Divorced My Scum Husband, Married His Evil brother

"And by connecting this estranged pair of daughter and son might be able to make him happy, or at least realized that he's well-loved...."

After making her decision, Chloe grabbed her phone and turned it on. She had at least four more missed calls before Dorothea gave up. Though Chloe believed that her mother-in-law would call her again, there were so many things they had to discuss.

"But I have to be careful. I can't let my emotions control me," Chloe reminded herself. She was already stupid enough to marry Vincent, to let her family trample her all over, and to fall into Maria and Vincent's traps twice-- first in the coffee shop, second in the Principal's office.

She couldn't mess this up, especially when this involved Vernon.

Thus, instead of calling Dorothea, she had to take more... careful approach because listening to Dorothea's voice kept apologizing to her made Chloe feel vulnerable and made her feel like she could trust Dorothea with her life.

Which was too naive.

So she texted her instead;

-

Chloe:

Sorry that I ended the call, Dorothea. I had to do something for a while.ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ (f)ir(e).nᴇt

Please don't call me. Just text me instead.

-

It took Dorothea only five minutes to reply to her text, which meant that she had been waiting on her phone the entire time.

-

Dorothea:

Oh, thank god, I really thought something happened just now.

Were you okay? Did this new man of yours also abuse you just like he did?

Be honest with me, Chloe.

-

Chloe was stunned by her answer. The fact that she didn't refer to Vincent as 'my son' meant that there must be something wrong between Vincent and Dorothea.

That, and...

The fact that she asked if she was okay. It gave off the feeling that Dorothea actually cared for her well-being.

'Crap, this only confuses me even more....' Chloe was like a thirsty woman stuck in a desert, and Dorothea's attention was like an oasis she had been searching for.

But she was unsure if it was a real oasis or just a Fata Morgana because she was so damn thirsty.

Chloe took a deep breath and tried to keep herself in check before she texted back;

-

Chloe:

I'm alright. I just had something come up when we were on a call before.

My new man is not abusive to me at all. He's been nothing but very loving to me.

Dorothea, why did you call me so suddenly? You've never seemed interested in my life before, and I don't think I can fully trust you yet, Dorothea.

-

Chloe knew that her question was straight to the point. But she had no capability of playing a mind game with Dorothea. She wasn't an expert manipulator like Vincent or Vernon, so she'd rather ask the question and guess whether it was a truth or a lie using her gut instinct.

Dorothea didn't give Chloe a quick answer. Chloe waited more than ten minutes without responding, and she couldn't help but frown.

'What took her so long to answer?' she wondered.

Unfortunately, her focus quickly shifted when she heard a little girl's voice coming into her room, "Mommy... um... morning...." Mackie greeted while rubbing her eyes.

She yawned a few times before walking towards Chloe and sleeping again on Chloe's bed.

Chloe quickly turned her phone off. She didn't want Mackie to see anything related to Dorothea, or she might throw a tantrum so she could meet with her Granny.

"Wake up, dear. It's almost eight already," Chloe said gently.

"Umm... I want to sleep more, Mommy. Let me sleep... zzz..." Chloe giggled and gave Mackie a light kiss before getting up.

"Well, Mommy already made you a banana-apple juice for breakfast. If you're still sleeping, I guess I will drink it myself."

Mackie's eyes widened in an instant. It had been a while since the last time she had a banana-apple juice that her mother made, and she was craving it.

Mackie jumped out of bed and chirped while tailing Chloe, "I want my banana-apple juice! Mommy can only drink half of it!"

Thus, Chloe and Mackie left the bedroom and went upstairs for breakfast.

Chloe intentionally left her phone in the bedroom because she didn't want to keep checking on it as she waited for Dorothea's answer.

**

Meanwhile, Dorothea had been staring at Chloe's last text for at least thirty minutes, trying to find a good answer to this question.

She wanted to sound genuine because she really was being genuine right now.

But Dorothea understood that it wasn't easy for Chloe to open up, especially after all the horrible treatment she had done to her daughter-in-law back then. She deserved to be punished for her ignorance, but she felt that giving birth and turning Vincent-- her favorite son-- into a monster who ruined everyone's life, including his own.

"Should I just tell her about everything? That Vincent showed the abuse that he did towards Chloe in the Principal's office?" Dorothea wondered. "Does that sound genuine enough?"

There were a lot of doubts in Dorothea's heart, and she decided to send something else instead of addressing Chloe's question:

-

Dorothea:

I don't feel comfortable just texting. Do you have time to meet? I want to meet you somewhere, and we can talk about this. I will answer everything that you want to know. You can judge whether I'm being genuine or not.

-

Dorothea thought that Chloe would reply to her soon. But she kept waiting and waiting until there was a phone call.

Dorothea grabbed her phone and checked the caller, and her anticipation faded.

Because it turned out to be Shailene, her psychiatrist. She must've called to remind Dorothea about their next meeting this evening.

Dorothea had planned the meeting for a long time. She felt that she wasn't getting better each day, and the memory of Vaughn always overwrite all the peace she had in mind.

'Should I just cancel the meeting, or... should I talk to Shailene about this?'