Stolen Identity: Mute Heiress

Chapter 139: Sad And Confused

As they all stepped out of the house to leave, Jamal was already standing by the car dressed in a suit and waiting for Genevieve and Abigail.

Abigail’s heart ached when she caught Jamal’s gaze, knowing that she wasn’t in good terms with him.

When Jamal saw Abigail approaching, heart skipped a beat and he tried not to let his gaze linger on her, and he focused on Ryan instead, ”Good morning, sir,” he greeted with a polite bow before turning to greet Genevieve and Abigail.

”Good morning, Ms Genevieve, Ms Abigail,” he said politely, too.

Genevieve smiled at him, ”Good morning, Pete. You look good,” she said with approval while Abigail gave him a nod without meeting his gaze.

”Nice suit you have on,” Ryan observed, wondering how he could afford it.

Jamal touched it self-consciously, ”Thanks. Mr Jamal gifted it to me before leaving. He said he liked to travel light,” Jamal said, and Abigail rolled her eyes inwardly, amused by his excuse to wear his own clothes.

”I see,” Ryan said with a nod, satisfied with the explanation.

”Good morning, Josh,” Jamal greeted with a smile at Josh, but Josh didn’t smile back.

”Good morning, Mr Pete,” Josh said, and Jamal tried not to wince at the formality.

Abigail bit back a smile at that. It was obvious that their little shipper was still disappointed by Jamal’s marital status.

”Let’s leave now so we can get to the office in time. Abi, ride with me,” Ryan said, and then gave Genevieve a pointed look not to say anything.

Jamal looked between them, wondering where they were going and why Ryan wanted Abigail to ride with him.

Abigail gave Ryan a nod, not minding that she was riding with him since Josh would be in the car with them. She met Jamal’s gaze briefly before walking away with Ryan.

As they approached the car, Ryan’s driver got out of the car and held out the door for Ryan and Josh to get in.

Abigail couldn’t help but notice that this was a different driver from the one who had been there five years ago.

As Abigail got into the passenger’s seat in front, Ryan helped Josh get into his carseat.

”I guess we are not going to the office yet,” Jamal asked after he and Genevieve had gotten into the car.

”No. Josh is starting school today. Follow my Dad’s car,” Genevieve instructed, and he gave her a nod before starting the car and following Ryan’s car.

Ahead of them in Ryan’s car, Ryan cleared his throat, ”Abi, how are you feeling now?”

Abigail frowned, wondering why he was asking her that. She was very tempted to flick him the bird.

Instead, she typed on her phone’s text to speech app, since she didn’t want to turn to sign to him. [I’m fine.]

”I hope you realize that I was only trying to look out for you and Josh. It would be easier for Josh to get into a prestigious school with my connection. All I had to do was make a phone call and I secured his admission. It would have been an otherwise tedious process had you handled it yourself, especially with your speech impairment. How would you have introduced yourself to the school? Don’t you realize that other kids could look down on Josh and bully him because of that?” Ryan asked, and Abigail gritted her teeth.

She had wondered what he was going to do with the information after Jamal tells him she can talk, but now she didn’t have to wonder anymore.

She could see that he intended to pretend like he didn’t know, while talking down on her. Perhaps he was thinking that if he did a good job of getting on her nerves then she would be provoked enough to speak.

Taking a deep breath she typed on her phone, [Thanks for being so thoughtful and considerate.]

Ryan smiled. He could hear the sarcasm in her words. ”You seem to be getting along with Genevieve since you got back. Did something happen that I don’t know about?”

Abigail raised a brow, wondering why he was asking her that. [Does something need to happen for your daughters to get along?]

Although she knew what she was typing was harsh, she didn’t care. It was becoming increasingly difficult for her to remain respectful. Not when he kept pushing her buttons this way.

Ryan didn’t like the tone of her response, but he chose not to comment on it. ”No. But I was only curious to know when and why the sudden closeness.”

Did he not want her to get along with Genevieve? What was he scared of?

[I guess it’s nothing other than the fact that Genevieve grew up, and understands that now that there is a kid in the picture we have to set the right example for him.]

”Yes. It’s good that you older ones set the right example for Josh,” he said, even though he was dissatisfied by her response. ”You’ve changed so much, Abi.”

Abigail didn’t bother responding her asking him what he meant. She just focused her gaze on the road ahead, hoping that the would shut up and leave her alone.

She knew he meant that she was bolder now and spoke more freely.

She also knew he was going to be wondering why she was this way, and if it was because she had regained her memory along with her voice. She wanted him to keep wondering.

After a while she realized that Josh had been silent the whole time, and she looked back to see what he was up to.

Josh was looking out of the window with his hands folded on his lap. His mouth was set in a firm line, and his face looked thoughtful.

Abigail turned fully to face him, her heart softening. Ignoring Ryan, who was staring at her, she reached back and touched his leg gently.

Josh blinked and looked at her, then gave a small smile.

[Are you okay, sweetie?] she signed.

Josh gave a slow nod, then shrugged a little. ”I’m just thinking,” he said in a small voice.

Abigail raised a brow, wondering what he could be thinking about at his age.

”What are you thinking about?” Ryan asked, interfering in the conversation much to Abigail’s annoyance.

Josh looked out the window again, not wanting them to know he was telling a lie. ”About school. What if I don’t like it? What if I don’t have any friends?” he said softly, turning again to look at Abigail.

That made Abigail’s heart ache. She wanted to hug him, tell him everything would be okay.

”If you don’t like it, you won’t have to go again. And having friends is pretty easy. Don’t worry I’ll...” Ryan trailed off when he noticed Josh was focused on Abigail who was signing.

[You may or may not like it immediately, but as time goes on you will love it. School is a fun place. And everyone would love to be friends with someone as sweet and cute as you are. You’re bright, brave and brilliant. Triple B.] Abigail signed with a wide smile, raising both her thumbs.

Josh smiled and nodded his head. ”I’ll be brave.”

[I know you will. You don’t have to worry about a thing.] Abigail signed with a confident smile and Ryan scowled as he looked away from them.

As Abigail turned back to look ahead of her, Josh’s gaze remained on her. He had always suspected that she was his mother, but when she confirmed it at the dining earlier he felt sad and confused.

Sad because she was acting like his sister when she was his mother. And confused because he didn’t understand how she could be his mother and his daddy was her father.

His tutor had taught him about the basic family tree and from what he knew if Abigail was his mummy, and Ryan was her daddy then Ryan was his granddaddy not his daddy.

Where then was his daddy? Josh sighed deeply as he looked away from Abigail and looked out of the window again.

Oblivious to Josh’s thoughts, Abigail gazed at the rearview mirror, looking at Genevieve’s car which was following behind them.

Did she overreact yesterday? She wondered now as she tried to think about things from Jamal’s perspective.

She knew that Jamal would not be able to dislike Genevieve, who he had thought was Dawn all these years, since he had not seen firsthand how she had treated her. All he was seeing was this new side of her that was trying to act nice and wanted to learn to sign now.

He couldn’t just hate her based on mere hear-say especially when her present action was at odds with the hearsay.

Jamal was a great guy with a large and compassionate heart, and if there was one thing she had learned about him, it was the fact that he had grown up surrounded by so much love, and so she doubted that someone like him was capable of being hateful to anyone, not even to someone like Genevieve. The only exception to that might be Ryan. As such it would be irrational of her to expect or demand that Jamal stay away from Genevieve or turn down her requests, especially considering that Genevieve was his employer, and she seemed to be treating him nicely too.

She did not want to give him the silent treatment or make him feel bad. He didn’t deserve that from her. Not after all the years he had spent waiting for her and especially not when he was going through all this stress pretending to be a driver just so he could be close to her and protect her and Josh. He deserved better than the attitude she was giving him.

But was she wrong to not want to share Jamal with Genevieve? Especially considering all that Genevieve had done to her in the past?

Why did Genevieve want to learn to sign now after all these years?

She sighed softly as she remembered how Genevieve had winked at her earlier, and she thought about how Genevieve kept taking her side lately.

Abigail sighed again. As much as she didn’t like it, she was going to have to swallow her displeasure and trust that Jamal knew what he was doing.

If Jamal thought Genevieve deserved his friendship and time, then she would try to compromise and live with it, but he shouldn’t expect her to smile about it.