7 - Act

Melissa’s POV

I wait for Andrew to open the door, anticipating his reaction. The final realization that he messed up beyond repair.

But before he can open the door, his phone rings inside his pocket. I don’t have to look at it to know who it is.

Eleanor.

To no one’s surprise, Andrew withdraws his hand from the door and looks at his phone. My suspicions are confirmed when his face lights up. Shamelessly, he says, “I need to answer this. Please don’t make a scene.”

I say nothing. I just watch as he takes the call in front of me, even having the gall to put it on loudspeaker. “Hello? Eleanor?”

“Hey,” comes Eleanor’s sweet voice. “I was just wondering if you already picked up Allie? When are you coming back?”

My body freezes. They planned to take my daughter? I glare at Andrew and he just shifts in his spot, turning his back to me.

On the other line, Eleanor keeps speaking. “Andrew? Lottie and I are waiting for you. We’re on our way to Disneyland. I know that Allie wanted to celebrate her birthday there.”

“Allie isn’t here at home,” Andrew says after a pause. His tone is much gentler with her, like he’s talking to someone fragile. He turns to face me, scanning me warily like he’s expecting me to lash out at him.

But I give him nothing but disgust in my eyes. It’s what he deserves. Seeing that expression wiped out the gentle smile from his face. Soon enough, he’s also looking at me with complete repulsion.

I would have been hurt if this happened before. In fact, I would have told him to stop taking the call and just focus on me and Allie for once. But knowing now that that’s impossible, I just watch.

Disneyland. I can’t even believe what I’m hearing. But am I still surprised? No. I know that Andrew and Eleanor planned that so that Allie would be swayed with how much material things they can get her. They wanted her to see everything that I couldn’t provide on my own.

“I’m sorry, Eleanor,” Andrew suddenly says. “I’m afraid we have to cancel the trip.”

Eleanor seems disappointed. “But… Lottie is already looking forward to it. She’s so excited. Can we still go without Allie? I mean, Allie might not want to go, but Lottie certainly does. Don’t you think it’s unfair that Lottie has to give that up just because Allie is angry?”

“Okay,” Andrew just says. “I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”

With that, he ends the call and turns to me. When he sees my lack of reaction, he just pockets his phone and says, “I’m going to leave now. I’ll go with Eleanor and Lottie to Disneyland. Tell Allie that I would have taken her if she just stopped having tantrums. Don’t ever call me again if Allie doesn’t want to show up. You just made a mess that you have to clean yourself.”

Andrew turns away. Anger is stuck in my throat, like it’s been for the past three days. This time, it’s different. The world around me feels like it’s going to collapse. My vision is spinning.

And I can’t breathe.

***

Andrew’s POV

I turn my back on Melissa, brushing myself clean so that Eleanor won’t ask any questions as to what happened to my planned surprise.

But just as I reach the door, I hear a thud behind me. Instinctively, I turn around, only to find Melissa down on her knees. I can’t see her face from this angle, and I can’t tell what really is going on.

I think I know what this is, though.

“Really?” I ask her angrily. “Fake fainting to make me stay and tolerate more lies? I warned you not to pull cheap tricks on me.”

Cheap tricks. That’s all what Melissa is capable of, even from the beginning. This is the woman who deliberately drugged herself and climbed into my bed on Eleanor’s birthday to trick me. Shamefully, I fell for it. I touched her, and that’s how we got Allie.

Melissa is the reason why Eleanor left, pregnant and abandoned abroad, forced to give birth to a premature Lottie. That’s why Lottie is so delicate and sickly now. I don’t think I have ever fully forgiven myself for that.

Five years later, Eleanor came back. She wanted me to be close to Lottie even though I failed them both in every way. 

“You’re still Lottie’s father, even though you have a family now,” Eleanor told me when she returned. “I don’t want Lottie to grow up without a father. Allie is so lucky. I want them to get along. I want all of us to get along.”

I’m grateful beyond words that Eleanor has it in her heart to forgive me, and to forgive Melissa too. Eleanor has always been so nice to her.

But I can never say the same thing about Melissa. 

Since I started to spend more time with Eleanor and Lottie, she acted out. From faking illnesses for Allie to using her as a leverage and a tool for attention. It’s been unbearable.

Now, she even managed to turn my daughter completely against me. The kid refuses to see me now, and I fully believe that it’s because Melissa poisoned her mind.

Looking at her now fills me with so much resentment. I already lost so much time with the woman I actually wanted to be with and the daughter we have. How much more is Melissa going to take from me?

Heaving a deep breath, I march over to her to pull her up and get her to stop this nonsense. 

“Melissa,” I snap at her. “Just because Grandpa sides with you over everything doesn’t mean you can just act like a petulant child! This is getting….”

I trail off. Just as I pull Melissa to her feet, she slips out of my grasp like she has no control over her body, keeling over and collapsing on the floor.