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No matter how hard I tried to be loved.
19
HENRY
Mia has a record?
I couldn’t comprehend it.
What did she do? What charges did she face?
I watched her rush through the door to the stairs, hurrying to flee and quit so urgently that she didn’t bother with the elevator.
Mia? A criminal?
I couldn’t picture her ever doing anything wrong. She picked up litter when she passed it. She scolded me for even nearing the edge of the crosswalk for fear of jaywalking.
Mia was toogoodto have earned a record. But she had. I saw the shame in her eyes. I saw the reluctance to answer me when I followed her to her office. That omission of an answer, that silence, was proof. She didn’t want to tell me, but it was true.
I stood there, rooted in shock.
This was a woman Iknew. Someone I thought I knew in and out. I’d slept with her. I’d helped her to the doctor. I worked with her. I played fucking skee ball with her.
I’d fallen in love with her, too, hung up on the idea that she could be my wife and Jason’s mother.
I was stunned stupid, pained to realize I couldn’t have known her at all if I was ignorant about her past. Here, I thought I wasfamiliar with every detail about her, but she’d been lying all this time, never being upfront about having a criminal background.
“See?” Ann gestured at the stairwell door as it swung shut. “She’s just a lowlife criminal.”
I fisted my hands, peeved that this woman was still here and had the nerve to gloat about this news. I was hurt, feeling attacked with this news, and right on the tails of that pain was the heartache of being duped by the woman I wanted.
“You should be grateful that I saved you from getting involved with her.” She smiled widely as the elevator doors opened.
Laura and Jason entered the reception space, and I was glad that my son had his headphones on, his face turned down to watch his tablet.
“You should be thanking me for telling you that you were trying to get involved with a stupid criminal, Henry. I saw you watching Mia. I noticed how she conned you into falling for her. You were a prey to a criminal’s seduction, and as soon as you can get over that stupid bitch?—”
“That’senough!” Laura’s face was red and pinched and she shouted at Ann.
People didn’t raise their voices up here on the executive floor. That wasn’t how we did things. Not even Owen, who came close when he got into spirited discussions with some of the guys about fantasy football.
Ann sneered at her.
Laura leaned down to pick up one headphone. “Go on in your dad’s office, Jason. Now.”
He furrowed his brow, glancing at me, then Ann. He grimaced and hurried away from her, doing as Laura said. He tossed a “Hi, Dad” to me as he passed, but he didn’t linger by Ann.
Laura wasn’t done. She stalked up to the blonde, jabbing her finger at her face. “I’m going to say thisonetime. Get lost.Now.” Laura’s mother-bear instincts came into full force as she backed Ann toward the elevator. “No one talks about Mia like that.”
Ann scowled, looking past Laura to find me, as though I’d intervene. I didn’t. I couldn’t. I was still too shocked to even think.
“You can’t?—”
Laura shoved at her shoulder, physically prompting Ann to get on the elevator. “I can and will tell you that you’ve got no damn right to talk about Mia like that. She’s more of a woman than you’ll ever be.”
As soon as Ann was fully on the elevator, Laura retreated so the doors could close.
Once the metal panels slid shut, she turned on me.