hate Frankie,” I pushed out. “Because she looks like her mother.”
“Yes,” she admitted. “Though I was grateful to her for a long time.”
“Why?”
After extinguishing the cigarette, she licked her lips, and for the barest moment, she seemed almost human. Then she gave a bitter little laugh. A scoff at herself. “Because you’d barely been at that school a week before she came home with you one day when your father and I had to leave for that trip.”
My stomach sank.
“He found Maddy because I found Frankie.” I almost didn’t want to wrap my mind around it. It was sick and a little…
“Yes. I’d intended to make other arrangements, but that was the most natural and I could even feign the most mild of shocks when we met her.”
And yet none of them revealed anything.
“The dates, Mrs. Standish?” Jake said, before handing me the rapidly cooling mug of coffee. I downed it.
“The first three weeks of July, he left just before the fourth and didn’t come back until the twenty-seventh or thereabouts. He told me he had been on a business trip, but he was not in the office nor was he out on business. He’d told his father some lie and had taken the time off. I was feeling too poorly to care then, and I was actually relieved I didn’t have to pretend around him.” She gave another shrug.
The dates lined up.
“What is this about, Archie?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“I thought you preferred that…”
“I prefer my friends call me that. You’re not my friend.”
“Very well. What is this about?”
“None of your business.” She didn’t know, and based on her reactions, she would have spit it out just to get the dig in. But I had one more test…
“I would think it is my business, since it’s my life you’re asking about.”
“Actually, Muriel, I’m asking about the components to a deal you negotiated that provided the tangible return of me. I was a means to an end and an investment. So let’s not pretend there’s some great emotion there. You may have loved Edward for all I know, but I don’t care about that anymore.”
“Fine. Then are we done? Do you know everything you need?” She rose then. “Because I will definitely have to adjust my plans to deal with this stress you’ve decided to throw at me.”
The scuff of Jake’s shoes sliding as he let out what had to be a swear word in a hissed breath filled the silence, I just shook my head.
“No, consider this information, not a question.” I paused for a moment and felt the weight of Jake’s gaze as he swung his head back toward me. We hadn’t discussed this part.
But I needed a genuine reaction.
“Frankie and I are getting married.”
Surprise flickered across her face. “Did you get her pregnant?”
“What?”
“Getting married at eighteen? Asking me these questions? Your father has informed you that you have to get married if you were so indiscreet you impregnated her.”
“There are more reasons to get married than the mercenary ones.”
“Fine, please tell me you’re not having some huge ceremony where I would have to attend with that…”
No, she had no idea.
None.
“Trust me. You would be the third last person I’d invite to my wedding.” With that, I turned and headed for the door. I pulled out my phone to text the driver to be back at the doors to get us.
“That’s it?” Muriel said as she followed us. The heat from inside slapped against my face as we crossed the living room to the elevator.
We were already inside when she caught up with us. Thankfully, the doors closed on her glare, and then we were descending. Jake said nothing until we got outside and slid into the car. We had roughly an hour to get to LaGuardia to check in for our flight.
“Man…” Jake began, but I shook my head.
“It’s fine Jake. It’s not a surprise.”
“I don’t care, Arch, that’s some fucked up shit. My dad’s an asshole, and I’ll never forgive him for choosing someone over my sisters and me. It’s not even just about Mom, though it is about her too. Thing is, I get how complicated that whole situation must have been…but I didn’t get it then, and I sure as shit shouldn’t have had to. And that shit back there…”
He made a disgusted sound and fell back in the seat.
“Jake, they aren’t my family.”
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“Sure it does,” I said as I pulled my phone out again and sent a message to Jeremy,