19. Henry
19
HENRY
M ia has a record?
I couldn’t comprehend it.
What did she do? What charges did she face?
I watched her rush through the door to the stairs, hurrying to flee and quit so urgently that she didn’t bother with the elevator.
Mia? A criminal?
I couldn’t picture her ever doing anything wrong. She picked up litter when she passed it. She scolded me for even nearing the edge of the crosswalk for fear of jaywalking.
Mia was too good to have earned a record. But she had. I saw the shame in her eyes. I saw the reluctance to answer me when I followed her to her office. That omission of an answer, that silence, was proof. She didn’t want to tell me, but it was true.
I stood there, rooted in shock.
This was a woman I knew . Someone I thought I knew in and out. I’d slept with her. I’d helped her to the doctor. I worked with her. I played fucking skee ball with her.
I’d fallen in love with her, too, hung up on the idea that she could be my wife and Jason’s mother.
I was stunned stupid, pained to realize I couldn’t have known her at all if I was ignorant about her past. Here, I thought I was familiar with every detail about her, but she’d been lying all this time, never being upfront about having a criminal background.
“See?” Ann gestured at the stairwell door as it swung shut. “She’s just a lowlife criminal.”
I fisted my hands, peeved that this woman was still here and had the nerve to gloat about this news. I was hurt, feeling attacked with this news, and right on the tails of that pain was the heartache of being duped by the woman I wanted.
“You should be grateful that I saved you from getting involved with her.” She smiled widely as the elevator doors opened.
Laura and Jason entered the reception space, and I was glad that my son had his headphones on, his face turned down to watch his tablet.
“You should be thanking me for telling you that you were trying to get involved with a stupid criminal, Henry. I saw you watching Mia. I noticed how she conned you into falling for her. You were a prey to a criminal’s seduction, and as soon as you can get over that stupid bitch?—”
“That’s enough !” Laura’s face was red and pinched and she shouted at Ann.
People didn’t raise their voices up here on the executive floor. That wasn’t how we did things. Not even Owen, who came close when he got into spirited discussions with some of the guys about fantasy football.
Ann sneered at her.
Laura leaned down to pick up one headphone. “Go on in your dad’s office, Jason. Now.”
He furrowed his brow, glancing at me, then Ann. He grimaced and hurried away from her, doing as Laura said. He tossed a “Hi, Dad” to me as he passed, but he didn’t linger by Ann.
Laura wasn’t done. She stalked up to the blonde, jabbing her finger at her face. “I’m going to say this one time. Get lost. Now .” Laura’s mother-bear instincts came into full force as she backed Ann toward the elevator. “No one talks about Mia like that.”
Ann scowled, looking past Laura to find me, as though I’d intervene. I didn’t. I couldn’t. I was still too shocked to even think.
“You can’t?—”
Laura shoved at her shoulder, physically prompting Ann to get on the elevator. “I can and will tell you that you’ve got no damn right to talk about Mia like that. She’s more of a woman than you’ll ever be.”
As soon as Ann was fully on the elevator, Laura retreated so the doors could close.
Once the metal panels slid shut, she turned on me.
“What’s wrong with you?” She shook her head, stomping up to me. “Thank God Jason had his headphones on. We came up after Ann, and I heard it all. I kept Jason aside and debated leaving, but I’d be damned if I’d let you act like a moron.” She swatted my shoulder, furious but reining in her temper to not strike me harder. “How dare you talk about Mia like that!”
“I—”
She swatted at my other arm. “You know Mia.”
“I thought I did!”
Her eyes narrowed. “You know who she is and what kind of a person she is. Why would one piece of old information about her past change your views of her?” She turned away, flinging her arms to the side in frustration, then circled back to glare at me. “She’s never given you a single sign not to trust her, not to confide in her and count on her. Has she?”
I opened and closed my mouth. She hadn’t. Mia had been friendly and kind, funny and warm. Since the day I met her, we clicked, and she’d never given me a clue that could warn me from trusting her.
Under Laura’s scathing scolding, I wondered if I was wrong, if I’d erred in judging her too quickly. Dunn Enterprises had countless programs to help juveniles and delinquents to get back on their feet. I never held anyone else’s past against them like I did with Mia, but so much of my reaction felt like instinct. The impulse was quick to reject what Ann said. I couldn’t have helped it to shout back so passionately.
As I replayed the scene in my mind, though, I felt increasingly worse. I felt terrible for how I'd acted, but still, I couldn’t make sense of it.
“How dare you talk so harshly about Mia,” Laura repeated.
“But it just sounded so ludicrous!” I exploded. “Ann was pissing me off, talking such bullshit about Mia, suggesting she could’ve been unlawful.” I watched her, waiting for her to argue. She didn’t. She merely stared me down.
She knows. She knew. Laura wasn’t surprised about this. She was aware that Mia had a criminal background.
“And how should I know what secrets Mia’s keeping from me?” I shook my head, angry that there were still some mysteries about the woman I wanted for the rest of my life. “She’s always staying out late and acting like she’s sleep deprived in the morning.”
Noticing Jen and another office worker peeking around the corner, I pointed at them. “And don’t tell me it’s because she stays up late reading.”
I scoffed at Laura. “Who knows what she’s doing all night.”
Laura set her hands on her hips. “I’d like to think she’d wizened up to the fact that you’ll never care about her as more than an employee. Maybe she’s been busier than usual at night because she’s found a man who can treat her nicely.”
Fuck. She punched where it hurt. I’d just been worrying about Mia finding someone else. Hearing Laura say it like a taunt stung.
I thought back to how well I’d treated Mia during our one night we shared together. How sweet she looked when she came. How tender she was when she pleasured me.
I loathed the idea of Mia showing another man that side of her. I hated the thought of someone else being rewarded with her smiles and orgasms. Pushing back the instant jealousy, I faced Laura, determined to find out what she knew, how she could stand up for Mia in the face of her own admission of wrong-doing, confessed via her silence.
“Mia is not up to no good at night,” Laura declared, calm and unwavering.
“How do you know? What aren’t you telling me about her?” I felt hurt all over again that my neighbor, the woman who babysat my son, would be privy to more personal details about Mia than I was.
Laura scoffed, looking away as she shook her head. “That’s not my story to tell. You’d have to ask her. Not that I expect she’ll give you the time of day now.”
I doubted she would either, and already, the absence of her felt so dark and heavy.