She woke with another headache, and Sunday went from bad to worse.
Early in the morning, she set up the new laptop and portable printer she had purchased. Then she organized the contents of the satchel that contained everything from their safe and started scanning files.
As she worked, she found a set of papers in a folder she’d never seen before. They looked like copies of bank statements, but they were from no bank she knew. And the numbers listed were astronomical—in the millions.
Millions she’d had no idea existed.
A cold chill raised goose bumps along her skin. As a partner, Austin made mid-six figures annually, which was quite a fine income. They owned their house and hadn’t worried about money for a long time.
She could afford to stay in a comfortable hotel, buy nice clothes, and eat good food. She could also afford to take time as she figured out her next steps, and she felt extremely grateful to have her needs met while dealing with the emotional fallout from the end of her marriage.
But those numbers… She couldn’t imagine how he might have gained access to so much money.
She didn’t have time to obsess over it. Quickly, she organized everything else, finished an Excel spreadsheet listing all the assets that had been in the safe, and emailed the spreadsheet to herself along with a zip file of the scanned documents.
Afterward, she showered and braced to face her mother.
Visiting her mother was always like taking a trip into the past. Gloria Addison still lived where she had when her husband Samuel had been alive. The old, spacious house was on the National Register of Historic Places and had been in the family for several generations.
As Molly parked, the front door opened. Gloria’s silver hair had been meticulously arranged, and she wore a stylish gray-and-pink dress with matching low-heeled shoes.
“I wondered when you might finally show up.” Gloria’s voice was chilly, her back ramrod straight. Both were indicators of how the visit would go.
Molly bit back a sigh and walked into the house. “Hello, Mother.”
Gloria led the way to the kitchen, and Molly followed. She slid into a seat at the table while Gloria put together two salads.
While she worked, Gloria said, “Austin called me yesterday.”
Trying to remain calm, Molly rubbed her temples. Gloria had always approved of Austin. The fact that he had gotten in touch with her first put Molly even farther into the doghouse. “What did he say?”
“He was looking for you.” Gloria pulled salad dressing out of the fridge. “He thought you might be staying here. He said you’d had a fight, but I already knew that. Melinda found out. Her son Graham is dating one of the Johnson girls that works at Austin’s firm.”
“I wondered if you’d heard something.” Again, she lied. She had to find a way to stop that. Where was her authentic self when Molly needed her the most?
Her mother brought the salads over along with silverware and the dressings, then sat to eat. “So, have you talked to Austin?”
“No.” She pushed the plate away.
“Well, don’t you think it’s time you did? You’ve had your fight, but it’s over. Now it’s time to move on. He’s worried about you, and he’s hurt.”
No mention of Molly’s feelings. No question about whether or not she might be hurt.
She asked, “Did Melinda tell you what the fight was about?”
Gloria speared a small, bite-sized piece of ham. “It doesn’t matter. It’s all in the past. The important thing is that you work on fixing your marriage and look to the future.”
Her blood pressure was rising with every passing minute. “I’m not going back to Austin. I’m filing for divorce.”
Gloria’s eyes flashed up. She set down her fork and knife. “Impossible. You can’t. He’s the breadwinner, and he has been for the past fifteen years. You haven’t done anything in your life except support him.”
“Yes, by all means.” Her jaw angled out. “Let’s ignore the fact that being a successful law partner’s wife can be a full-time job in itself, or that I fundraised almost three hundred thousand dollars last year for a charity just by working as a part-time volunteer.”
“None of that paid you a living wage.” Gloria pointed at her. “You’ll take him back if you know what’s good for you. You’ll never be able to get a job that will give you the lifestyle you’ve grown accustomed to.”
Her temper started to bubble over. “I can’t stand the thought of being in the same zip code with Austin, let alone trying to live in the same house or, my God, sleeping in the same bed again. The marriage has been over for a long, long time. I’m meeting with an attorney tomorrow. The money will work out somehow.”
Gloria’s gaze fired with an angry light. “I did not raise you to quit on your marriage just when things get tough.”
“When things get tough?” she repeated incredulously. “Mom, he cheated on me. In my own bed. He cheated on me repeatedly—and then he was verbally abusive about it. The only thing I regret is staying with him as long as I did when, deep down, I knew better.”
“So he cheated on you,” Gloria said bitterly. “Men cheat. It’s what they do. You can’t expect to find another man who will treat you any differently, and you’re too old to start over. You have no real job experience, and your degree is eighteen years old. If you leave him, you’re throwing your life away with both hands.”
Halfway through Gloria’s speech, Molly realized that once again her mother wasn’t talking about her. Gloria was talking about herself.
“Mom, what are you saying? Did Dad cheat on you?”
Gloria looked down at her napkin as she folded it precisely. “Your father and I had our share of problems, but that’s none of your business. He loved you, and he wanted the best for you, as do I. You’re making a huge mistake, Molly Ann. Go back to Austin while you can.”
Talking to her mother was as draining as she’d known it would be. “We’re not going to see eye to eye on this. You’ll just have to trust that I know how to look out for myself.”
But Gloria remained unconvinced, and eventually Molly gave up and made her escape. In the car, she checked her phone. There were more messages, several from Austin. She deleted them and started her car.
As she approached the city, the Atlanta skyline came into view. The tops of two of the buildings were tipped with gold, and as she drew nearer, lights illuminated the floors of several of the towers, sparkling like diamonds.
In the rosy gentle light of the deepening spring evening, the skyline looked like a fabled city in a fairy tale, a place that someone might fight with everything they had to reach, where one might hope to find brains, a heart, some courage, or to discover the way to go home.
As for the wizard… There was only one person that could be. Josiah. But he was too magnetic and powerful in a way she had never known before, both personally and magically. His dark, polished essence frightened as much as it enticed her.
She could feel the urge to go to him, and it disturbed her. He tugged at the weakest, most vulnerable part in her right when she needed to find her strength, not collapse into old, negative patterns of behavior.
Consumed by her thoughts, she parked the Escalade in the hotel parking garage and made her way to the lobby’s bank of elevators. All she wanted to do was take a shower and put her feet up, maybe watch some mindless television and then go to bed.