Sabrina Lynn Barkley was in a good mood. She had enjoyed her secret rendezvous with Nick last night. He had been man enough to face her, even hurt her. She didn't mind a little pain, on the contrary, she had appreciated him being a real man for a change.

Later, she had been once again in Jack's arms in her dreams, and it had been like being in heaven. As soon as she had woken up, she had played with her newest toy, Leah Thomson's last message to that bastard son of hers.

She was ready to show to her lovely family who Tom Barkley really was.

Oh, it will be like a bolt from the blue. I will wait for Jarrod to be home with that tramp wife of his. The high and mighty royal mistress. I want them to yell, argue, fight.

"Where is everybody?" she asked almost cheerfully as Nick stepped behind her and pulled the chair out as she was preparing to take her seat.. As he seated in turn in front of her, Sabrina reached for the candid linen napkin, snapped it open, and placed it over her lap. She didn't notice Nick wasn't doing the same.

"Audra went riding, Mother excused herself, she couldn't sleep last night," Nick replied as Silas served Sabrina a hearty portion of scrambled eggs and ham.

Too famished after her nightly adventures, Sabrina didn't notice Nick's cold tone. She took her fork and knife and started cutting her ham. She finally tasted the first morsel, just a bite to begin with. Mmm, delicious.

"Some more ham, Mrs. Sabrina?" The Barkleys' butler asked politely. "No, thank you, Silas," she replied without even glancing at him, her attention focused on her plate. "Well, we didn't sleep that much either, now did we?" she purred allusively, leering across the table at Nick, just to meet her husband's icy gaze. His lips pressed together in a thin line, the muscle in his jaw jolting, he was dark and somber like she had never seen him before.

Nick Barkley was a tough, tall, strong man. Above all, he could be dangerous. And he was clearly furious.

She felt a shiver run through her back.

"Silas, would you leave us, please?" Nick asked flatly, still holding her eyes.

"Yes, Mr. Nick," the older man promptly agreed.

As soon as Silas was out of the room, Nick exhaled noisily from his nose. "We need to talk, Sabrina," he announced.

Sabrina lowered her gaze to her plate and proceeded to briskly cut her ham. The fear she had felt a few moments before had rapidly shaded into something else. This was the man who had killed Jack. This was the man she hated. This was the man she would do anything to hurt the worst way she could.

"Sabrina, I want your attention," Nick insisted, raising his voice.

At the lack of a response, he reached across the table, grabbed both her forearms and squeezed, making her lose her grip on the cutlery. At the sharp sound of the silverware dropping on the plate, he rose from his chair and gloomed on her across the table, still holding her forearms and eyes steadily.

"Who is Jack, and where have you gone in the middle of the night? Tell me, I want to know," he growled menacingly, very close to her face.

"Take your hands off me," she growled back, her eyes narrowing to slits.

Tell him, tell him now.

No, I'm waiting for my best chance. Not yet.

Sabrina bit her lower lip to stop her tongue from revealing what she had learned about Nick's father. A blood drop formed where her tooth penetrated the tender skin.

"Leave her be, Nick," Victoria's voice commanded authoritatively from behind her.

Nick didn't raise his eyes to his mother nor loosened his hold on Sabrina just yet. Under his eyes, the blood drop slowly rolled down Sabrina's chin, fell dramatically on the perfectly white linen tablecloth and quickly spread.

"Nick!" Victoria urged.

Reluctantly, Nick obeyed. Sabrina pushed back her chair and rose abruptly, her eyes burning with hate.

As she turned to leave, she found herself face to face with her mother-in-law, who was standing in her way. Victoria Barkley was a diminutive woman, significantly shorter than Sabrina. Nonetheless, wrapped in her gold silk robe, Victoria seemed to be looking down at her, an expression of disgust on her regal face.

"You're always on a pedestal, aren't you," Sabrina addressed her sullenly. Oh, how she hated her. She savagely hated Victoria Barkley and the whole Barkley family.

"Shut up, you little…" Nick started menacingly, but his mother held her hand up as to shush him.

Then Victoria spoke to the woman in front of her. Her tone was low, almost guttural. She spoke slowly stressing each syllable to make sure she understood clearly.

"Sabrina Barkley, you are the worst thing that ever happened to my son and to this family. I curse the day he had the misfortune to meet you."

Each icy word was like a slap on Sabrina's face.. The hate rushed through her veins like venom altering her perceptions, blurring her vision and making her ears buzz. It was like a living creature, a demon possessing her. She was one with her hate.

"You Barkleys think you're perfect, don't you? Well, I've got news for you, sooner than you think, you'll be drowning in the mud," Sabrina announced wrathfully. Here's to the Barkley name, she yelled and, under Nick and Victoria's astonished eyes, she spat on the floor, her eyes never leaving her mother-in-law's, a challenging smirk on her face.

Victoria was imperturbable. Once again, she held her hand up to restrain Nick from doing or saying anything. "It's our name, it's a good name, and we wear it proudly."

"Be proud of this, then," Sabrina said as she retrieved the paper clipping from between her breasts, opened it and waved it in front of Victoria's eyes.

"Take your precious name back, I don't know what to do with it," Sabrina challenged, as she theatrically threw the paper at Victoria's feet. As the older woman bent to pick it up, Sabrina walked away.


Jarrod laid the paper down on his desk, his deep blue eyes fixed the space in front of him, under his wife's worried gaze. He didn't say anything, but his concern was written all over his face, in the lines that had formed on his forehead, in the downward corners of his mouth.

Suddenly aware of Emilie eyes on him, Jarrod collected himself and rose from the chair. He smiled his warm, fond smile at her and sat on the bed where Emilie was confined.

"Well? What is it?" She asked worriedly.

"I'm not sure… It just said my presence is urgently needed for both legal and family matters. Whatever it was, they didn't want the employee to know what it was all about," he recounted pensively.

"You need to go with the first train tomorrow," Emilie affirmed with no hesitation.

Jarrod turned his head to look at the woman he adored, his heart melting at her thoughtfulness. "Oh, no, I'm not going anywhere, Lilly. My place is here with you," he declared.

He placed his hand on her belly and the baby promptly leaped, making him chuckle. He could swear their unborn child recognized his touch. "With you and our baby," he corrected.

Emilie put her own hand on Jarrod's, brushing it with her thumb. "Nonsense, Jarrod. You don't have to delay your trip to Stockton on my account. Muriel will be happy to come and stay with me until you're back. Doctor Morley is coming tomorrow morning to visit me and I will arrange for her to come over here the same day. Your family needs you, you have to go," she said in a tone that admitted no argument.

"That would be very kind of Muriel, Lily, but I'm not going to leave you. Not now, not tomorrow and not ever," Jarrod replied. "Mother doesn't know about your contractions, yet. I'll send an urgent wire tomorrow morning, she'll understand," he stated.

"Jarrod, Muriel Morley is more than capable, you know that," Emilie stated. "Come closer, my love, I have something to tell you," she added a little mischievously. Jarrod smiled and moved on their bed, passing an arm around her shoulders. Emily adjusted against his strong body, feeling safe in his warmth. "He confided in me that, after all these years, she's even better than him as a physician," she whispered into Jarrod's hear.

Jarrod burst into a laughter and squeezed her. "You're really something, Mrs. Barkley," he said fondly.