It was seven o'clock in the morning, and I was sitting on the sofa, with Lexi sitting on my lap, her legs dangling as she was facing forward. She was busy watching some television, while I braided her blonde hair. Our morning routine was never the same but it consisted of two very important things for Lexi - eating breakfast and having her hair done.

"Hey baby, Seb will be picking you up from school today, sweetie. Is that okay?"

I watched the back of her head bob up and down in front of me. "Yes, mum."

Despite our very much overdue steamy and passionate night, Sébastien and I have been taking things slow. We didn't need to rush things between us, as long as we knew what we wanted, so, for everyone's sake, it felt right to just slow things down. But that doesn't mean that we don't see each other, in fact we keep seeing each other a lot more after that date night. It just means that we weren't thinking too much about the future.

But one thing we've been thinking about and we're actually being overly cautious with, was Lexi's relationship with Sébastien. They get along great, and she loves him, but we had to work on transitioning Seb's reference as my friend to my boyfriend, and that included having him gradually join our everyday routine.

So, since I had some errands to run today in central London, I had asked him if he'd mind being responsible for getting her home from school and watching over her at home until I got back. He quickly said he'd be happy to, before kissing me.

It also helped that Lexi was a pretty independent kid. She did her homework and showered on her own, she brushed her teeth and put on her pyjamas on her own as well. She'd only need help combing and drying her hair and she could possibly need an extra hand on her maths exercises, but I'd warned Sébastien about it.

* * *

I had meant to get home at least before dinner time, but you can never trust the busy London commute, so, by the time I got off the bus and walked home, it was already past seven. Luckily for me, Sébastien had already started to take care of dinner, I noticed, as the second I walked through the front door, the smell of bolognese had filled my nostrils.

"Wow, it smells so good here." I said after closing the door behind me and tossing the keys on top of the glass bowl we had on the entrance hall.

Lexi almost knocked me to the ground as she ran towards me, and hugged my waist.

"Hi mummy!"

"Hi love." I said before bending down to kiss the top of her head. "How was your day?"

"Amazing!" She did a little jump as she smiled widely, causing my heart to skip a beat. "Seb and I created our special cookies recipe and we baked them. They're delicious!"

"That sounds lovely, Lex! I'm gonna have to try them after dinner."

I removed my jacket and hung it up on the wall before giving my daughter a kiss again. She took it as a sending off gesture, and she quickly ran off to the living room, going back to what I can only assume was her homework. At the end of the small hallway, on the left, stood Sébastien, who was staring at me from the kitchen entrance, with a smile on his lips while he mindlessly cleaned his hands on the kitchen towel.

"Hi." I said, my voice coming out as a whisper. I walked down the hallway and into the kitchen, his eyes sensually boring into me the whole time.

Once in the kitchen and out of my daughter's sight, I wrapped my arms around Seb's neck while his hands found the back of my waist, and, getting on my tiptoes, I greeted him with a passionate kiss.

"Hello." He smiled against my lips before kissing me again and my heart skipped a beat again.

"How was being on Lexi duty for the day?" I asked while I walked away from him and towards the stove.

"She's perfect."

"I know." I said before giggling. "Sometimes I can't believe she's my daughter."

From the way Sébastien didn't budge, and the way his body looked stiff, I could tell there was something he wasn't telling me. And it wasn't something good.

"Seb, what's wrong?"

"You got mail."

"What?" I whispered as I turned around to face him.

Sébastien opened a drawer in the kitchen and grabbed a large sized envelope. He didn't give it to me like I expected him to. Instead, he held it, took a couple of steps towards me, and took a deep breath before speaking up.

"Mel, first of all, I just want to clarify that I had no idea what this was when I got it, and the guy just wanted a signature to deliver this and go."

"Sébastien, you're starting to scare me." I could feel my breath getting caught in my throat, as all worse case scenarios started to run through my head.

"You got a letter, it says outside it's from the Ministry of Justice."

"What? What does it say?"

"I didn't open it." He stated. "But the delivery guy required a signature to deliver the letter. I explained to him that you weren't home and that you'd only be back at the end of the day, but he said my signature was fine."

I was having a hard time processing all the information I was receiving in the span of a couple of minutes, and I'm pretty sure I didn't even hear half the things he was saying.

"Give me the letter."

He handed me the envelope and I ripped it open madly fast. I unfolded the letter that was addressed to me, and tried to read through it carefully, which was hard because my brain felt like it was going two hundred miles per hour, drowning in information and bad scenarios.

"Oh my God." My voice sounded like a plea, my breath was failing me, my chest was constricting, I couldn't see. It felt like the walls were closing in on me.

I felt hot, my hands were sweating as they trembled, the letter now shaking in front of me.

"Mel, are you okay?" I could hear Sébastien ask.

No, I wasn't okay. I was the complete opposite of okay. I was near a panic attack.

"Close the door." Was all I managed to say at the moment. Because what was in the letter scared me, but it scared me a lot more to have my daughter see me like this.

He did as told and came back to my side. "Melanie, what's happening?"

"This is a letter from court."

"Okay-"

"An inquiry, telling me that I need to be at David's trial. My ex, David. Lexi's father."

"Oh." He said, in realisation. As if he was putting the pieces of the puzzle together, as to why I was this upset. But he doesn't know half the story.

"But, Melanie, you'll only be there as a witness. And you'll get the chance to speak up about all the things he did. And, you know what? I'm sure that if you ask your lawyer, they can manage to have you take the stand without even having to look at him."

No, I wasn't being asked to be there as a witness. And I didn't even have a lawyer, nor the money to get one. And no, there wouldn't be a way to show up at court and not have to face him.

And not going wasn't an option because if they had known where to send this letter they knew exactly where to come and get me.

So, my only option was to save the date and go. Show up and either lie through my teeth, which could blow up in my face eventually because if they were inquiring with me, they had to have evidence, or admit the truth and face the consequences, which, by the way, weren't great. In fact, the consequences were the worst thing that could happen to me and my family.

And now that Sébastien was in my life and we had just started something between us, I had to come clean and tell him the entire truth. Not hide a thing. And prepare myself to be alone again, because there was no way Sébastien would want to be with me once he knew everything. And I mean everything.

My heart skipped a beat again, only this time it was for the worst reason. 

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Ahhhh cliffhanger!! A writer's wildcard and a reader's worst nightmare!

Don't you worry because you'll find out everything and more on the next chapter of Plot Twist, which will be out next week, tops!

And again, thank you so so much for all the support on this story! I love you! 

Don't forget to follow me on ig - missmarswrites -, I post sneak peeks, cool edits and games and I might even do a Q&A later this week! Please vote and comment if you liked this chapter :)

Xoxo, Mars