by Josie Brown
11:43 a.m.
Ally’s daily call with Garrett started later than usual. This had become a disconcerting pattern in the past week.
Ally had also noticed that the calls were getting shorter, and invariably Garrett let her do most of the talking. When he commented at all, it was in a brusque tone.
Today, she didn’t let it slide. “Garrett, you seem concerned about something. What is it?”
He sighed. “Look, Ally, I was going to wait until next week to say something about it, but now is as good a time as any.” He paused in order to take a deep breath. “I think we should offer Jillian a buy-out.”
Ally was so stunned that she didn’t know what to say. When she finally found her voice, she murmured, “But Jillian is Life of Pie! Her wonderful product is why there is a line out the door, morning, noon, and night—”
“I was worried you’d react this way,” he replied icily. “Ally, believe me, it’s purely a business decision. She may be a pie genius, but as we grow, she’ll be less and less valuable to the company. Think about it, Ally: the real success of Life of Pie will be in how quickly we can get stores in major cities before the market becomes saturated. That is your expertise! You’ll be the one carrying that boulder up the hill. As for Jillian, her job is essentially done. It’s an incomparable product, no doubt about it—but we’ll still have it. In fact, we’ll own the recipes. She’ll have to sign a non-compete, but we’ll pay her handsomely for doing so. Her parachute will be two million dollars and a few stock options, which is what she’d earn in two years. She’ll still have the benefit of having been on the ground floor but none of the aggravation of watching the company go through its growing pains”—he sighed, then added—“or a failure, if it comes to that.”
Ally wondered if the offer might actually appeal to Jillian. When Ally first met her, she’d been a happy stay-at-home mother. The twins were her full-time occupation. Renovating her home had been her passion. A daily jog had been her ritual.
Jillian doesn’t jog because she no longer has the time, Ally realized. And these days, Caleb attends as many PHM&T meet-ups as Jillian.
And now she has Scotty, too.
“Make it five million.” Ally countered. It was the least she could do for her dear friend.
“Sure, okay. I’ll call Barry now and tell him what’s up. Ally, sweetheart, we’re doing the right thing,” Garrett assured her. “All I ask is that you stay the course. In fact, pretend to be just as surprised as everyone else. That way I come off as the bad guy. Trust me, in the end Jillian will thank you for it.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
It will break Jillian’s heart.
Brady will hate me.
On impulse, she called Dr. Spruill’s office. No matter Brady’s reaction, she knew they would have to talk things out.
Dr. Spruill’s receptionist met her request for an appointment with a sympathetic sigh. “I’m sorry but tomorrow the doctor finally has his in transitioning surgery. However, I can book you five weeks out…”
Ally gulped. A whole five weeks? No. That would never work. “I’ll call back then,” she murmured. “Thank you.”
She wondered if she and Brady would even be a couple then.
Six minutes later, Ally got a call from Barry. “We have to meet: You, me, Jillian, and Brady. Garrett just hit us with a bombshell. Round them up and I’ll come home.”
Home.
Yes, the duplex townhouse was her office, but it was also his home.
Suddenly, she felt like an intruder.
Really, she felt like a traitor.
“No. No way,” Brady shouted. He looked right at Ally. “Didn’t I tell you he’d do this—play us against each other?”
Yes, you did. But Garrett may be right—again—
And despite the fact that Jillian’s cheeks glistened with tears.
Timidly, Ally replied, “What Garrett said to Barry does make sense, to some extent. I mean, on the scale we’ll be growing, it’s not as if Jillian will actually be the one baking the pies anymore. Along with a five-million-dollar parachute, she’ll still be recognized as its co-founder, as well as a major stockholder—”
“Until he figures a way to dilute the stock,” Brady muttered.
Ally ignored that. “Jillian, you’ll still be on the ground floor, but you won’t have to go through all the usual start-up growing pains…” Her voice trailed off. She was stopped by the look on Barry’s face.
“Funny. That’s exactly how Garrett put it,” Barry murmured.
Now Brady and Jillian were staring at her too.
Traitor.
“Well, I, for one, won’t let him do it. Even if Ally has drunk his Kool-Aid, he needs two votes to get Jillian out.” Brady’s eyes narrowed. “Or, according to the terms, two votes to buy him out.”
“I don’t have the money to do that,” Jillian reminded him.
“I do,” he replied. He turned to Ally. “And you can go with him.”
He hates me that much?
She fought back her tears but was still able to whisper, “If that’s what you want.”
“Stop it!” Jillian shouted. “My God! I feel as if I’m watching my parents fight!” She took a few deep breaths. “Okay, so Garrett turned out to be a douche bag, and my closest, dearest friend just sold me down the river. You better believe I’m pissed that I’ve just been kicked to the curb! But here’s the thing: as much as I love Life of Pie, I love my family even more.” She shrugged. “And I need that money to keep it together. This just means I retire sooner than later.” She attempted to smile at Brady, but failed miserably. “Thank you for believing in us—in me.”
She gave Barry a kiss on the cheek.
She ignored Ally as she walked to the door.
What about me? Ally thought. I believed in you first! I still do…
Angered, Ally muttered, “There’s a non-compete clause. Don’t you dare sell another pie in public.”
This stopped Jillian cold. Without turning around, she replied, “I only make them for friends and family. As of this moment, you are neither.”
They all stared as the door closed behind her.
Brady headed for the door too. “Sadly, I feel the same way. Barry, let Garrett know I’ll accept the same buy-out, plus my brokers’ fee.” He nodded to Ally. “Hon, Life of Pie is now all yours—and Garrett’s.”
Ally dropped her head in shame.
Barry almost made it to the double doors that separated their living rooms when Ally thought to ask, “Barry, wait! What did Jillian mean when she said she needed the money to keep her family together?”
“Rona got custody of Scotty during the week—and every other weekend, at which time she also sees the twins.”
“So, Jillian only sees him four days a month? That’s awful!” Ally declared.
“Which is why Jillian has decided to fight the decree tooth and nail—or buy the Fredericks off.” He shook his head. “Look, Ally, I love you like a sister. You’re the mother of my daughter. So, I think I have a right to give it to you straight: Garrett is playing you. Piece by piece, he’s walking Life of Pie out from under you.”
He shut the door before she could open her mouth to answer.
* * *
Saturday, 9 May
“Are you sure that you haven’t done this before?” Kelly looked admiringly at the target shot to pieces with a magazine from the Glock 19 she’d lent Kimberley. “My God! Almost all your shots are straight through the heart! You’re a natural!”
Kimberley beamed at the compliment. In the past month, Kelly had hosted her every Saturday at a private pistol club. After a quick lesson from one of the instructors on how to hold the gun, aim, and shoot, she nervously took her place at one of the twenty indoor lanes. Even her first shots, though timidly taken, easily found the target. With each visit, the high of being so good at something so dangerous was even greater.
To her mind, a shot to the heart was more exhilarating than an orgasm.
<
br /> Not that she’d had one in a while.
I have Kelly to thank for that. If Andy weren’t so enthralled with her…
Although Kimberley’s targets were invariably silhouettes of a man, in her mind, she’d alternate thinking of them as either Kelly or Bettina.
Not that Kimberley could let Kelly know that.
Instead, she replied, “Yeah, well, believe me, I wasn’t expecting to be this good. I guess playing with my son Evan’s Wii Zapper has paid off for something other than to prepare him for life as a Jedi Warrior.”
Kelly smiled prettily and cooed, “I’m so happy you were able to join me. I’ve been feeling a bit down in the dumps lately—you know, all this responsibility I’ve taken on in my new position within PHM&T. And of course, being around Bettina doesn’t make things any easier.”
Kimberley giggled uncomfortably. “Everyone knows she was pissed to hear that you’re almost her equal in the club. Truth is, though, except for Lorna, they’d much rather deal with you.”
“It’s not just Bettina’s jibes at every suggestion I make. It’s that she…well, she and Andy…” Kelly sighed mightily.
Kimberley frowned. “What about Andy?”
“He’s decided that he’s a one-woman man—and tag, Bettina is it.”
The color drained from Kimberley’s face. “I don’t believe you.”
Kelly nodded. “Cross my heart and hope she dies! …Oops! Did that sound cruel?” She shrugged. “Well, she deserves it. Andy and I had a good thing going. At least, I thought we did. I mean, you felt that way, too, right?”
“Yes. Until you stole him out from under me. Remember?” Kimberley raised her gun at the fresh target now at the front of the lane. She could barely stifle the urge to point it at Kelly instead.
“That’s because I was jealous of you. In fact, he once told me that if I hadn’t gotten in the picture, he probably would have asked you to leave Jerry for him.”
Hearing this, Kimberley almost dropped the gun.
Kelly had been jealous of me?
“I guess it’s why I’ve always been so hard on you,” Kelly continued. “But now that we’re in the same boat, I realize that there’s no one in the club who I like better than you.” She moved close enough to put her arm around Kimberley. “Ha! I’ll just bet you hate Bettina even more than I do, don’t you?”
It’s a toss-up, Kimberley thought. But she answered, “Yes, you could say that.”
“Well, then, you’re going to hate what I have to say next. When he broke up with me, he said it was because he’s going to ask Bettina to marry him—on Mother’s Day in fact! He told her that boinking you in the men’s restroom was the biggest mistake of his life. And that he was surprised that she never revealed you as the culprit. He called it ‘her forgiving side.’” Kelly cackled at the thought. “To make her so jealous that she’ll say yes to his proposal, he’s going to tell her about all of his exploits with you. He knows she’ll then reveal it to the club—and to Jerry too.”
“But–that will ruin my marriage!”
Kelly clicked her tongue. “A shame, I know! But fair warning: on Monday, be prepared for Bettina to land on you with both feet. She wants to make an example of you. Of course, it will serve Andy’s purposes perfectly. In fact, he’s planning a romantic surprise at her house on Mother’s Day. Her mother and Lily have tickets to the ballet, which means the two of them will have the place all to themselves.” Kelly winked knowingly.
Kimberley held back her tears.
The next target didn’t have a chance. Every bullet in the mag went right through the heart.
Kelly couldn’t believe her luck: Kimberley was buying her lies.
She’d mailed a pair of ballet tickets to Eleanor a few days before. Because she was on the ballet’s auxiliary board, she was able to swipe an envelope and some letterhead, on which she wrote a note to Eleanor inviting her to a matinee of Cinderella “as a guest of the board.”
Kelly knew Eleanor would go. As a former ballerina, it was the social pond in which she most comfortably swam. She’d take Bettina’s little brat, Lily, as opposed to Bettina, whose previous restlessness at the ballet was evident by how often she’d drifted off to sleep during the performances.
Getting Andy to Bettina’s house took some thought. It finally occurred to Kelly that she could open a Gmail account in Bettina’s name and send him an invitation to “play catch up” at her place at two-thirty on Sunday, May tenth.
She knew that the double-entendre would play right into his hopes of winning Bettina over again.
She hoped her taunts to Kimberley would make the reunion memorable for all of them.
Chapter Twenty
Sunday, 10 May
“Leave Mummy to go to the ballet? But…it’s Mother’s Day,” Lily insisted. “Shouldn’t I spend it with the person whose womb I inhabited for nine months?”
Eleanor sighed loudly. “The schools now teach Sex Ed—at five?”
“No,” Lily assured her. “I learned that from Hera. She believes the earlier I learn such things, the more likely I’ll be able to ward off improper advances.” The little girl thought a moment before adding, “Well, that and Taekwondo.”
“That’s Hera for you,” Bettina muttered. “Thank God, she’s Lorna’s problem today.”
Eleanor’s warning to Bettina was a raised brow. “Yes, Lily, normally, today would be the day to pay your mother tribute with a burnt-toast breakfast, some useless handmade doodad, and other inane folderol.”
“You shock and dismay me, mother,” Bettina exclaimed sarcastically. “I remember you calling the potholder I made you in the second grade ‘a work of art.’”
Eleanor chucked her daughter’s cheek. “If I left you with that impression, I accomplished my goal. However, your own daughter is about to give you the most important gift of all: relaxation.” She turned to Lily. “You see, new mothers need their rest too. And since your little brother hasn’t quite caught on to that concept, for once, sweet Lily, your absence is the best Mother’s Day gift you can give.”
Lily turned to Bettina. Her mother’s approving nod was all she needed. Taking her grandmother’s hand, she exclaimed, “Good! Now I don’t feel guilty for seeing Cinderella without Mummy. She claims it’s practically her biography.”
“Really?” Eleanor arched a brow. “Wicked stepmother, a few cruel stepsisters? Hmmm! I wonder who they resemble.”
“It was only an analogy based on how I felt at the moment,” Bettina sniffed.
“Apology accepted.” As Eleanor checked her lipstick in the mirror over the mantel, she murmured, “It was so generous of the ballet board to send these matinee tickets right out of the blue.”
“It’s a matinee. They may have needed to paper the house,” Bettina reasoned.
Eleanor nodded. “You’re right. Well, no matter… Ah! If we don’t leave now, we may get caught in traffic and they won’t seat us until after the Shawl Dance—”
Lily knew the ballet well enough to know it was in the first movement. Hearing that, Lily practically dragged her grandmother out the front door.
Ah, peace and quiet, Bettina thought. She stared down at little Nathaniel. His tiny eyelids fluttered, but other than that he was completely still.
Is he Art’s son, or Andy’s, she wondered.
Still, she was glad that she never secretly had his DNA tested.
“All that matters is that you’re mine,” she whispered. “I will always love you. I will always be here for you. I will make sure you are always happy and healthy.”
Dead tired, she dropped onto the bed beside the crib. In no time, she was asleep as well.
Someone was in the room.
Instinctively, she reached over to protect Nathaniel—
Only to discover he was gone.
Bettina leapt up from the bed. In two steps, she was beside the fireplace, where she grabbed the poker. Wielding it over her head, she walked slowly up the staircase. Having grown up in the house, she kne
w which floorboards to avoid because they creaked.
She was in the hallway in no time. Slowly, she inched her way into the living room.
The man was standing by the big picture window.
She raised the poker over her head, ready to strike—
Just then, he turned around. Nathaniel was in his arms.
Art’s arms.
As she dropped the poker, it clattered at her feet.
“Bettina, babe! Hey, it’s only me!” He held firm, but his laugh was uncertain.
“Don’t you ‘babe’ me!” Bettina sputtered. “I told you I never wanted to see you again, and I meant it!”
Art’s eyes narrowed. “Look, I know it’s your thing to play hard to get, but it’s my thing to see the fruit of my loins.”
She picked up the poker again. “If you mean my son, forget it. You’re not going to get anywhere near him!” She hesitated, then hissed, “And to be perfectly honest, he may not even be yours.”
Art’s usually florid cheeks went pale. “That’s low even for you, Bettina.”
“Art, I mean it.” She blushed, but her eyes didn’t waver.
“Whose, then? Don’t tell me he’s the Fed’s!” His eyes rolled skyward as if he’d find the answer there. Then he realized the right clue could be found in his fingers. With them, he counted off the months. “Nah, can’t be him. Otherwise, you would have dropped our little bundle of joy earlier—”
The doorbell’s chime shut him up.
Bettina hissed, “For once in your life, shut that mouth of yours, and don’t open it until I tell you!” She pointed toward the living room.
He took the hint and went to hide.
Bettina took a moment to smooth down her hair and her robe in the large foyer mirror before taking a deep breath and opening the door.
Andy stood on the stoop. He held a bouquet of flowers. When she opened the door, he bowed. Smiling broadly, he declared, “For you.”
“Oh, no,” Bettina moaned. “Not you!”
Andy’s face fell. “But you said we could be friends.”
