Page 48 of What the Wife Knew

Seven Months Earlier

A month before my twenty-seventh birthday my mom showed up at my office. The assistant job at the flooring center wasn’t anything special. I answered phones, did the filing and ordering, and generally tried not to draw attention to myself. It was honest work for low pay.

I’d picked Dublin, a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, and home to golf clubs, parks, and a yearly Irish festival, because the small city struck me as a place my mother would never visit. Comfortable but not fancy or shiny enough for her. Looked like I was wrong.

Wearing a pretty green dress and heels so high they bordered on indecent, she entered the office and stared down at me. “You couldn’t run from me forever, my dear daughter. You didn’t think I’d track you down?”

A woman could hope.

“What are you doing here, Mom?” Near me. In the building’s back office. In Ohio.

“Looking for you.”

And just happened to stumble into Ohio? Don’t think so. “Is your husband with you?”

“We are no longer together, a fact you would know if you stayed in touch.”

That explained the timing of the visit. She was bored and when she got bored her thoughts turned to me and old schemes. Probably also meant she needed money. “If you’re looking for something to do you could take up knitting.”

“Don’t act like you don’t have a brain in your head. I raised you better than that.”

No way was I touching that last part. “I’m working.”

“You can take a break.”

“Addison?”

Of course my boss picked that minute to stroll in. He’d been at lunch for two hours with some business friend he wanted to impress. Now he’d walked in, and I had a mess.

Mom shot him a big smile. “Hello. I’m Lizzy Jenkins. Call me Lizzy, please.” She put one hand on her chest and rested the other on his arm. “I know you’re a busy man but is it okay if I take Addison away from work for a few minutes? I promise I’ll keep it quick.”

He frowned but didn’t grumble, which was a nice change. “Is everything okay?”

“We need to have a quick mother-daughter chat.”

His eyes widened. “You’re her mother? Can’t be.”

Here we go. Mom had his attention now.

She pulled a little closer to him, never breaking contact with his arm. “Well, aren’t you sweet?”

The light in his eyes showed he’d been dazzled. “Addison didn’t share that she had such a young and vibrant mother.”

We were deep in it now.

“She told me all about you and what a good boss you are, but she forgot to tell me what a sweetheart you could be. Handsome, too.” Mom stepped back and looked him up and down. Launched into full flirting mode. “Very impressive.”

He laughed. “You’re something. Aren’t you, Lizzy?”

I was always stunned that this scam worked. The false flattery seemed obvious. Mom had developed schmoozing skills that she could snap on and off at will. My boss was her latest and most disturbing conquest.

“Addison, why have you been hiding this lovely man from me?”

Because I’d learned early to hide all boys, male teens, and men from her. Fake fawning was Mom’s go-to move. Didn’t matter if the guy was the mailman, our neighbor, her coworker’s husband, or my high school math teacher. She attracted members of the opposite sex and basked in the attention they heaped on her.

My boss waved a dismissive hand in the air. “There’s no problem. Take a half hour break.”

He got angry when I took more than twenty minutes for lunch, but this was fine. Typical.

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