Page 61 of Halstead House

I laughed out loud at the expression on his face as the doors cut off any further conversation. Having been Lucas’s enemy for a while, I could definitely say that being his friend was much, much more enjoyable.

CHAPTER 15

I stood in the grand foyer of Halstead House, sheep skin shaking, watching the front door for any sign of my mother’s arrival. The past three days had been both the longest and shortest of my life. I was in my dove gray super suit, hair so tightly pulled into a chignon that my eyes felt like slits, makeup back up to standard, and fingers gripped so tightly I wasn’t sure I’d be able to break them apart. My armor had returned, and I was pacing as rigidly as a soldier.

Ana slid into step with me and harrumphed in annoyance. “Weeks of work down the drain. I don’t know your mother, but I’m having a hard time not disliking her on principle,” she said, referring to my return to Old Grace.

“I can’t spring flowing hair and a laissez-faire attitude on her right when she steps of the plane. I need to ease her in. If she saw me in those skinny jeans she’d pop something in her brain.”

She harrumphed again as we about-faced. We’d been having this conversation all morning. “I still think you’d be better off waiting in Eliza’s office,” she said. “Go with the power move. She could ring the front door, and one of the staff could show her to you up there.”

“Using a power move with Mother would be a huge mistake.”

“Fine. Well, at least wait up there and I’ll call you down when she gets here,” Ana huffed. “It’s not a power move, but it would show her you aren’t her puppet.” This was yet another argument we’d been having since breakfast, and yes, the wordpuppetwasn’t helping me calm myself. It was rude and made me want to lash out, but most brutal honesty feels that way.

I shook my head and pivoted for the hundredth time. “I know when she’ll arrive. She knows that I know when she’ll arrive. She’ll be expecting me to be here to greet her directly. Besides, it would be unkind not to.”

“How can you possibly know when she’ll arrive? Didn’t she just say to expect her Thursday afternoon?”

“No. She said late afternoon Thursday.”

“Which is any time between four and six o’clock. You going to pace here for two hours waiting?” She scurried when I turned before she’d expected. “And could you stop for just one second!”

I stopped and she bumped into me as I faced her. “Late afternoon to Mother is five o’clock precisely. Which gives me five more minutes to prepare myself.”

Ana looked me over and pulled a disapproving face. “You know what paces like that? Caged wolves,” she grumbled, and the irony wasn’t lost on me. “You’re as stiff as the day you arrived.”

“You’ll appreciate my need for armor after you’ve met Lillian Burke.”

“I never thought of you as dramatic. I did think of you as an ice queen, to be fair, which is the total opposite of dramatic. Although I suppose freezing people out is a form of drama...” She paused and tapped her finger on her lower lip.

“I am not being dramatic.” I looked over at her. “You’re about to meet the woman who created the ice queen you used to know.”

Ana pretended to shiver and then laughed a bit. “This is all so soap opera-ish right now, that I actually find myself excited to meet her. Is it five yet?”

I shook my head and closed my eyes. While I was amused at Ana’s antics, I knew for a fact that she didn’t quite believe me. Lillian would have her for dinner.

“Listen, Ana, you should be a little less excited and a whole lot more anxious. You may even want to hide in a corner and watch for a while instead of being right in her line of fire when she gets here.”

“You think she’ll come in guns blazing?” Ana looked a little less amused.

“No. She’ll be as polite as she can be. She’ll insult you left and right, make you feel two inches tall with the IQ of a sloth, and do it all in a way that makes you wonder if you heard her correctly. She’ll have you doubting yourself, your life choices, and our friendship within the first five minutes. In the next five she’ll have you agreeing to let her run your life because you obviously cannot be trusted to do it with your pea-sized brain.” I was a little out of breath as the last of the words rushed out on the heat of emotion.

“Is that all?” Ana’s mouth pinched as her gaze moved to the big doors.

“We’re friends, right?” I managed to unclench my hands and touch her shoulder.

“Obviously it’s not normal for the therapist and the client to become friends, but I like to think of us as an exception.” She shook herself a bit and smiled. This time I returned her amused look. I loved that Ana was strong enough to find humor in tough situations.

“As my friend, I’m asking you to trust me. Go away. I’ll introduce her to you when we do the tour of the house. It’s really best if Mother doesn’t realize we’re friends. She’s angry with me, which means you’ll become a target, a way for her to manipulate me.”

She finally—at long last—accepted what I’d been trying to say. She gave one succinct nod, patted my hand that was resting on her shoulder, and turned to head back toward her office. I felt a rush of relief to realize I was alone. Not alone in the old bad way. Rather, alone in a way that would protect these people.

At 5:02—two minutes late, which I took delight in noting—I heard the dong of the front bell. I had already instructed Steven that I would handle this special tour. He had asked no questions but willingly headed for the kitchen, having smelled Chef Lou’s pastries baking earlier.

My heels clicking across the foyer felt overly loud without the normal buzz of household activity. It was as though Halstead House itself were holding its breath. I inhaled deeply once more as I reached the door and put my hand on the nob. It was go time.

The door swung open to reveal my mother looking as she always did. Stick thin, stylishly dressed, with her dark graying hair swept into gravity-defying heights. She somehow managed to make her hair large without making it strange. She was holding sunglasses and her purse in her hand. Behind her stood a man in a black suit whom I assumed was her driver.

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