Chapter 146 – Second Chance Love of the Missing Groom Novel

His voice was a little quiet, and noticing that, she quickly said, “You hadn’t been eating, have you? I’ll go cook right now…”

With that, she pushed him away and headed to the kitchen. Mrs. Watson wasn’t here, so no one was cooking for them.

Abigail opened the fridge to find that it was empty.

“Should we go to the mall?” she asked.

Diarmuid entered and wrapped his arms around her from the back. “We can just eat outside.‘

“Not right now,” she said quietly. “We can do that, but Tommy’s almost weaning. Not having anything in the fridge is just a little inconvenient.”

Diarmuid couldn’t say no since their child was concerned. “I’ll go with you.”

Abigail suddenly looked up at him, noticing that he hadn’t been busy with work for a while now.

“Why do I get this feeling that you have a lot of free time lately?”

Diarmuid simply smiled. “That just means I have more time to spend with you. Isn’t that a good thing?”

Abigail smelled a rat, but did not press the issue since he wasn’t going to say anything.

“Yes.” She smiled.

“Good. Now, let’s go.”

They left the house, and told the bodyguards to inform them right away should Tommy wake up.

“Of course.” The bodyguards nodded. Diarmuid put a hand around Abigail’s shoulder as they entered his car.

“There’s something else,” Abigail told Diarmuid after some thinking. “Ricky poisoned Tommy because someone abducted his mother from prison. That’s why…”

As she continued, Diarmuid appeared impassive as he drove, but he was actually listening intently.

“I’m thinking that they must hate the both of us. That’s why they want Tommy dead–but I have a clue now,” Abigail said, summing up what she learned from Miss Lang. “I have a feeling it’s lan.”

“Why him?” Diarmuid asked.

“Do you remember his girlfriend, Robin Lynd? She wants me to be the judge in a dance. competition. I don’t think it’s as simple as it looks–there must be a trap, but I also want to find out if it was her and lan who tried to hurt Tommy.”

“I’ll look into it myself. You don’t have to go,” Diarmuid said, worried that Abigail would get caught in danger.

“I’ll be fine–there’ll be many people at the sports complex. Plus, she’d never do anything in public,” Abigail countered.

When Diarmuid still disagreed, she wrapped her arms around him and quipped, “If you’re still worried, you can put on a disguise and keep an eye on me from the darkness. You happen to be free the next few days, right?”

Diarmuid could never resist Abigail when she was being so charming.

Smiling begrudgingly, he said, “Fine.”

Abigail beamed, and he lifted a brow. He asked, “Are you really that happy about this?”

“I just wanted to see what she’s up to,” Abigail said.

Diarmuid turned to study her–she was as indomitable as she was a risk–taker, but he liked that about her.

He never cared for women who were too soft, something which Abigail was not.

She was actually tough and smart, but she wasn’t hard as nails–her body was just so soft that he didn’t want to let her go whenever he had her in his arms.

She certainly was the best of both worlds.

They soon arrived at a mall, and Abigail got a trolley once they alighted from the car.

Mrs. Watson had always been making Diarmuid’s meals, and all his other needs were seen by other personnel too–he had therefore never been to a mall himself.

Since he wasn’t used to it, he stayed quiet as he watched Abigail and followed her around, eager to stay close and so he wouldn’t be worried about losing her.

Abigail took his hand with her free hand, asking quietly, “Never been to malls much?”

Diarmuid nodded, but was not about to give in. “Rarely.”

Abigail laughed. “Just say you’ve never been. You’re a Althoff, and people see to your needs since you’re a child. You don’t have to hide the fact that you’ve never done this.”

Diarmuid gave her hand a squeeze, asking quietly, “Do you really find that funny?”

“…Alright, it’s not funny.” Abigail gave in right away.

Diarmuid gave her a look. She had always been smart with him, teasing him and then giving up soon after–there was no way he could bring himself to punish her.

And he couldn’t help loving that about her.

They strolled along and shopped, and it wasn’t until an hour later that they left with two bags full of purchases.

In the evening, Abigail cooked, while Diarmuid carried Tommy around after he woke up.

They seemed to be a normal married couple, with the wife cooking and the husband taking care of the child.

Diarmuid asked, “Has your mother picked a day for our wedding?”

“No,” Abigail replied. “She’s going to be busy the next few days.”

Diarmuid frowned. “Why?”

“She has to take care of Ricky,” Abigail gave him a ‘you–know–why‘ look.

Diarmuid was speechless.

Was this his fault?

Absolutely not–anyone who hurt his son would pay the price!

The next afternoon, Abigail arrived punctually at the sports complex. Most of the children who took part were girls.

Robin approached her, smiling upon seeing her. “Hey, you’re here.”

Abigail smiled in return. “Thought I should help, so I came anyway.”

She pretended to be a little worried, even guilty.

To no surprise, Robin was smiling smugly. Miss Lang told her that Abigail couldn’t dance, and so Robin said confidently, “See you later.”

“Yeah, see you later.”

Anyone could put up a guise, anyway!

Right after Robin left, Abigail put away her smile and scowled.

Abigail was staring at Robin from the back, her lips curling in a smile as she was almost certain what Robin was up to now.

While the other personnel were timing their clocks, Abigail waited at the break room, where a man approached her.

“Are you an instructor?”

Abigail shook her head. “No.”

“A fellow judge, then?” He continued–he was one of the judges as well. Like most male dancers, he was slim and exceedingly well–groomed, with his hair combed meticulously. The getup did not seem to make him shady, however, thanks to his sunny disposition.

Abigail was just about to answer when she spotted Robin nearby, and quickly pretended to look guilty as she whispered, “I’m a judge, but I’m actually acting as a stand–in.”

“Oh! I was just wondering that I’ve not seen you before, since I’ve been judging most competitions and met most of the other judges. You’re not exactly a familiar face.‘

Abigail hung her head low. “Actually, this is my first time, so I don’t know much about anything.”

“It’s fine. You can sit beside me later,” the man offered warmly.

“Okay,” Abigail replied softly and meekly. “Thank you.”

The man chuckled. “Oh, you don’t have to be that worried–you just have to watch if the contestants are doing well, if their movements adhere to the rules. Just ask me if you’re not sure about something. I’m sure I can be of help.”

Nearby, Robin was making a show of checking the contestant’s dresses to disguise her eavesdropping. Abigail naturally knew that Robin was doing that, and so started to whisper shadily as if afraid that others would hear.

At the same time, Abigail leaned towards the man to pretend to be sneaky, though she spoke just loud enough so that Robin could hear. “I mentioned that I’m a stand–in, right? I actually don’t know a thing about dance, let alone be a judge. Please keep this a secret–only you know about this, but I don’t even know how to dance myself.“

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