Tracy paced about the sitting room for quite some time occasionally tapping her feet on the floor. She was waiting for Bernadette to return with Walter.
She didn't like it when she took him out. He was just a boy and needed to stay by her side.
"I only leave him behind for a minute and she's already rolling all over him!" Tracy fumed as her face turned red.
Next time, she will be sure to take Walter along when she went out. Bernadette mustn't get too attached to Walter.
As she paced about, the front door opened and Bernadette walked in with Walter, both smiling and making jokes.
"Where are you coming from?" She asked in an annoyed tone.
"I took him to the park." Bernadette answered flatly.
"How many times do I have to tell you to not take him outdoors?" Tracy growled and pulled Walter to herself.
"Oh, please. He's my brother and I have the right to take him out to play!" Bernadette shot back.
"Yeah? But not legally! Whatever I say about him holds!" Tracy puffed out her cheeks.
"But mom...I mean sister didn't do anything wrong!" Walter protested, his eyes became misty. He couldn't understand why his step mother was always hard on his sister. Why was she so angry at her?
"How would you know?" She turned Walter around and checked his body just to be sure that he wasn't injured.
"And what about the mess in the kitchen?" Tracy frowned and stared daggers at Bernadette.
"I'll clean it up!" Bernadette said indifferently. She hated every word she had to say to Tracy. She didn't want to reply her, but she also didn't want to offend her as well.
"Walter, go to your room and study. I'll call you when dinner is ready."
Walter nodded heavily and walked up the stairs to his room.
"Is that all you have to make him do? Study all day without playing till he becomes as boring as you are?" Bernadette scoffed.
"Really? Boring? Or should I let him play all day and end up like you- a failure of a policewoman?"
That really hurt. Yes, she wasn't too brilliant but at least she had achieved her dreams of being a police and she had done quite a good job. She wasn't ashamed of who she was.
Even if she was given another chance to choose business school or police camp, she would still make the same choices. Choices that she was hated for!
"I thought so. You can't even run a business!" Tracy continued.
"Is that so? Then why aren't you running it?"
"It belongs to Walter and I will not get involved. Seriously, you should be ashamed. Leaving all the company in the hands of strangers while waiting for Walter to grow up, while you sit at home and get fat? Shameful!"
Bernadette decided she had had enough. She wanted so badly to shove her aside as she passed by her but refrained from doing so.
"At least, 'mom', I have a job, unlike you who depends on dancing their way into men's trousers!" Bernadette yelled.
"What?" Tracy was infuriated.
"How else could you have become Mr. Christopher's concubine?" With that Bernadette went to her room leaving her to choke on her anger.
She felt real pain every time she had to put up with this. She had to stay here for Walter's sake. But one day, when she had had enough, she would surely do something crazy.
She was also surprised that Tracy didn't directly throw her out. Did she have some other plans?
Bernadette sighed and fell into her bed. Why did she even forget to clean the mess in the kitchen? If she had, then maybe part of this argument might not have taken place.
Tracy really cares for Walter in the most abnormal of ways. She was very overprotective and zealous to guard him. This "unusual love" made Bernadette think deeply.
But no matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't figure it out. If not that Tracy was brought in when Walter was already A year and half, she might have suspected that she was actually his mother. She was there, at the hospital, when her mom died, she saw her father bring baby Walter and gave him to her.
Bernadette decided to pass dinner tonight. Thinking of food, her tongue itched again....