Chapter 5
“What Do You Have There?”
For once, Lara was not lying on her office floor, with or without a drink.
Hey, I don’t always drink down here. Sometimes, she asked Chloe to bring her tea or coffee.
Most of the time, it was tea or coffee. The alcohol only happened when she started thinking darker thoughts, usually brought on because she didn’t have enough work to do.
That Thursday, however, she didn’t end up on the floor at all. Instead, she had Chloe bring her coffee straight to the desk, where the computer showed spreadsheets galore.
“Two sugars and a pinch of cream,” Chloe announced, setting the sterling silver serving set on the edge of Lara’s desk. “Also, if it’s okay, I’m going to take my half-hour break.”
Lara looked away from her financial spreadsheets and caught sight of a suppressed grin on Chloe’s face. “You finished your other duties for now?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The present lady of the house gestured to the serving set, and with a flourish, the young maid poured more coffee into the cup. “Then it’s fine.”
Chloe excused herself. Lara sighed, sipping her hot coffee and perusing her email. A voicemail from Kennedy waited on her phone. She would be home late again. I need to postpone dinner until 7:30. Hopefully, Lara would remember to tell Roberta, the live-in chef.
Since she was in a productive mood – it helped that she and Kennedy were getting ready to remodel a day spa to sell to an expanding company, and thinking about free manipedis and massages always got her ass moving – Lara finished work early and decided to take her calls outside.
Why not? It was an unusually sunny day for that time of year.
She needed a light scarf and sweater to brave the chill, but once she was in the sunshine, walking past the pool and into the trails behind the house, she couldn’t care about the chill.
Her cousin the lawyer called, asking where her weekly gripe about a divorce was.
This was followed by another call from Kennedy saying their current real estate deal went up two million dollars, and, oh, could her dear wife and business partner come with her to negotiations next time?
Finally, she got a call from her sister, coordinating their Christmas dinner at their parents’ house.
Kennedy’s family was coming over... so were the sisters of Lara’s brother-in-law.
For the first time in a long while, Lara would be surrounded by children, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
No, thank you.
She would have to enjoy the peace now. Eventually, she would summon her driver to do some last-minute Christmas shopping. Especially for those children. Sigh.
Toward the end of her stroll, she came upon Chloe, sitting on a bench in the sunlight. This wasn’t unusual, since the girl often took her breaks outside on nicer days, but today she held something in her hand.
That something was a large piece of Kennedy’s personal stationery. Easy to see that soft yellow even in the sunlight.
Chloe giggled at something written on the paper.
Before she saw Lara approaching, the maid covered her mouth as a smile erupted on her stricken face.
It was a face of adoration. Love.Lara knew that face well.
It made her stop in her steps and bile erupt in her throat.
I knew it. She looked away as Chloe noticed her, furiously fighting to put the paper away in a purse strapped around her chest.
“What do you have there?” Lara asked sweetly, taking her chances.
Chloe ran her fingers nervously through her hair. “Nothing special,” she replied, much too quickly. “I mean…”
“Love letter from your boyfriend?”
The fake look of innocence dropped from Chloe’s mien. Instead, she paled, the winter sunshine sucking all color from her face. “I don’t have a boyfriend,” she finally said. Yes, sweetie, I saw whose stationery you were perusing. Naughty girl.
“Too bad. Pretty girl like you should have someone around Christmas.”
“I’m going home to visit my parents, anyway.”
“Aren’t we all?”
Lara took her leave, diverting from the main house to the kitchen wing nestled on the far west side of the property. Roberta was there, prepping ingredients for dinner. Looked like braised chicken and a vegetable medley.
“Kennedy will be home late,” Lara said, standing in front of the island counter stacked with fresh vegetables.
Roberta, a stocky woman with a mean visage but a straightforward heart, sliced and diced as if it were second nature.
It probably was, like buying and selling properties flowed in Lara’s blood.
We all have our strengths. Wasn’t Lara’s fault that hers made her one of the richest women in the region.
Roberta stopped cutting long enough to consider the food in front of her, then Lara’s stoic face. “Gives me longer to cook dessert.”
“What’s for dessert?”
“Peach cobbler. For Ms. Anderssen.”
Her favorite. Seemed Kennedy was a popular person today. “Can I ask you a question?”
Roberta glanced at Lara as if she had grown a second head.
I know, I’m not very personable. Although Lara tried to keep emotional distance between her and the help she hired, Roberta was the house’s longest-standing employee at seven years.
She lived in a sizable apartment above the kitchen, where the Anderssens let her host guests and even a live-in boyfriend for three out of those seven years – the boyfriend had worked as a lawn keeper for a neighboring property, meaning hardly any commute.
These were perks Lara wouldn’t dream of offering her other employees.
So even though she and Roberta were far from friends, she was the closest thing Lara had to one in that house outside of her partner. If there was anyone she could talk to, it was this sullen woman who often looked like she was about to rip the chicken in half with her bare hands.
“Do you think my partner is cheating on me?”
Lara went ahead and laid that out on the island counter, now didn’t she?
Roberta spared her another glance before dumping a pile of diced carrots into a bowl. “It’s too close to Christmas for a question like that,” she mumbled.
“I’m serious. I think there might be something going on between her and Chloe.”
Roberta shrugged. “What evidence do you have of this?”
Classic Roberta. She had no other reaction than, “Evidence? Where’s your evidence?” This was why Lara liked her. That and she cooked a mean lasagna.
“I have my reasons for thinking this.”
“That means you have no evidence.”
Lara huffed. “I caught the girl reading something on Kennedy’s stationery. She was secretive about it. And giggling over it.”
“Okay, but have you seen them together like that? Has either of them said anything?”
“Well, no…”
Roberta shrugged again. “If you’re that worried, fire the girl.”
“That doesn’t solve my problems.” Kennedy would find someone else to fool around with.
Probably in the city where Lara would never find out.
“Besides, it’s such a pain in the ass hiring live-in maids around here.
I have to take applications, interview them, give them trial runs…
Chloe’s only been here a few months. I don’t want to go through that again if I don’t have to.
” Obviously, if Chloe were screwing the boss’s spouse, then she would have to go.
“Your problems sound like they’re in your head.”
Lara could have responded in any number of ways. She could have yelled at Roberta. Could have fired her on the spot for saying such a thing. Could have sent a warning shot with her sharp, biting tongue.
Instead, Lara said, “You’re right. They are. Except my instincts have brought me this far in my life, and my instincts say that something is going on. Something is being kept from me in this house.”
“Well, I know nothing about it, ma’am.” Roberta waved her knife around for emphasis. “But if you do find out that the asshole is cheating on you, know that I can slip any ol’ thing into her chicken soup. Like a shitton of laxatives, if you know what I mean.”
“I think I get your point.” As amusing as it would be to destroy Kennedy’s colon for a day or two, Lara wasn’t sure what that would accomplish. “I appreciate your candor, as always.”
“That’s why you come to me.”
“Indeed.” Lara turned, shoulders square and ponytail pulling against her scalp. “Let me know if you notice anything, though.”
Before she could step out of the kitchen, Roberta called out, “There was one thing, ma’am.”
Lara stopped. “Oh? Do tell.”
“This is conjecture on my part, but maybe it will mean something to you.”
“Please, go on.”
Roberta looked around the kitchen, as if anyone but her, Lara, and the deliveryman who brought the food three times a week ever came in there.
“The other day, when I was serving Ms. Anderssen breakfast, I saw her pull the maid aside and whisper something into her ear. It was not work-related, ma’am.
The girl was blushing like crazy, and Ms. Anderssen looked fairly pleased with herself.
” Roberta caught her words. “More so than usual.”
“I see. Is that all?”
“No.”
Lara braced herself.
“She then asked her if she would meet her in her office for something personal on a day you went shopping in town. They were in there for two hours. I had to clean the whole dining room by myself, so I gave Chloe a bit of an earful on your behalf.”
Well, that was certainly not something Lara wanted to hear. Nevertheless, she thanked Roberta again and wandered off to consider this information and what it possibly meant.
Kennedy and Chloe definitely had something going on. Lara could confront her. She could pull that maid aside and demand a confession. Yet what good would that do? All Lara would do was scare her into either quitting or lying. And Kennedy would keep on keeping on.
Kennedy.
Her fucking partner.
If she were cheating on Lara, then getting rid of Chloe wouldn’t do a damn thing.
And if she were cheating? That was it. That was the final breaking point.
She thought it was cute to bug Lara about calling for a divorce, but she didn’t know the full fury of Lara Anderssen, a woman Kennedy helped create over the past decade.
I mean, she has every opportunity to explore her sexuality with other people. The deal was that it happened with Lara present and with her consent. Kennedy going off secretly with people, keeping her wife in the dark, was such a breach of trust that Lara was certain she could never recover from it.
If Kennedy were cheating on her, their marriage was over. No buts. No forgiveness.
I don’t want that… Lara stood in the front hall of the big house she bought with her spouse years ago. This was her home. This was her past, her present, and hopefully, her future. Why would she give this up unless she really had to?
She no longer flippantly thought of a divorce to mix things up in her life.
That was absurd. First, she had to find out if her fears were for naught or a reality.
Until then, she would assume that everything was fine.
Lara was good at compartmentalization like that.
The next time she saw her spouse, she would pretend that nothing was amiss.
Although her eyes would see all, and her ears would be on top of everything.
Kennedy would come home to the nosiest wife in the universe.