“Are you seriously just now denouncing Hailey as my wife?” I asked. “We’ve got less than two months until this child is born, and you’re resolving yourself to that statement?”
“She was in so deep with these people, Bryan, that your brother felt the need to give his life for her. When the truth of the matter is had she not gotten involved in the first place, John might still be alive.”
“If it wasn’t for her, John would’ve actually overdosed on the street. It was because of her that John cleaned up his act.”
“And it is because of her unwillingness to guard herself purposefully that John is dead!”
I looked up and saw Ellen standing in the doorway. Her eyes were dripping with pity as she held a folder in her hands. Fuck. I’d completely forgot about the lunchtime meeting I had on the calendar with her. I raked my hand through my hair as I sighed into the phone, knowing that there was only one course of action I could take.
There was only one other door I had to travel through in order to protect my family.
“If you don’t stop this sort of talk and evaluate what it is inside of you that’s creating all of this anger, Mom, then you won’t be allowed around the baby. Period.”
“What a disgrace,” my mother said.
She hung up the phone in a huff, and I allowed my cell phone to clatter along the top of my desk.
“Would you like me to come back another time?” Ellen asked.
“I’m fine. Just give me a second,” I said.
I heard Ellen come into the room as I swiveled my chair around. The disdain that had dripped from my mother’s voice was shocking. I had known her to be a cold and insensitive woman, but the anger she was holding inside was destructive. Her tongue was sharper than I’d ever known it to be, and I could only imagine the blowback my father was receiving from this. I had no idea how to deal with my mother when she was like this because I had never seen her like this. She had always been cold and emotionally removed.
But all of this was emotionally fueled, and I didn’t know what that looked like on my mother until now.
“Do you get along with your parents?” I asked.
Ellen drew in a deep breath before she sighed.
“I do now. But when I married my late husband, I didn’t.”
“Why not?” I asked with my back turned.
“They didn’t approve of how much older than me he was.”
I turned my chair around and met her stare as she offered me a light smile.
“Was it his death that prompted the rekindling?” I asked.
“No. They eventually came around.”
“Because they saw you were happy?” I asked.
“Because they saw they no longer had control,” she said. “Look, it’s not my place, but I did catch some of the conversation. I know your mother. Not well, but enough to know that she’s the one who runs that household. And for someone who needs control to feel important, it sounds like she’s spiraling out of it. The news of your brother’s death rocked this community, even though she didn’t want to acknowledge it. Now, she’s coming to terms with the fact that the only other child she has is no longer under her control either.”
“You make her sound crazy,” I said.
“In a way, it is. But it’s how people like your mother operate. I might be wrong, but it’s worth a spared thought anyway.”
It made sense, in a way. Growing up, my mother was the one who always made the decisions. Dad did two things. He worked, and he showed up somewhere whenever Mom said he needed to. There were times where Mom would even set out the tuxedo or the suit she wanted him to wear to a specific function. Maybe Ellen was right. Maybe this sense of control my mother exerted was her way of feeling grounded. And when she’d lost John, she lost that control. She lost the ability to control someone she cared about, so that control was blowing back onto Hailey and me.
Either way, it required professional help. And I still stood on the rule I laid out on the phone. She needed to apologize and take a good hard look at herself, or else she wouldn’t be around her grandchild. I had a responsibility to protect my growing family from any outside threats.
And right now, no matter how much it hurt, my mother was an outside threat.
“Well,” I said with a sigh, “I’ve got nothing but time. Are those the project budget folders?”
“They are. I know you also wanted to take a specific look at Anna’s project, so I’ve got a detailed breakdown of her finances in her folder.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Anything, in particular, you want to talk about?”
“Actually, yes. Anna’s breakdown of her project doesn’t line up with the budget.”
“Too much money in the end?” I asked.
“No. Not enough. Her bottom line is just shy of twenty thousand dollars for the summer. We approved her at thirty-two thousand.”
“What’s wrong with that?” I asked.
“I just want to make sure she’s not cutting corners she doesn’t need to cut. We’re here to help her give a service to the community, not loom over her head financially. These funds are hers. They’re in her designated account. Just talk with her. Make sure she understands there’s still money for her to use if she needs it.”
“I can do that,” I said. “Anything else?”
“I’ve got three new projects that have been proposed and approved for budgets. I’d like you to take a look at them and run the numbers in play. Compare them to what you can find with your research. You know, the whole nine.”
“When are they due to go in front of the board for budget approval?” I asked.
“Not until the beginning of next month, but I wanted to hand them to you now because I’m not sure they all fit with the foundation’s mission. I don’t want to say anything other than that because I don’t want to sway you. But give them a good overlook and give me your thoughts,” she said.
“I can do that. I’ll get started on them now.”
“You’ll get started after lunch,” she said. “Go eat, Bryan. I don’t run a sweatshop.”
“Then I’ll start on them after lunch,” I said.
“And Bryan?”
“Yep?”
“If you’re sitting there questioning whether you gave your mother the right ultimatum, you did.”
I sighed as Ellen gave me a final nod before she left my office.
I set the folders down in front of me and picked up my office phone. I had this sub place down the street on speed dial and put in an order for my usual lunch. I looked at the files on my desk and reached for one of them, flipping it open to take a look at the numbers.
“Shit, Bryan, there was one last thing.”
Ellen poked her head around the corner just as I flipped the folder closed. She narrowed her eyes at me.
“I’ve got lunch ordered, but I need something to distract me,” I said.
“Then don’t clock out for lunch and leave an hour early to go home,” she said.
“What was it you forgot?” I asked.
“The foundation wants to do something for you, Hailey, and the baby. We were thinking about throwing a baby shower, but we thought it might be better to do something else. Like a food chain or something.”
“A food chain?” I asked.
“Yeah. It’s where people sign up for specific meals on specific days and then they drop food off to you guys. You know, so you don’t have to worry about cooking for yourselves with a newborn around.”
“That actually sounds really nice,” I said.
“Good. I’ll let them know. Thanks, Bryan.”
“No. Thank you, Ellen.”
Chapter 14
Hailey
I was sweeping up the floor and eyeing my easel as I cleaned down the gallery. It had been four days since I’d had a chance to paint. The gallery had been so busy with interviews and people coming in to purchase pictures that I hadn’t had a chance to finish the painting I had started over a week ago. I swept the dirt out the back door and sighed, taking a breath of fresh air as the wind kicked up a bit. It swirled the leaves around and rocked the trees as it ushered in the warmth of summer. I couldn’t wait to dig my toes into the sand and take my newborn child to view the expansive beauty of the ocean.
The bell dinging over the front door caught my attention, but when I turned around and saw who it was, I froze.
“Hello, Hailey.”
He was back, the man with the ragged clothes and the dirty nails and the horrendous teeth. His eyes were hazed over with his high as his lopsided smile made me shiver. He brought a stench with him into the gallery that made me want to heave.
“I was so rude to you the last time we saw one another. I didn’t even introduce myself. My name’s Ben.”
“I don’t give a damn what your name is,” I said.
“Which is fine. To each their own,” he said.
How in the world was this man catching me while I was alone in my shop? Was he watching me? Tracking me somehow? The idea alone made me sick. I could feel my lunch teetering at the back of my throat. I clutched the broom tightly in my hand as I made my way to the cash register. I clutched the broom in one hand and grabbed my taser with the other, readying myself if he lunged at me in any way. I had no idea if he was coming to collect or just send me another warning, but if he was here to collect, then he would probably try to hurt me.