Page 76 of The Housekeeper

“Thank you,” Tracy said, taking the box from his hands and glancing only briefly at the sapphire-and-diamond earrings inside. She carefully avoided looking at me.

I fell back against the sofa’s well-stuffed cushions, my cheeks burning with a combination of embarrassment and rage.

“And Jodi,” our father continued, handing me an oblong cardboard box, “these are for you.”

The box contained a single strand of large pearls that I knew to be fake. “Why buy the real thing,” my mother had once asked, “when nobody can tell the difference?”

I felt quite sure that my father knew the difference.

“What do you think he plans to do with the rest of Mom’s jewelry?” Tracy asked me, dropping the earrings into her purse and crossing over to my sofa as soon as our father left the room to see what was keeping Elyse.

“Askhim,” I said curtly.

“You’re mad,” she said.

“Why would I be mad?”

“Because he gavemethe earrings.”

“I don’t give a shit about the earrings,” I said honestly.

“Then why are you mad?”

“I’m mad because you knew this was going down and you didn’t warn me.”

“Because he pretty much ordered me not to.”

“What else did he tell you?”

Tracy looked back at the rug. “Nothing.”

“Tracy…”

“You’re not going to like it.”

“Tracy!”

“Okay. He said that Elyse said I should have them because I was…well…you know…Mom’s favorite.”

“Elyse said that?”So much for telling me that those earrings should always have gone to me.So much for her apology.“What the hell kind of game is she playing?”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s trying to turn us against each other,” I said, answering my own question, the realization hitting me like a slap in the face.

“What are you talking about? Why would she do that?”

“Because she thinks it works to her advantage if we’re not a united front.”

“A united front against what?”

“Her and Dad.”

Tracy looked confused. “I’m not sure I understand.”

“Divide and conquer,” I told her.

“Divide and conquer,” she repeated, as if I were speaking a foreign language.

“Tracy,” Elyse called from the kitchen. “Could you give me a hand with the coffee, dear?”

Tracy was instantly on her feet. “Really, Jodi. Don’t you think you’re being a bit paranoid?”

Divide,I repeated silently as she left the room.

And conquer.