Not One, But Two!

Chapter 72

"Is something on your mind, Grandma?" Jonathan stared at Valerie innocently.

Valerie couldn't seem to find the words. In a weary voice, she said, "Jonathan, I think I feel a headache coming on. Why don't you go home and come back some other day?"

Jonathan froze, but seeing as he had done what he set out to accomplish today, he didn't have a reason to stay here any longer. "Very well, then, Grandma. Take good care of yourself, and I'll drop by when you feel better."

"Alright." Valerie managed a smile, but there was no warmth in it.

Jonathan stepped out of the Buckley Residence and glanced to the side of it. He knew that Cody's house was right next to Greg's, but because the former had some place else to stay, the house was mainly left vacant. However, Jonathan couldn't help his surprise when he saw that the house was occupied now.

Meanwhile, Abigail decided to get up and walk about to loosen her stiff joints. She gathered the trash to throw it out, and she had only just opened the door when she was greeted by Jonathan, who stood on the doorstep.

Both of them looked at each other with stunned expressions.

Jonathan was the first to demand, questioning, "Are you actually staying here?"

"What, do you have a problem with that?" Abigail countered none-too-kindly.

He wasn't sure if she had made some sort of arrangement with Cody to stay at his place, but he was happy enough to know that she obviously wasn't living together with Greg. "Abigail, there's something I

need to tell you."

"I'm not interested." Without sparing him a second glance, she brushed past him with the bag of trash in hand.

He quickly reached for her wrist and pulled her to a stop, then said in hushed tones, "Abbie, I'm here because of Emma."

Abigail snorted. "Bold of you to think that would pique my interest."

"Look, you're all family, aren't you? Regardless of what happened, you should have settled it behind closed doors instead of getting the police involved. Sure, Emma can get a little loopy when it comes to wealth, but she's still your sister, and she doesn't have much money to begin with, so just let her off the hook. The police station isn't exactly the friendliest place for a girl like her, so she must be terrified."

Hearing all this come out of Jonathan's mouth amused Abigail. "Well, aren't you just the most wonderful and selfless boyfriend Emma could ever ask for? But here's the thing: I don't see why I should have to give her my money, and I don't think she has the right to order me to do any surgery. I mean, who does she think she is?" She was starting to think that Emma and Jonathan might actually be each other's true love.

Flinching at Abigail's sharp tone, Jonathan swallowed and argued weakly, "She's still family."

"She's not my family. I stopped seeing her as such the moment she put me through that horrible ordeal five years ago! I won't stop you from coming to your precious girlfriend's defense, Jonathan, but you don't get a say in my decisions, and even if you become the Kains' son-in-law at some point, it won't concern me, either!" With that, she shrugged off his hold forcefully and stormed away.

Not wanting to give up on pleading Emma's case, Jonathan caught up to Abigail and stopped her once more. "Abbie, let's just talk about this, okay? There's a cafe nearby, and we can sit down and talk

things out. I remember how much you used to like coffee."

"Yeah, used to being the operative word; I don't like coffee anymore, and I certainly have nothing to say to you. Go back, Young Master Jonathan."

She tried to walk past him after she said this, but he was like a piece of chewing gum on the bottom of her shoe, impossible to get off. "Come on, Abbie, don't be like this. We're still friends at the end of the day, aren't we?"

"No, we aren't," she bit out with an air of harsh finality.

He was surprised at how serious she sounded, and anger flashed in his eyes as he accused through gritted teeth, "So you're completely enamored with my Uncle Greg now, is that it? Have you become so unreasonable that you can't even tell right from wrong?"

"Oh, and now I'm unreasonable, and I can't tell right from wrong?"

Abigail wanted to laugh in his face because she didn't think her stance had been wrong, and yet here she was being ostracized for it. Emma had hacked into her computer and wired out money from her account. In any case, this seemed like a matter for the police to handle. She couldn't understand why she was suddenly the bad guy here for calling the police on her own family.

The absurdity of this is surreal. Not wanting to waste more time on Jonathan, Abigail decided to go around him, but he had anticipated this and stepped in front of her to block her way.

At that moment, she lost all patience and threw him over her shoulder, tossing him out of her way. "This is my final warning to you, Jonathan: leave me alone! I no longer have anything to do with you or the Kains!" Having spat that out at him, she tightened her grip on the bag of trash and walked away.

A low hiss of pain escaped Jonathan as he lay on the ground. A begrudging look flashed in his dark eyes as he watched Abigail walk determinedly away from him. He wanted her more now that she was out of reach, suddenly filled with renewed urgency to claim her as his own.

Up in the house, Valerie had a clear view of everything that had transpired outside. It had only been moments ago when she fretted over both her son and her grandson's infatuation with the same woman. But from the looks of it, Jonathan's feelings for Abigail were one-sided. If the girl's lack of hesitation in throwing him over her shoulder was anything to go by, she obviously did not reciprocate his affections at all.

At the thought of what Jonathan had told him not too long ago, Valerie heaved a sigh.

Having never seen Valerie quite so gloomy and pensive, the butler found himself asking out of concern, "What are you looking at, Old Madam Buckley?"

She shook her head tiredly and went into the study to give Greg a call. "What's the relationship between Abigail and Jonathan?"

Greg frowned on the other line when he heard his mother's inquiry. "Mom, did that brat visit you today?"

"Yes, and he even told me that Abigail is his girlfriend. What in the world is going on?" Valerie was evidently bewildered.

Greg, however, narrowed his eyes dangerously. Jonathan went up to Mom and spun all these lies while I was gone. Looks like he's still pining after Abigail after all. The thought of his nephew clinging onto Abigail made him want to retch. "Mom, regardless of what's going on, just know that Jonathan and Abigail aren't together, nor will they ever be. It would be absurd for my daughters to call their cousin 'stepdaddy', don't you think?"

This rendered Valerie speechless. Right, she realized belatedly. There are children involved. As things stand, the children exist, and they are Greg's. Whether Abigail and Jonathan share any history won't matter anymore because they would never work out in the slightest.

"Alright, then. But you should hurry up and marry Abigail. She's a good woman, and Jonathan won't be the only one pining for her. If you don't act fast, you might find yourself nursing a heartbreak in the near future."

With that, Valerie hung up the phone.

Presently, Greg was standing leisurely by the floor-to-ceiling window. He kept his phone and lit up a cigarette. Jonathan certainly has plenty of free time to get on my nerves. He just waltzed right up to his grandmother and told her Abigail was his girlfriend! What does he take me for, chopped liver?

As this crossed his mind, he decidedly gave Troy a call. "I need you to look into why Jonathan dropped by my house today."

Troy set himself to sleuthing right away, and it didn't take long for him to reply, "Mr. Buckley, apparently Dr. Kain had Emma arrested, and now Sasha is hoping Jonathan could plead her case."

"Plead her case? Why did he have to see my mother about it, then?" The more Greg thought about it, the angrier he became. Pleading Emma's case? As if! He was only using that as an excuse to talk to Abigail.

Valerie had been right to say that there were plenty of men who had their eyes on Abigail. It was bad enough that Greg had to fend off Hugh, and now he had to watch out for Jonathan as well. He had no idea what he was feeling at the moment. All he knew was that there was a raging fire in him that made him highly irritable.

Abruptly, he asked, "I seem to recall Emma going through an abortion a few months ago, is that right?"

Troy quickly answered, "Yes. The fetus wasn't developing well, and one day the fetal activity just stopped all of a sudden."

"The reason doesn't interest me. Find a newspaper company and have them publish this information."

Greg's orders took Troy by surprise. He wasn't sure what the former was up to, but he dared not question him and set himself to work.

After the phone call had ended, Greg's gaze darkened ominously. Jonathan had told Valerie that he was only taking care of Emma on Abigail's behalf, which was a ridiculous lie in itself. Seeing as the boy had no qualms making up stories for his own benefit, Greg figured that he would simply have to tell the world all about how Emma aborted her baby for Jonathan's convenience.

He grimly returned to his desk and picked up the receiver on his desk phone, then called Zacharias at the police station. "Mr. Zacharias, I heard that Emma Kain has been arrested on account of someone's complaint?"

Zacharias was a little baffled and admittedly nervous to hear the intimidating man's voice on the other line. He never expected Greg to want to intervene in a trivial matter such as this. "Yes, Mr. Buckley. Dr. Kain was the one who called the police on her."

Not at all bothered by how intimidatory he was coming off to Zacharias, Greg bit out in a low voice, "Make Emma cough up the money she took and apologize to Abigail in front of the press. Keep a record of this in her file, too. If she can fulfill both these conditions, then release her."

Zacharias froze, then asked cautiously, "But what about Dr. Kain?"

"Let me handle it."

"Okay, then." Zacharias immediately told Sasha and the others about this.

Sasha didn't care about the money as long as she could get her daughter out of the holding cell, so she had no objections to what Zacharias had told her to do.

And just like that, Abigail returned home after taking out the trash to find a new message on her phone informing her that her five million had been credited into her bank account. She frowned at this. What's going on?

Just then, her phone buzzed with an incoming call from Greg. "Where are you?" he asked.

"Home," she replied frankly, though there was no mistaking the icy edge of her tone.

Greg stiffened. Guess she's still pissed. "Wait there. I'll be over in a bit."

"What for?"

"To talk about Emma." He hung up the phone after that, not at all aware of how gloomy Abigail looked.

So, Emma gave me back the five million she stole. While the revelation was somewhat shocking, she was even more upset and startled that Greg even took the time to intervene in this. She really thought he was overstepping his boundaries at this rate.

She tossed her phone onto the desk and took off her shirt to tend to her wounds. The barely healed- over gash had opened up after she hurled Jonathan over her shoulder earlier, and as she dabbed ointment on the area, the sting made her grit her teeth. Soon, cold sweat was breaking over her skin as she endured the pain.

All of a sudden, she felt loneliness rush over her. The kids would normally brighten up the space around her with their childish conversation, but now that they had gone over to the Buckley Residence, she was all alone.

The loneliness, she thought, felt very much like she had just been abandoned. The misery and agony were overwhelming.

She suppressed her sudden rush of sadness as she dabbed on the ointment and bandaged up the wound. By the time she was done, a light sheen of sweat had coated her skin, and she grimaced at how sticky she was.

Water-proofing the bandaged area, she peeled off her clothes and went into the bathroom for a hot shower.

She had only just turned off the tap when she heard the doorbell ring.

Casually throwing on a jacket, she walked out of the room to answer the door.

The door opened, and Greg's heartbeat quickened at the sight of Abigail, who had obviously just come out of the shower. He couldn't understand how she could look as delicate as a lotus flower and be so aloof at the same time. There was no sentiment in those clear eyes of hers as she regarded him. What is the meaning of this get-up? Is she doing this on purpose?

"Is this your way of welcoming me?"

"Don't flatter yourself," Abigail drawled sarcastically as she spun on her heels. She headed down the foyer, grabbed the towel left on the side, and began to tousle her damp locks. NôvelD(ram)a.ôrg owns this content.

Greg followed her into the house and closed the door behind him. He walked up to her as if on auto- pilot mode and grabbed the towel from her. Before she could react, he was already toweling her hair dry.

Abigail instantly froze.