Chapter 4: An Encounter at the Hospital

"What are you doing here?"

A cold voice cut through the corridor.

Sera looked up. Julian and Wells were walking Vivienne to her follow-up appointment.

The three of them stood close together, like a perfect little family.

Vivienne looked surprised, then sighed helplessly. "Sera, there's no need to be stubborn. If you wanted to wait for Julian, you didn't have to come to the hospital and block our way. Just come home. It's not like we're keeping you out... Though with you just getting out of prison, it might not look good for your image..."

Was Mom here to wait for them?

Did she regret not coming home with them?

A strange flicker of joy shot through Wells. Then he pouted, remembering what she had said that day.

"Mom, you're so fake. You clearly can't live without me and Dad, and you want to come home, but you keep pretending."

Julian's brow furrowed. A sneer curled in his dark eyes. "I thought you actually had some backbone. You couldn't even last two days before coming to beg for peace. Sera, these tricks of yours only annoy me."

Before he could finish, a voice called out from the pharmacy window.

"Ms. Hale, your prescription is ready."

Sera took the bag of medicine and gave a cool laugh. "I came to the hospital for medicine, obviously. As for you, you might want to get your head examined."

Julian's face darkened under her rebuke. Then his frown deepened.

She got sick right after getting out?

Could prison really have been that bad?

Just as Sera turned to leave, Wells grabbed her hand with his small fingers.

"My graduation is in two days. Even if you're still mad, you should come back and go with me. After all, you're my... mom."

He said the last word very softly.

He glanced nervously at Vivienne, as if afraid she would be upset.

Sera didn't even look at him.

She pulled her hand free, her voice cold. "You've mistaken me for someone else's mother. I'm not yours."

She turned to go.

"Sera," Vivienne called after her, "I know you're embarrassed to come home because of the prison record. But taking care of your child is a mother's duty. You haven't looked after Wells for three years. Are you going to keep ignoring him?"

Vivienne's voice was not quiet.

Heads turned. Eyes fell on Sera.

The words prison and ignoring spread through the crowd, and people began to whisper.

"Excuse me. Ms. Lockhart?"

A new voice interrupted.

Sera looked up and saw a uniformed police officer walking straight toward Vivienne.

"We received a report that two stone eagle sculptures were stolen from a residence. Those same sculptures appeared in your home during a recent TV segment. We need you to come with us."

The crowd gasped.

The famous actress Vivienne Lockhart is a thief?

The corridor erupted. Some people pulled out their phones, flashes going off.

After her initial shock, Vivienne's face flushed bright red.

Before she could say a word, Sera coughed, a cold look settling over her pale face.

She turned to Wells.

"You're nine years old. You have the right to choose who you want as your mother. And I have the right not to be yours."

The law only required her to provide support.

It did not require her, as a mother, to love him.

Then she looked at Vivienne. "As for you, Ms. Lockhart, those two eagles are my personal property. My husband on paper had no right to give them away. If you can't return them, you'll soon find out what jail feels like."

Julian suddenly seized her wrist, his dark eyes turning icy.

He looked at her face and was thrown off for a moment.

The wrist in his palm was far too thin, and far too hot.

She has a fever.

He quickly lowered his gaze and tightened his grip, his voice cold. "Haven't you made enough trouble? What do you own that isn't part of the Blackwood family? I gave those eagles to Vivienne myself!"

"Exactly!" Wells shouted. "If Great-Grandpa and Aunt Vivi hadn't made me try to understand you, I wouldn't want a vicious woman like you for a mother!"

She won't even come to my graduation!

His resentment grew, but so did a vague unease.

The old Mom would never have been this cold to him. She would have done anything to please him and get him to go.

She's like a completely different person.

Sera listened to the two of them accuse her and felt only numbness and a thin sense of amusement.

Maybe, in their eyes, her three years in hell weighed nothing next to the scrape Vivienne had suffered.

The fever left her dizzy, and she could barely stay on her feet.

She shook off Julian's hand and looked at him. Then she suddenly laughed. "You're disgusting, you know that? Mr. Blackwood talks so freely. Why don't you go find a jail cell to sit in?"

Her words were nearly vicious, nothing like the woman she had been three years ago.

Julian was almost stunned.

Outside the hospital, Sera took a tissue and wiped the hand he had touched.

One thought blazed in her mind.

I need this divorce as soon as possible.

Every second tangled up with Julian was endless torment.

That night, Vivienne's scandal kept the whole city buzzing.

Sera took her medicine and fell asleep.

When she woke, groggy, she saw her best friend, Annie Whitmore, standing by the bed, still looking travel-worn from the airport.

Annie looked exasperated. "You just got out of prison, and you're running a fever like this? I got back and you were almost at 104. Thank God it's finally come down."

She brought Sera water and her pills. "If there's anything I can do, just say it."

Sera didn't want Annie to see how badly the prison years had broken her.

But looking at Annie, who hadn't changed at all in three years, she finally felt a little warmth.

Her husband and son were unreliable.

But a friend like this, she could still count on.

She swallowed the medicine, lowered her eyes, and said, "Help me draft a divorce agreement. And help me find someone."