The Mischievous Mrs. Maxfield

Chapter Thirty: Sins of the Father

“She’s pushing me over the edge, Char,” Jake muttered to me when I managed to check on him earlier, once I was certain enough that I wasn’t going to lose a limb by getting close enough to him. “She’s determined for us to move on, to get over our temporary madness.”

My heart bled a little for Jake but if Tessa wished to be with someone else, there wasn’t much I could do to force the issue. I still had a feeling that Tessa was looking for all kinds of excuses (I recognized the signs) not to give into Jake but it was going to take time and a considerable amount of epiphany.

Jason came without his wife in tow either. I caught snippets of gossip earlier about his troubled marriage and talks of divorce but if he was seeking separation because he was finally owning up to his feelings for Anna, no one could tell because the older Maxfield sister was bubbly happy with her date, whom she introduced as some aspiring young model. The two forbidden lovers kept a good distance between each other although I didn’t miss the surreptitious glances full of yearning here and there when they weren’t busy pretending they could care less about each other.

When I asked Anna what was going on with her and Jason, she just shrugged and said, “He doesn’t want it bandied around in the media that the reason he and his wife are divorcing is because of me even though he’s told her he wants to be with someone else. I’m not sure if he’s trying to protect me or he just can’t handle going all out with the truth.”

There was so much drama I felt like it was my duty to jump into the fray and save humanity from further suffering through this melodramatic episode worthy of a soap opera but I couldn’t muster the energy quite yet.

I’d spent the last couple of days organizing Danny and Riley’s transition to my old house, making sure they were well-supplied with food and necessities. I got a friend of mine who owned a body shop in the area to hire Danny for a pay-by-the-day job, doing some of his accounting and other paperwork. It was a temporary fix until Layla could get a hold of her father who won’t be back from a business trip until early next week.

Layla had pulled Riley out of school, knowing that Don was going to track him down that way, deciding that she would get him re-enrolled in the following semester once she’d found them a more permanent place to move to. Her accounts were frozen that night when we went out to search for Riley but she’d managed to move some money a couple of weeks ago into an account under a different name. She’d done it by buying an expensive piece of jewelry and then quickly selling it into a private auction she happened to just have access to because it was something the Championettes had been looking at for one of our more minor fundraising options. 

Since I had a feeling that Don was going to watch my every move as well, I made sure that I made all these arrangements without once showing up at my old house. I had called the housekeeper who came in once a week to buy the groceries and bring them over. 

I left the cash allowance at the Schuberts’ place, where I also met with Layla over tea the next day to iron out the details of our clandestine operation. That way, it looked like a friendly visit to my old friends in an area close but not too close to my old house. Since it was a seniors complex with plenty of ins and outs, Layla could sneak in and wait for me in the Schuberts’ unit because if anyone was tailing me, they wouldn’t get there until I did and they wouldn’t linger after I left.

It made me nervous, all this subterfuge, but I kept reminding myself of what was at stake. It had been three days and things seemed to have gone quite smoothly. 

I was feeling quite optimistic actually until I Don LeClaire stepped into my view right as I turned away from the bar with an iced tea in my hand.

“Well, if it isn’t the woman I was hoping to see,” he said pleasantly although the smile he pasted on his face did nothing to warm the cold fury in his eyes.