Page 55 of The Next Mrs. Parrish

“Mommy!” Bella bursts into the room, her arms outstretched, and crashes into me. I wrap her in my arms, tears springing to my eyes as I hug her tight, not wanting to letgo.

“Darling! I’ve missed you so much.”

“Me too.”

Tallulah is leaning against the doorjamb with her arms crossed in front of her. She is staring at me with undisguised hostility. I release Bella, walk over to her, and give her a hug. She accepts it stiffly, and I pull back. “It’s so good to see you. I’ve been going crazy missing you both.”

“Let’s all go into the living room and have a talk,” Jackson says.

The three of us follow along like good little soldiers. Bella reaches out for my hand, and I hold it as we go. Jackson takes a seat on one of the sofas, and Tallulah sits next to him. Bella and I sit across from them, still holding hands.

“I’ve already explained to the girls how sometimes you get sad and take too much medicine. They understand that it’s not something you want to do, but you need our help.”

I say nothing, waiting for him to goon.

“Now, DCF knows that you’re here, but you’re not allowed to be alone with the girls until the investigation is finished. Chloe and the rest of the staff are aware of that. But it’s fine anyway because I plan to be here with you most of the time. We need family time, right?”

I take a deep breath, trying to figure out what to say. I need to set the record straight with Bella and Tallulah and let them know that I’m not going to go off the deep end and take drugs, like he’s implying. “I’m not sad. I’m very happy to be with my girls. I promise that there’s nothing for you to worry about. Just like you’ve never had to worry before. What happened at the beach was an accident.”

Tallulah’s eyes narrow. “What do you mean?”

“You know my therapist prescribed that medicine for me if I got anxious. The dosage information was wrong. I took two, like it said, but the directions should have said one. That’s why I fell asleep.” I look at Jackson and see a glint of admiration in his eyes. I’ve managed to redeem myself without making him the villain. “As far as what happened when you were a baby, Tallulah, I’m sure you’ve heard about postpartum depression. My hormones were all out of whack. But you were never in danger. I was paranoid. Thinking Daddy was out to hurt me, and I ran away with you. That’s what happened. I would never hurt you. Either of you.”

I immediately see the relief in Tallulah’s eyes, and I’m heartened. She really does want to believe me, to be assured of my love for her. “So you didn’t do anything bad to me?”

Jackson starts to talk, but I cut him off.

“Of course not. And your daddy loves you far too much to have ever let me come home if he thought I was a danger to you. I just needed for my hormones to balance and to realize that it was safe for me to come home to him.”

Anger flashes across his face, and I’ll probably pay for this later, but I don’t care. I won’t have my children afraid ofme.

He clears his throat. “Okay, well, now that we’ve cleared that up, we need to remember that the social workers are still concerned about Mommy, and until they say she is all better, you can’t be alone in the house with her or go anywhere alone with her. I’ll be here most of the time, but if I do go out for anything, Edgar or Chloe or the cook will be here when I’m not. So that won’t be an issue.”

“That’s dumb. Why are those social people being so mean?” Bella asks.

Jackson smiles at her. “They’re just doing their job. All this will be behind us soon and then life will go back to normal. That reminds me, we need to get your applications in for school.”

“We already have schools,” Tallulah says. “Why can’t you come to California with us? We like it there.”

He seems to consider this. “Hmm, let me think about that.”

Over my dead body.

– 34 –

DAISY ANN

Daisy Ann ended her call and got out of the car. When she walked into the building and up to her office, Wade was already in there, perched on the edge of her desk, one leg swinging back and forth as he spoke to another man. As soon as he saw her walk in, he sprang up, and gave her an apologetic look. She felt her annoyance growing. She’d have to talk to her assistant about letting people into her office when she wasn’t there.

“Daisy Ann, this is Leonard Simms,” Wade said as the gentleman rose to face her.

She gave Wade a curt nod then turned to the man and held out a hand. His serious expression and old-fashioned wire-rimmed glasses gave him a humorless air. He wore a neatly pressed gray suit, and when he took her hand in his, she was startled by its extreme slenderness. His handshake, however, was firm and strong.

“Daisy Ann Briscoe.”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am. I’m Mr. Bennett’s attorney. As you know, he’s out of the country on business and will be joining on Zoom.”

“Yes. Let’s go into the conference room, shall we? We’re all set up for the call.” Daisy Ann walked to the door without waiting for a response.

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