Reborn to Destroy My Husband's Crying Mistress novel · Chapter 3 of 6

Chapter 3: The Woman at the School Desk

Maren watches Corinne lie to Diane, refuses Desmond's coat, takes the school's call, locks Junie inside, calls the police, and walks into the boardroom first, where she listens to Diane turn on Desmond in the lobby.

The elevator doors opened and Diane Marsh, Desmond's mother, came out with her car keys still in her hand.

'The school called me,' she said. 'Corinne said there was a scene.'

Corinne crossed the lobby to her at a walk that was almost a run.

'Maren is confused,' Corinne said. 'She's not well. She imagined a woman at the school.'

Diane looked at me the way she looked at me at the trial.

I had sat in that courtroom and watched her fold her hands in her lap and say nothing.

Now she looked at me the same way, and I knew exactly what she was deciding.

I kept my eyes on Corinne instead.

When Corinne said the word imagined, her glance went to Desmond and stayed there half a breath too long.

I filed it. She had told Diane the story before she told it to me.

Desmond took off his coat.

He draped it around my shoulders and held it there.

'She's not herself,' he said to his mother. 'She needs to go home and rest.'

Diane nodded.

That nod was worth more to him than the coat.

My hands shook hard enough that I had to grip the reception desk.

I let the coat slide off my shoulders.

It landed on the floor between us.

Diane's mouth closed. She looked at the coat, not at me.

I did not pick it up.

'I am not going home,' I said. 'I am going to my meeting.'

Desmond turned his back and picked up the desk phone.

'Nursery school,' he said. 'This is Desmond Marsh. Release my daughter to her grandmother.'

He said it in front of his mother, in the one channel that could prove me right.

My phone rang.

'Mrs. Marsh,' the head said. 'There's a woman at the desk now. She has a signed slip.'

Behind her voice I heard a woman's voice.

'Grandma's here, sweetheart.'

Diane went pale.

'That is not me,' she said. 'I am standing right here.'

She turned to her son.

'Desmond. Who would say that?'

He did not answer her.

I put the phone back to my ear.

'Lock the door,' I said. 'Hold Junie inside. Do not open it for anyone.'

'Ma'am, the woman is insisting.'

'Lock it. I'm calling the police.'

I dialed. My thumb missed the first time.

'A woman is trying to take my daughter from her school,' I said. 'The nursery on Halsted.'

The dispatcher asked for my name and I gave it.

Desmond grabbed my arm.

'You are making this family a spectacle,' he said.

'Desmond.'

Diane said his name sharply and stepped between us.

His hand came off my arm.

He looked at his mother like he had never seen her before.

Diane turned to Corinne.

'Harold put your signature on the agenda,' she said. 'For ten o'clock.'

Corinne's face went still.

She did not look at me. She looked at Desmond.

'Maren should think about Junie,' Corinne said, loud enough for the lobby. 'Before she says anything in that room.'

'Be quiet,' Diane said.

Corinne's mouth stayed open a moment.

The receptionist behind the desk had stopped typing. She was watching Corinne with her hands flat on the keyboard.

The elevator chimed again.

Harold Vance stepped out with his briefcase in one hand and his reading glasses already on.

He looked at the coat on the floor.

He looked at Corinne.

'Corinne,' he said. 'You look unwell.'

She said nothing.

I walked past all of them.

The boardroom doors were already propped open.

The long table was empty, the chairs still pushed in.

I walked to my seat and set my phone face up on the table.

The head's voice was still coming through it.

Through the glass I watched Diane turn on her son.

Her voice rose until I could hear it through the wall.

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