FOUR!

Mabel

Oh my God!

I felt the scream in my head as I held on to the door to hold my balance.

What the hell am I looking at? Why is my son’s mouth on another woman’s breast? And why is he clinging to her like his life depends on it?

I shut my eyes, hoping, begging, that this wasn’t real. But it was. It was happening. Right in front of me.

“Get away from my son!” I yelled as I rushed to get Jason away from her.

I yanked him away, and his scream tore through the room like the siren of a police car.

"What are you doing?” Hailey asked me. Her voice came out like a mother whose child was just taken away from her forcefully.

That's how I'm supposed to sound, because she is the one taking my child away from me.

“I should be the one asking you that question,” I said to her in disbelief. “How could you do this?”

I looked at Claire, my mother in law. “How could you let her do this to my son,” I continued smothering him to stop him from crying, but nothing I did worked.

“I didn't do anything,” Claire said without thinking twice.

“You let her into my son's nursery, how dare you?!” I couldn't let her interfere in my life again and again.

“She didn’t,” Ethan’s voice cut through the chaos. I turned, and there he stood. Calm, and cold. “I did.”

I turned to him slowly, like if I moved too fast I might actually shatter.

“You did?” I asked, voice trembling. “You gave another woman permission to breastfeed our son?”

Ethan didn’t flinch. He just stood there. His eyes weren't warm, it was distant, and humiliating. Like this wasn’t the most violating, humiliating moment of my life.

“She offered,” he said, shrugging like it was no big deal. “And Jason took to her. That’s what matters right now.”

Took to her?

Took. To. Her?

I blinked hard, heart pounding in my ears.

“So that’s it?” I whispered. “Just because he doesn’t scream in her arms, you hand her my role? Just like that?”

Claire folded her arms with a smug little smile, like this was all going exactly the way she hoped.

Hailey stood behind them, not saying a word. Her expression didn’t show regret or shame. No. She looked… proud. Almost victorious.

Something inside me snapped. “You’re sick,” I hissed. “All of you.”

“Mabel, calm down….” Ethan began, but I didn’t let him finish.

“No, you don’t get to tell me to calm down!” I shouted. “You don’t get to gaslight me into thinking I’m overreacting when I just walked in on your so-called best friend nursing my child!”

“He needed milk, Mabel,” Ethan said, his tone shifting to that patronizing calm he used when he wanted to feel like the rational one. “You weren’t available—”

“I’m his mother!” I defended myself.

The title is the last and only thing I could tie my son to me.

“Not from where I'm standing, you are not!” He shot back at me, Claire who was standing beside him flinched.

“I have been watching silently for months as my son stuffers because of you, but no more,” he said, and I looked at him confused.

Jason was still wailing in my hands. Hailey stood in front of me to take him from me, and I shot her a deadly glare.

She didn't move, instead she stood firm, and turned to look at Ethan. I followed her eyes, and Ethan's cold eyes met mine.

“Hand Jason over to her,” he said, and I took a step back.

“No,” I said, holding him tight, despite his wailing. “He is my son,” I said to them, and I saw Hailey flinch.

“Hand him over to her, or I'll have you arrested,” Ethan's words sound so foreign to me.

This was the man who confessed his love to me in front of the ivory tower, and here he was threatening me.

“Ethan, please don't do this,” I cried out. Hailey walked towards me, and held out her hands.

Jason turned over, and stretched his hands. It was like he sensed her, and wanted her.

Like when a baby knows his mother is just around the corner.

“See even Jason doesn't want you,” Claire said, and I shut her a nasty look.

“Take the baby from her, Hailey,” Ethan said as he walked into the room. He was fully dressed for the occasion, and we were definitely contradicting each other.

But Hailey wasn't, she wore a red off shoulder gown that matched his red tie. Claire smirked at me when she saw the recognition on her face.

She planned this, all of these. What kind of mother in law is she?

As Ethan walked deeper into the nursery, he had a folder with him. Jason's cry seems to have stopped since he was in the arms of Hailey.

“Here,” Ethan handed me the folder.

“What is this?” I asked, as I took it.

“Divorce papers,” he said, and my heart dropped. “Once you are done signing, walk away,” he said, and lead Hailey out with Jason.

“Ethan, stop!” I cried out but Claire stopped me. “Ethan please, don't take my baby away. I'll do better. I'll be a better mother!” I was almost begging him.

“Sign the divorce papers, Mabel, and get out of our lives. You are just as useless as your mother,” she said, and I flinched.

No one has ever said that about my mother. That's because nobody knew her, she died when I was very young.

“What did you just say?” I asked her, desperate to know more. But she just laughed hysterically, and walked out.

I charged towards them, running to get my son back before the press got in his face.

“Ethan!!” I wailed, and my voice echoed through the house. I saw him as he gestured to the security to stop me.

As I got close they held me back. “My son, don't take my son!” Hailey looked back with a triumphant look on her face.

She got what she always wanted, my son, and my husband. Somewhere in all of these, I haven't felt a tear down my face.

I looked at them as the guards held me. The press took pictures of the three of them, I gasped as I saw Ethan's hands on Hailey's waist.

If this was what he wanted all along, why kiss me last night?

Was that like a last kiss or something? How could he do this to me, after everything we have been through?

I jerked myself off the security as I walked towards the kitchen. I wasn't going to leave until I had my son.

“Mabel Hoss,” I heard beside me, and I scoffed.

“Not for long,” I said. The person dropped an envelope on my lap and disappeared like a blink of a light.

I looked at the envelope and it was tagged ‘anonymous.” I looked around and tore it open.

It was a DNA test result between myself, my son Jason, and Hailey.

“How is this possible?” I asked as I scanned through the paper in my hands.

“No, it can't be,” I whispered. “This results says, Jason isn't my son, but Hailey's,” I said as I looked up to see them in the garden. Hailey, and Jason were playing, like mother, and son.

“Oh my goodness. I have been such a fool,” I said as my eyes met with Ethan, he was playing as well with Hailey, and their son.

I scoffed, their son.

He knew all along and let me believe I was a failure. Let me cry every night thinking I couldn’t bond with my baby.

I didn't break contact with him as I signed the divorce papers.

I'm done with the Hoss, and I'm done pretending.

But wait if Jason is Hailey's child. Where the hell is my baby!