Queen Mom Rules novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Back Office

The back office of Kettering Hardware has one desk, one broken swivel chair, and a window that looks out over the whole sales floor.

My father sat on the corner of the desk.

My mother stood by the filing cabinet with her arms crossed.

I stood in the doorway, and Leon stayed behind me with Junie, who had been given a second lollipop and a roll of price stickers.

"Shut the door," my mother said.

"No," said my father.

"Albert."

"Leave it open. I'm tired of doors."

He looked past her, through the glass, at the clerks and customers who had drifted toward the office without seeming to move.

Nobody pretended to shop.

"Geraldine," my father said. "I'm going to ask you some questions, and you're going to answer me in front of everyone."

"You're humiliating me."

"You humiliated our daughter at our own anniversary."

My mother's chin lifted.

"Ask your questions."

"Did my mother leave a will?"

"Of course she left a will."

"Who did she leave everything to?"

My mother said nothing.

My father waited.

The refrigerator in the corner hummed.

"Marlena," my mother said at last, with enormous contempt. "She left it to Marlena."

"All of it?"

"The house, the investments, your father's yard. Eleven million."

My father made a small sound.

I had never heard him make it before.

"And you told her it was nothing."

"I told her what protected her."

"Protected her from what?" I said.

My mother turned on me.

"From herself! You were twenty-seven, pregnant by a man who vanished before the ultrasound."

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