The devil herself.
Kate Meelios.
She gives me an icy glare and stalks across my office, straight toward me. Her eyes remind me why we divorced in the first place. She's dressed to kill; a pencil skirt and a tight, white blouse. She means business. I can't help but watch
the way the sharp tips of her stilettos jab and sink into the carpet as she walks.
"I hope you're happy," she says to me as her eyes survey the room. They're cold and the color of ice. Her thin, red lips part into a serpentine smile. She looks at Amy and then at me, and shakes her head. "I hope you're happy for stealing my daughter away from me."
"Mom—" Amy starts to say, but Susan takes this as her cue to leave the room, and we all watch as she silently leaves, hardly daring to guess what's about to come next.
I can't remember the last time Kate's been in my office, and whatever the reason for her visit today, it can't be good.
If only it were that easy for me, I think to myself as I watch Susan exit the room.
"Kate, what a pleasant surprise," I say, with a sarcastic smile. Her entrance has been anything but pleasant. It's downright painful, like being squeezed by a snake.
"Cut the crap, Parker," Kate replies, and I swear she's about ready to bare her fangs. “You hired my own daughter to defeat me from becoming Senator?”
I don’t say anything. I don’t need to fucking say anything.
"You do realize what this means now, right?" Kate asks, and neither Amy, nor I dare to answer.
Kate just smiles and continues. "This means war."
12
Amy
And here we go—the gloves are off now.
My mother stares Parker down with such a fury that the air around her seems to be simmering. There’s a vein bulging in her temple, and her lips are a thin line of contempt. Her face is contorted into an expression of seething rage, and all of her beauty seems to have evaporated.
For a woman as beautiful as my mother is, she sure knows how to play the part of haggard evil witch.
“What the fuck are you really doing here, Kate?” Parker asks her, turning to face her. The surprise in his voice is telling; he wasn’t expecting her, not at all.
“I came to see if it was true… You turned my own daughter against me,” she whispers, balling her hands into fists. Jesus, she can act, which reminds me of how dangerous she really is. She’s like a coiled snake, hidden in the leaves but ready to strike and bury her fangs in the flesh of an unsuspecting victim.
“Don’t be insane,” Parker replies, folding his arms over his chest. “No one’s turning Amy against you.”
“How dare you lie to my face?” my mom shrieks, taking one step toward Parker as a hateful scowl takes over her face. I look from her to Parker, having no idea what I’m supposed to do here, and so I resign myself to a simple spectator.
Susan, meanwhile, made the sanest choice available and quietly sneaked out of the room, which now makes this a family reunion of sorts.
Just wonderful.
“You’ve always hated me, Parker…” my mother continues, lowering her voice. “And now you’ve decided to run for the Senate just to spite me. And you brought my daughter into this as well… Don’t you have any limits?”
“I have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about, Kate. Why did you come here? Just to shout at me? What the fuck do you want?” he asks her, and I see something flickering in her eyes. That’s the question she was waiting for.
“I want you to drop out of the race,” she replies, the words flying out of her mouth with the force of a sledgehammer.
“I see,” Parker whispers, more to himself than to my mother.
“Drop out,” my mother repeats, and I can see the hint of a grin on her lips. She knows that he won’t drop out this easily, but just knowing that there’s a chance that this will all be over here and now is enough to make her smile.
“Over my dead body,” Parker finally responds, narrowing his eyes and staring her down. Yeah, so much for wrapping this up.