Reborn, I Gave My Daughter to His Mistress novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Pearls on My Vanity

Abigail smiles and lets Delaney move in, hears her daughter call the mistress more of a mother, sits through the fake grades, and finds her late mother's pearls around the mistress's neck.

All three of them stood in my foyer and waited for me to explode.

I smiled.

"That sounds great."

Cora's mouth fell open. Then she squealed and threw her arms around Delaney.

"This is the best thing that has ever happened in this house! If you teach me, I swear I'll study so hard!"

Delaney stroked her hair. "That's my girl."

Over Cora's shoulder, her eyes found mine, bright and satisfied.

"I hope you don't mind, Abigail. Cora and I have always been close. A girl needs someone she can really talk to."

"Not at all." I poured myself a glass of wine. "She can be close to anyone she likes."

"I saw the gluten list on your fridge," Delaney added quickly. "I'll keep her away from the flour. I promise."

"Thank you," I said, and I meant it, because that was the one thing I could not do for Cora from upstairs.

Gilbert frowned. He looked ready to say something more.

I took my wine upstairs before he could.

Over the next four days, my daughter turned into a stranger.

She was an angel whenever Delaney was in the room.

She brought her coffee, braided her hair and let her paint her nails at my kitchen table.

They watched reality shows on my couch and laughed loud enough for me to hear them from the study.

Then came Thursday, and the parent-teacher conference.

"Delaney, please come," Cora begged, hanging on her arm. "Just pretend you're my mom. Everyone will be so jealous."

Delaney glanced at me. "Oh, I couldn't. Abigail would..."

"Who cares what she thinks?" Cora looked me over, from my bare face to my old gray cardigan and the jeans I'd had since she was in fourth grade. "Look at her. She's let herself go. It's embarrassing."

They left together, laughing.

I stood in the hall after the door shut and pressed my palm flat against my chest.

I had given up my partner track for her.

I had given up sleep, my friends and my own body for her.

It's embarrassing.

I let it hurt for one full minute.

Then I called a salon and booked the first appointment of the day.

On Friday night, Cora burst into the dining room waving a printout.

"Third in my grade! Third!" She shoved it under Gilbert's nose. Then she turned to me and smirked.

"See? Without your psycho study schedules, I'm doing better. If you hadn't held me back for three years, I'd have been number one by now."

She hooked her arm through Delaney's. "It's all because of you. Honestly, you're more of a mom to me than she's ever been."

"Cora, don't say that," Delaney murmured, without meaning a word of it.

Gilbert lifted his glass. "Delaney is exactly what this family needed. I should have brought her home years ago."

"She'll need a room to teach in," he added. "She's taking your study."

I worked the brass key off my ring and set it by his plate.

"It's yours."

Delaney looked at the key and not at me.

They all waited for the argument, and I didn't give them one.

I knew the grades were fake.

In my last life, I found a chat on Cora's old phone where she had bought test answers since junior year.

This time I raised my glass.

"Congratulations, sweetheart. Good for you."

Her smirk wavered. "You're just jealous that I don't need you."

I said nothing, and drank.

On Saturday I went shopping for the first time in ten years.

The stylist took off six inches and colored out the gray.

The saleswoman zipped me into a navy suit and asked if it was for a new job.

"An old one," I said, and paid.

I carried the bags in past the living room, where nobody looked up.

Upstairs, I found my bedroom door standing open.

Nobody was in the hall, and a lamp was on inside.

Delaney sat at my vanity.

She was wearing my mother's pearls.

My mother wore them on her wedding day and on mine.

She put them in my hands three days before she died.

Cora lay across my bed with her phone. She glanced at my new hair, saw nothing worth saying, and looked back at the screen.

"Dad said she could borrow them. They look better on her anyway. You never go anywhere."

Gilbert appeared in the doorway behind me and rested a hand on my shoulder.

"Relax, Abigail," he murmured. "After the SATs, Delaney is getting a lot more than pearls."

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