knees felt like they were turning into water. My heart pounded so hard it felt like it was clawing at my ribs trying to escape.

“Nina…” My voice cracked and immediately burned with regret. I hated that she got that crack out of me. Hated that she had this effect on my body, my breath, my composure—everything.

Her smile widened like she was feeding off it. Like she’d been waiting for this exact moment where she could watch me unravel inch by inch. I felt cornered, caged, like prey forced into a spotlight.

My chest rose and fell too quickly. My eyes burned. Every horrible emotion churned together—fear, anger, guilt, shame, betrayal—and I didn’t know which one I was supposed to swallow first without choking.

I almost cried, I almost fell apart. Almost.
But I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to taste metal.

But inside, it felt like my world had cracked open right beneath my feet—and Nina was the one smiling down into the wreckage.

My stomach churned. What happens to me now? My father? Kevin?