16. Spill the Tea #2
"Are you aware that Fitz was a witness to the assault?" I ask her.
"He misunderstood what he saw. Kenny Jr. told me. Kenneth is devastated that Brogan would believe the word of the daughter of a traitor over his own flesh and blood."
I'm worried áine is going to get angry and pour the pitcher of iced tea over Allison's head before we get a chance to quiz the older woman about her knowledge of her husband's schemes.
Considering how much she doesn't know about what happened at the school that day, it's looking less and less like he kept her in the loop about anything.
Allison reaches for her glass, but misses and frowns down at her hand like she's never seen it before. "I know Kenny made mistakes." She slurs slightly and repeats herself.
"Mistakes," I prompt when she goes silent.
She nods, the movement exaggerated. The compound is definitely taking effect. She's going to have to wait to leave until it's worn off. When security texted she'd arrived at the gate, they said she didn't have a driver with her.
"He's been…heesh been influence…shed by the wrong people."
"The wrong people being?"
She looks genuinely surprised by the question, her eyes going comically wide. "Billy. PJ. Those boys."
"Not Kenneth?"
"My husband had nothing to do with what happened at school."
"I wasn't asking about school."
Confusion flashes across her face. "What do you mean?"
"I asked whether Kenny Jr. learned his values from his father."
"Oh." She laughs, as though I'd asked something faintly ridiculous. "Kenneth hardly sees him. He's always working."
"He sees him enough," áine mutters.
Allison frowns and shakes her head like she's trying to clear it, then appeals to me again, "I'm the one being punished. You have to see that. You're a mother too."
"Your son was taken to Urgent Care with a broken arm." I keep my tone conversational. "You never left the house."
"How do you know I didn't?" The question is out before she can catch herself. Then she slowly turns toward áine. "You," she accuses. "You had no right to talk about me. I'm your employer."
"Were my employer," áine corrects, unperturbed and unimpressed.
"I made sure he was looked after," Allison says to me, her tone pleading.
áine asks, "Did you?"
Allison straightens. "Of course I did. I called his father and told him to collect our son from Urgent Care. You heard me make the call."
"I did," áine agrees. "I also saw you return your attention to the dinner party you were hosting right after. You never called Kenneth to ask how Kenny Jr. was doing. You didn't call your son at all."
"Kenneth called me, but you were already gone," Allison says triumphantly.
áine shakes her head. "Your son was injured and you chose inspecting the canapés over seeing him. When I found out my daughter was in trouble, I was willing to quit my job to go to her."
Allison recoils knocking her glass of tea over. "That's unfair. I have responsibilities a person like you couldn't begin to understand."
She doesn't even notice her spilled drink; she definitely doesn't need any more of it.
I wave at one of the security men and gesture at the spilled tea.
"Your son assaulted my daughter and I'm furious with him.
" áine's voice is firm as she sets her own glass down with deliberate care that has nothing to do with a drug's effects and everything to do with controlling her anger.
"But I still think he deserved for his parents to show up when he was hurt. "
"Who are you…" Allison's voice peters out and then she rallies. "Who are you to judge me? You're a maid!"
"I'm a mother and not that it matters, but I'm no longer a maid. I'm an accountant at the company your husband lost control of, or is that something else Kenneth kept from you?"
I'm impressed. Despite her obvious rage at the other woman and the circumstances Allison wants to dismiss so easily, áine remembers why we're here.
"I don't know what you are talking about. My husband owns several companies. Even Brogan and Mick can't just take them away."
"Wrong." I wait as the newly arrived maid cleans up the spilled tea and places a new glass in front of Allison before leaving.
I fill it with tea. "Your husband was given oversight over several companies by my father when he made him a lieutenant, but they all fall under our family's parent company, Shaughnessy Corp."
Allison rolls her eyes. Something I'm pretty sure she wouldn’t do if she wasn't under the drug's influence. "Exactly. The Shaughnessy Corp. My husband is a Shaughnessy."
Is Allison really that clueless about business?
"So are hundreds of other people in New York, but your husband has no material interest in Shaughnessy Corp. He worked for my father. He isn't a partner or a shareholder," I spell out.
"But that can't be right. He said…" She shakes her head again, but her eyes remain hazy.
"If he said he owned the companies, he was lying." I can't be any clearer than that.
"But I married him because he's a Shaughnessy," she says plaintively. "He's wealthy and influential."
"He's not poor," I inform her. "But without the annual income from overseeing the companies your lifestyle is going to have to be severely curtailed."
"No, that can't be right. He's…he can't…I don't even like him," she says mournfully.
"Sounds like maybe you need to file for divorce," áine says, her tone understandably sarcastic.
"But he'll keep custody of Kenny Jr. if I do. It's in the prenup. I didn't think it mattered," she rambles. "I didn't know I'd love my son. I only had him because that was part of the deal. But he's my little boy."
For the first time since meeting her, I have some charity with Allison Shaughnessy.
áine doesn't look all that moved by Allison's claim. "I believe you wanted to divorce Kenneth, but I don't believe Kenny is the reason you didn't. The prenup makes it so every year you stay with Kenneth increases the size of the divorce settlement."
"Yes, but I could have married another rich man." Allison's mouth goes slack in shock at the words that just came out of it. "I mean…"
Both áine and I wait in vain to hear what she means.
"If you love your son, you should have been a more attentive parent. Didn't you see the little monster your husband was creating?" áine asks.
"Being nice doesn't get you anywhere in this world."
Spoken like a true narcissist. My compassion for Allison is drying up fast.
"You want me to ask Mick for clemency on Kenny's behalf?" áine asks Allison, her disbelief at the idea dripping from every word.
But Allison doesn't notice. Her head wobbles up and down. "Yes."
"Even if I thought the underboss would listen to me, I wouldn't do it," áine says succinctly. "Kenny Jr. has a long way to go before he becomes a decent human being, and he isn't going to get there under you and your guidance."
"How dare you." Allison manages to dredge up real outrage despite the drug's effect.
áine doesn't flinch. "Because you aren't a decent human."
Allison stares, her mouth opening and closing with no words coming out.