Reborn to Destroy My Husband's Crying Mistress novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Bunny Annie

Out of sight of any witness, Annie drops her act and admits Desmond told her Natalie would cry first; that night Natalie finds Desmond's texts, and a contact called Archive that told him to wait for the fall.

"Junie, go sit in the car," I said. "Buckle yourself in. I'll be right here."

"Can I have the gift?"

"In a minute."

She trudged to the car, looking back twice.

I unlocked it with the key fob and watched her climb into her booster seat.

Then I turned to Annie and put my phone in my breast pocket with the recorder running.

"You're not on the list anymore," I said. "The school took you off an hour ago."

Annie's smile stayed where it was.

"That's up to Desmond, isn't it? He said you might get upset."

"He isn't your cousin."

"He said I should say he was."

She shrugged, and the oversized blazer slid off one shoulder.

"He's nice to me, Mrs. Bancroft. Nobody else has been."

"You've worked for us eleven weeks."

"And he's been nice for ten of them."

She said it plainly, with no tears at all.

It was the voice I had heard on the witness stand, once, when she forgot herself.

A lawyer had cut her off before the jury could notice.

I had remembered it for eight years and had never been sure I wasn't imagining it.

"Why Junie?" I asked.

"Because kids tell you things." Annie glanced at the car.

Then her face went soft again, all at once.

"Also because she's sweet," she said. "I do like her."

"Don't say her name."

"He told me you'd cry first." She said it almost kindly.

"That you'd be the one who cracked, and everybody would see. I was supposed to feel bad about it."

"Do you?"

"A little." She held out the pink gift bag. "This is for her. It's only a rabbit."

I did not take it.

"Go back to work, Annie. If you come near my daughter again, I'll have you served."

She tilted her head and looked at me.

For a moment I saw something under the practice and the tears, and I thought it was fear.

"You're different today," she said.

"Am I?"

"You didn't let me fall."

She set the bag on the hood of the car and walked away across the lot.

Her heels clicked on the wet pavement until she turned the corner.

I opened the bag.

Inside the tissue was a plush white rabbit with a ribbon around its neck.

Under the rabbit was a card in round, careful handwriting.

For my favorite girl. Our secret! Love, Annie.

My hands went cold.

In my first life, Junie had kept that rabbit on her pillow until the day she turned thirteen.

She had called it Bunny Annie.

I dropped the card back in the bag and carried it to the trash can at the end of the row.

Then I changed my mind and put it in the trunk instead. I would need it later.

Pancakes were a success. Junie wore whipped cream like a hat and told me she did not need a rabbit anyway.

I watched her eat and did not ask her one question about Annie.

I would ask later, when I knew what I was asking.

That night Desmond came home at seven and kissed Junie on the head.

He kissed me on the cheek and said he'd had a brutal day.

"Jocelyn told me what happened in the lobby," he said, loosening his tie.

"Natalie, a girl in tears is a girl in tears. You can't interrogate a junior assistant in front of the whole building."

"I asked for a log."

"You humiliated her."

"I read her a time stamp, Desmond. Eight forty-one."

"People forget things."

He smiled at me, patient and sad.

"I just think you've been under a lot of stress, since your dad."

My father had been dead six years.

I said I'd think about it.

He showered at nine-thirty, as he did every night, and left his phone charging on the bed.

His passcode was Junie's birthday. It had been for as long as I could remember.

I sat on the edge of the bed with my own phone in my hand and opened his.

Annie's name was at the top of his messages. Eleven weeks of them, starting the day she was hired.

They were warm and boring. Lunch? Thanks for the coffee. You're a lifesaver. Nothing a judge would read twice.

Whoever wrote them had written them for a judge to read.

Below Annie's name there was a contact saved as Archive.

I opened it.

The thread was short. The last message had come in at 8:41 that morning.

She's on level two. Badge is in her bag. Wait for the fall.

Under it, at 8:49, Desmond had answered: In position.

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