Chapter Two: Looking Out For Number One

"Okay, I'm going to make a quick run for the food and I should be back in about twenty minutes with it." Randy quickly briefed Abby as they made their way down the stairs to the front hall. They had finally finished getting everything into the house shortly after eight that night. "You sure that Izzy will be okay with Chinese?"

Abby nodded. "She loves it, so don't worry. One nice thing about Izzy is that she's definitely not a picky eater."

Flashing her one last smile, Randy opened the front door and made his way outside. Abby only watched him for a brief moment before closing the door and leaning her forehead against the cool glass. When she finally heard his car ignition turn on next door, she slid down onto the floor beneath her.

"What are you doing Abigail?" She sighed to herself as she pulled her legs out from under her and sat cross-legged. "You know that you're treading on thin ice here…" The last thing she needed was to get too involved with Randy Orton. All that would lead to was trouble and she didn't want to cause a giant mess for Isobel.

Not that Randy wasn't a nice guy. No, he was actually exactly what he said he was - a gentleman. He was easy going, funny, charming, and polite among other things. Definitely something that any women would latch onto quickly. No, instead Abby's problem stood with the company that he worked for.

Leaning her head back against the door, Abby closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. It didn't take long for her mind to begin to wander.

He was standing above her as she remained seated on the park bench. Despite the show all over the ground and chill in the air she felt as though she was starting to overheat. Not only that, but she refused to even look him in the eyes. She didn't want to see what they would hold. And she didn't want to realize how stupid she was for never seeing the truth in them before.

"Are you going to talk to me?" He asked her, folding his arms across his chest. "I know that something is wrong Abigail but unless you talk to me I'm not going to know what it is."

Still staring at the snow, Abby decided that the easiest way to get through it was just to say it. There was no turning back now. "You lied to me." She said softly.

"I lied to you?" There was a slight hint of laughter in his voice. "How do you figure?"

"I know about her - you're wife. I know that you're married." Did he really assume that she would never find out about his wife? Or the fact that he had kids? "And yet you decided to keep that from me."

Sighing, he lowered himself down to her level and put his hands on her knees. Immediately Abby brushed them away. It made her sick to have him touch her, or even thinking about him touching her. She had done a lot of things in the past that she regretted but never would she have intentionally slept with a married man. "I'm sorry…"

"No." Abby corrected him. "You're not sorry. If you were sorry you never would have gotten involved with me in the first place. Do you have any idea what this is doing to me? I genuinely thought that you were a great guy, someone that I was excited about getting to know. And then guess what? I found out that your fucking married. I'm the other women in this entire situation. I bet you wife doesn't even know that you were fucking someone else behind her back."

"She doesn't." He admitted. Abby simply rolled her eyes - his response didn't surprise her in the slightest.

"I hope you feel great about yourself right now because I sure as hell don't. You've fucked things up for me big time and nothing you say or do is going to fix that. To think, I actually thought I might have really meant something to you." It was a nice feeling to actually have for once in her life and then just like that it was ripped out from under her.

He simply lowered his head a rubbed at his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. "You did mean something Abigail. You still do."

"Don't! Don't you even dare say it. It means nothing to me now, not after what you've done and what I know." Everything he had told her from that point on had been tarnished. Still, the only one that she could find herself blaming was herself. She was the one who should have realized sooner that she was the other woman. All the clues had been right in front of her.

"So this is it?"

Abby finally looked up at hi with disbelief. "Of course this is it! What did you expect? For me to keep playing you whore? I don't think so. As far as I'm concerned you can get out of here and stay away from me. I never want to see your face again and I mean it."

Swallowing shallowly, he looked up at Abby almost hesitant to say what he wanted.

"What now?" Abby snapped.

"Are you going to tell my wife?"

Abby snorted. Leave it to a player to be worried about the one he still had believing his web of lies. "You know, there is a huge part of me wanting to. I'd love nothing more than to tell your wife just how much of a cheating bastard you are. But that's too much for me to handle right now. I'm going to have to deal with picking up the pieces of my life as is, I really don't want to add ruining someone else's life to that pile." She just wanted to walk away from everything and forget about it. "I will tell you one thing though. I'm a big believer in Karma, what goes around comes around and when it hits you you're going to regret what you did."

Standing up from the bench Abby made her way back to the main street without even once looking back at him. She didn't need to. She was walking away from him and that was all there was to it.

Feeling a tear fall down her face, Abby realized how very wrong she had been that night. As much as she wanted to walk away and forget everything she couldn't. Not after she found out that she was pregnant with Isobel.

She had kept Isobel her secret. It would have been hard enough to tell his wife that he was having an affair but it would have been even harder to explain that she was also pregnant. No, as soon as Abby had found out she was pregnant she knew that Isobel would be part of her life, and her life only.

A month later she had found a job in Chicago working for a big name investment company and moved her entire life there. She considered it her chance to start fresh. Now part of her was wishing that she never agreed to take the transfer to St. Louis after finding out who her new neighbour was.

"Mommy?"

Izzy's voice immediately broke Abby from her thoughts. Looking behind her, she noticed that her daughter was standing on the landing of the stairs looking at her from between the rails. A smile played on Abby's face when she noticed that Izzy was carrying her favourite stuffed raccoon. From the moment Randy opened the box with it inside, she immediately made a grab for it. Within second she was introducing Fred to him.

"What is it baby?" Abby asked as she quickly pulled herself together.

"Did Randy go home?" Once again, her four year old daughter managed to warm her heart. For some odd reason she had taken to Randy almost immediately. Considering that she was typically a shy child, Abby could not help but wonder what it was about the man that had caught Izzy's attention so quickly.

Shaking her head, Abby gestured for Izzy to come over to her. Carefully she made her way down the last couple of stairs before running over to her Abby's lap who in the meantime had spun herself around. "No Randy didn't go home. He went to get us supper. I don't know about you but Mommy's getting pretty hungry."

"I'm hungry too Mommy." Izzy replied as she smiled up at her. No sooner that she did that, she grabbed Fred and began to make him walk up Abby's arm.

Not able to find any words, Abby simply stood there and watched her daughter play. There was always something so innocent about children that young. Maybe because to them everything they touched was something special. The smallest thing could turn into the biggest adventure and back. They had yet to be tainted by all the cruelty in the world. Which led Abby back to thinking about Randy.

As bad as it sounded, Abby knew that she was going to have to be careful around Randy. If Isobel's father ever found out that she existed it would mean that Izzy's entire world would be turned upside down. Abby could deal with the pain it would cause, but Izzy was an entirely different story.