Either way, I wouldn’t let her see that I feared her, so I moved to sit down and took the tea from the saucer. She smiled, and her eyes shifted to the garden below. “Did my daughter inform you that her mother was home?”
“She did. She seems excited.”
She nodded, a small smile playing on her red lips. “I found out that Jameson never told her I was dead.” I wanted to ask her how she’d found that out, but she tilted her head at me and asked, “It seems sort of like fate, doesn’t it?”
Was she telling me that Jameson protecting his daughter from the pain of thinking she was dead was actually a blessing for them? She had to be kidding. “I’m not sure I understand, Ms. Kni—”
“Missus,” she corrected. “And don’t you? For a woman who’s been sleeping with my husband, I’m guessing you know quite a lot about the situation.” She may not have meant for the husband part to cut through my heart, but it did. She said it like it was completely normal, like they were still together.
And maybe they were. My mind was reeling, reconsidering, questioning everything.
“Jameson must think you’re very good with her. My business … our business and the responsibilities of our family have kept me away.” She fixed a piece of her blonde hair as she looked in the mirror before turning to me.
“I don’t understand.”
“Did he tell you I was dead?” Her smile was slow as the words dropped one by one like a ton of bricks on my heart. “He’s had to have suspected for a while that I wasn’t. Jameson was always smarter than most men. Then again, I did quite well orchestrating all this, if I do say so myself. Don’t you agree?”
I didn’t need to answer her. The way I pulled in air as if it were scarce and the world was disintegrating before my very eyes allowed her to draw her own conclusions.
She dragged a finger over the table. “He made this room for me when they moved in, you know? He had all my stuff packed up and brought in here. And I think he keeps every part of it immaculate not because he wants to preserve the memory of me. No, it’s got to be because he believed I might come home one day … and here I am.”
“I … don’t understand.” It was all I could say as I leaned back in my chair for support.
“Catch up, Mia. He’ll be here soon, and I know he’s going to be irate.” She chuckled and rolled her eyes. “God, that man can get mad. He’ll say this is calculated and manipulative, and of course it is, but honestly, who isn’t? The man’s been just as strategic as I have. Maybe more so.”
I shook my head, wishing her away, wishing this whole stupid room away. “I wouldn’t use the wordstrategicto describe him.” If he’d known she was alive … that wouldn’t be the word I’d use. Deceptive. Cruel. Ruthless. “Not strategic,” I whispered again.
“Whatever.” She shrugged. “He’s made this completely and utterly way too complicated with the security he’s implemented everywhere. He had to know my coming back was inevitable. I’m sure he actually wants that after how he pushed my family’s company into a corner.”
“I don’t understand,” I whispered. My mind scrambled to grasp what she was saying, but my heart was breaking at the same time.
“For a woman who’s spread her legs so willingly, I’d expect you to know a bit more, Mia. Then again, you’re sleeping with your boss after he drugged and kidnapped you.” She sighed with the summary she painted, and I tried not to flinch at her words.
“That’s not what is happening here.”
“Isn’t it?” She tilted her head. “You’re sleeping with myhusband.”
“I didn’t think he was a husband.” The words bubbled out of me fast and almost hysterical. “I thought he was a widower.”
“And instead you became a mistress.” Her attack was snakelike, as if she’d been coiled up and ready to strike. Her bite was filled with poison, leaching all the trust I had in Jameson.
“It’s not what I wanted.” I knew that much even if the whole summer now seemed like more of a lie than any part of my life now. I’d tried to be so true to myself here and instead got pushed into being within a façade all over again.
“No matter. I’m okay with the little dalliances he may have with you and others, as you realize I’m Franny’s mother and his wife.” She gave me an almost sad smile, like she felt sorry for me, like I was now the secret they’d hide behind closed doors.
“For now, I think it’s best I stay in this part of the house. Once Jameson and I work things out and talk through all this, I hope that will help you both.” Although her words were meant to be kind, they were laced with condescension. I was playing checkers and she was playing chess, a hundred moves ahead and in a position to take my king before I even realized the game we were playing.
It wasn’t a fair fight. She’d come with weapons and armor and ambushed me. I stood and started to back away toward the door. I needed to call Jameson, to check on Franny. I needed to pull apart the truth from the lies, separate my emotions from the reality of the situation.
I needed out of Paradise Grove.
Even as I backed away, she kept on. “Mia, marriages have ups and downs, right?” She sounded almost dejected now, and her lip poked out.
“Well, of course, but—”
“Did he tell you about me when you first moved in here?” Her eyes were laser sharp, focused on me now, searching for answers.
“I think it’s best that you and Jameson discuss that.” I tried to make sure my voice didn’t shake as I walked toward the door. I was getting the hell away from her and from him. Away from this place where I’d been deceived and made to believe I was given a whole truth when I only got half of one. “I don’t think I’ll be here much longer.”
