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“He and Chaya have a long history?—”

“Yes, they do.” Abagail continued to watch Nicola from behind, the way she stood so still frightened her. This wasn’t the Nicola that Abagail had come to know in the last few weeks. This one was despondent and without the flair of attitude that Abagail adored. “But that doesn’t mean he can treat his ex-fiancée like dirt either.”

Was that too close to the truth Abagail was avoiding? Well, screw that. Nicola deserved better.

“He’s been chasing her around and making her life miserable. She has nowhere to go, she’s homeless and living out of her car, and she’s trying to support her family. Warren left her in a lurch, Estelle. Because your son has no compassion toward anyone but himself.” Abagail crossed her arms. Her breath caught in her throat when Nicola turned around, seemingly staring directly at her through the window.

“They’re no longer together, Abagail. She’s not a part of this family anymore.”

Abagail agreed with that sentiment, although she’d also state that Nicola was never actually a part of the family to begin with. Warren and she had never married, and no formal connection had ever been drawn up. “That doesn’t give him the right to trample all over her.”

“Warren’s a good kid.”

“He’s not a kid anymore.” Abagail swallowed the lump in her throat, Nicola still staring directly at her. “And he needs to grow up.”

“You need to send her back where she came from.”

Abagail snorted loudly, unable to control herself anymore. “Where she came from? That’d be your son’s apartment, Estelle. He broke up with her and literally dumped her on the streets.”

“No, I mean back to—” Estelle stopped.

Did she even know where Nicola was from? What state she’d been born in or where she’d grown up? Did she even know that Nicola had hardly any family around? Something that both Estelle and Warren should be able to relate to.

“She’s from Amherst,” Abagail supplied, raising her hand to the back of her head and scraping her dull nails across her scalp. “And if you can’t even tell me that after they were together for years, I’m starting to think Warren doesn’t fall that far from the tree.”

“I think you’re barking up the wrong tree.” There was venom there that Abagail hadn’t been expecting.

“What do you mean?”

“You’resleepingwith her!”

Ah, so Warren wasn’t as stupid as Abagail had hoped. She pressed her lips together tightly. She hadn’t anticipated the accusation so directly. She probably should have, but she’d been lost in what Nicola was struggling with instead. Finally, Nicola turned away from Abagail and started to walk toward the water’s edge.

“You’ve never cared who I’ve been with before.” Abagail wasn’t going to deny it, but she also wasn’t going to confirm it. “Why would you start to care now?”

“This is ruining our family’s good name.”

Abagail choked on that.Theirfamily? They’d never truly been a family except that they shared Warren by blood andAbagail held all the family money that Estelle wanted access to. She’d honored her late brother’s wishes, but she wasn’t going to stand there and take their abuse either.

“Our family’s good name isn’t in question,” Abagail seethed out the words. “And you’d best do to remember that.” She hung up before she could say anything else that would get her in deeper water. Estelle tried to call her back, but Abagail sent it straight to voicemail. In fact, she turned her phone off entirely and dropped it onto the table next to the couch.

Straightening her back, Abagail closed her eyes and listened to the silence in the house. It felt thick, in the same way the air feels when a storm is impending and there’s absolutely no escape. Nicola was still out by the water, and she’d said nothing to Abagail all morning, even when they’d shared a cup of coffee together in the kitchen and Abagail had tried to start a conversation.

A wedge had been hammered between them, and Abagail hated that feeling.

But more than that, she mistrusted it.

Warren had done a number and he’d barely even been in the house for more than twenty minutes before Abagail had booted him out. She didn’t want him anywhere near Nicola if she could handle it. She wanted Warren as far away from her life as possible—especially after that call with Estelle. What were they thinking? That they could bully her into bullying Nicola?

Like mother like son.

Abagail didn’t even have words for what Warren had said and done the day before.

What he’d probably done when no one else was present.

Abagail shuddered at the thought. He wasn’t the person she thought he was. She’d seen the tendencies in him over the years, but she’d never been so blatantly confronted by his abusivemanner before. Not that she would have been. She largely kept as far away from the family as she possibly could.

How had he even become that way?