Page 50 of The Wife Stalker

Leo went white. “Where is he? Is he all right?”

“He’s fine. Just a cut on his chin. He’s in the den with Evie, watching a movie.”

He moved away from her, but she grabbed his arm to stop him. “He fell from the slide. He’s okay, but I need to talk to you.”

Leo shook off her grip and strode to the door. “I need to see him,” he said, before she could say another word.

Piper gave him a few minutes before following him into the den. He was sitting next to Stelli, his arm around him, while Evie sat on Leo’s lap. The three of them looked so at ease with one another that Piper felt more like an intruder than she usually did. She wondered if she would ever be a real part of this family.

Leo looked up at her and beckoned her toward them with a nod, but she held back, unwilling to break into the tight circle. Finally, Leo stood. “You finish your movie, Stel, and I’ll tuck you in afterward. I hope you thanked Piper for taking such good care of you,” Leo said.

Stelli looked up at Piper. “Thank you,” he said flatly, and turned his eyes back to the screen.

Piper and Leo returned to the kitchen, and Piper fixed a plate for him. He cleared his throat. “Can you tell me again exactly what happened? Evie mentioned something about Stelli going down the big slide.” He looked up at her from his plate. “Were you watching him?”

This again, the accusation that an accident was somehowherfault. Piper’s pulse quickened. “Of course I was watching them. I was sitting right there. Accidents happen, Leo. I didn’t realize that only certain pieces of the playground equipment were age appropriate. You have to remember all this is new to me. I’m trying my best.” As she looked at him, her eyes filled with tears.

He sighed. “I know, honey. It’s just that Stelli doesn’t always have the best judgment. Just try to remember he’s only six.”

“I’m sorry. You’re right. I’ll be more careful in the future. There’s something else, though.” She paused. “Joanna called again.”

His eyes narrowed. “When?”

“Today. This afternoon. She yelled at me. Said I wasn’t watching the children. That Stelli’s accident was my fault.” She paused. “Leo, she had to have been at the park, watching us. What if the children had seen her?”

A muscle in his jaw tensed. “Maybe I should talk to her, remind her of the judge’s order.”

“No. You can’t do that. That’s exactly what she wants—to talk to you. You’d be playing right into her hands.”

“I don’t know what else to do. We can’t have her coming near the kids.”

“Let’s think about this before you do anything. Talk to one of the judges you play golf with. See what they say. I’m worried that if you call her, she might get the wrong impression.”

He reached across the table and caressed her cheek. “Okay, I’ll talk to Judge Barrows and see what he thinks we should do.”

After he finished eating, they went back to the den together to watch the end of the movie and then put the children to bed. Piper went into Stelli’s bedroom after Leo tucked him in. “Stelli, you were a really brave boy today. I was very proud of you. May I give you a kiss good night?”

“My stomach hurts,” Stelli said, his eyes filling with tears. “I want my mommy.”

Piper clenched her nails into her fist. Stelli was going to have to learn, one way or another, that you don’t always get what you want.

34

Joanna

I watched her yesterday. Sitting there, pretending to be their mother, while completely ignoring them and typing on her iPad. She didn’t see me; she wasn’t paying attention to anyone, was just hammering away on her stupid tablet, likely writing more platitudinous tripe. I am incensed that she has the nerve to keep me away from the children when she clearly doesn’t even care about them herself.

As she sat ignoring them, I wanted to yell:Put down your damn iPad and watch the kids. I’d told Stelli time and time again he had to be older before using that tall slide—it was for sixth graders and up. But when he’d looked over and seen that Piper wasn’t watching, he’d tromped right toward it. I wanted to run over and stop him but couldn’t risk going against the court order. Before I could decide what to do, he went flying down on his stomach and hit the ground hard. It had taken everything in me not to run to him and sweep him up into my arms. I cried as I watched her finally get up off that bench. Another mom had run over, too, but I’m the one who should have been there comforting him.

Tears streamed silently down my face as she hustled them off to the car. I couldn’t tell how badly he was cut, or if he needed stitches. After they left, I sat in the car for another half hour, seething, then drove myself home.

When I got there, Mom was in bed and complained that she was too tired to get up for dinner. I took a bowl of soup up to her,then poured a glass of wine for myself and carried it outside to the tiny back porch, where there was barely enough room for two folding metal chairs. As I sat in one of them, I noticed that the plastic weaving was fraying in several places. A chain-link fence ran around the perimeter of the narrow yard, and untrimmed grass was a half foot high against its edges. My mother said you could always tell which houses in the neighborhood didn’t have a man around by how neglected they looked, and I guess our house was Exhibit A. I sat and sipped, watching the sun go lower into the sky, and thinking more about Stelli’s accident, and grew increasingly angry. He could have hit his head, gotten a concussion, broken an arm—the possibilities were terrifying. What if there was a next time and the injury was more serious?

The blood was pounding in my temples as I downed the rest of the wine, took the cell phone from my pocket, and called her. I had copied her number from Leo’s phone while we were still together. The minute I heard that soft tentative hello, I told her she needed to take better care with him, but she started yelling at me, telling me to leave them alone. I begged her to let me talk to Stelli, to make sure he was okay, but she refused, telling me he was just fine, and then the witch screamed at me not to call her, saying she would call the police if I bothered them again, and disconnected the call.

She’s got Leo right where she wants him, and he’s blind to her game. I recalled my conversation with Ava, when she’d told me Piper had hated her stepdaughter, and began to wonder if Piper’s intention had been to get rid of only Mia. Maybe Matthew had been collateral damage. Was she planning to kill Stelli and Evie, too, so she could have Leo all to herself? I went inside, my head still pounding, and lay down on the sofa as darkness began to fill the room.

I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, my mother was gently shaking my arm.

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