Reborn to Destroy My Husband's Crying Mistress novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Pickup List

Natalie holds her five-year-old for the first time in a lifetime, learns Desmond put Annie on the school pickup list as his cousin, and finds Annie at the gate with a gift Junie already expects.

I left the firm at eleven and drove to Junie's school with both hands tight on the wheel.

The kindergarten teacher met me at the classroom door with a clipboard and an apologetic face.

"She's fine," she said. "She threw one sneaker at a boy in her class. She says he took her crayon."

"Did he?"

"I think he did, honestly."

I laughed, and then my eyes stung, and I had to look at the ceiling tiles for a moment.

Junie sat at the small table in the corner with one shoe off and her arms folded.

She was five. She had two short braids I had put in myself that morning, and a gap where her front tooth used to be.

The last time I saw her face, she was eleven years old and looked at me through glass in a visiting room.

She had called someone else Mom in front of me.

"Mommy?" Junie said now. "You're here early."

I crossed the room and picked her up, all forty pounds of her, and put my face in her hair.

She smelled of glue and apple juice.

"You're squeezing," she said into my neck.

"I know. I'm sorry. I'm going to squeeze for another minute."

"Okay," Junie said, and patted my back with a sticky hand.

The teacher pretended to look at her clipboard.

When I could talk again, I set Junie down and knelt to put her shoe back on.

"I'll sign her out," I said. "I'd like to take her to lunch."

"Of course. I need to update one thing while you're here." The teacher flipped a page. "Since your husband added a few names last week, I wanted to confirm them with you."

"What names?"

"The pickup list. His cousin Annie Presnell was added Friday. And his colleague, Jocelyn Sayer, who was already on it."

I knew Jocelyn was on it. I had put her there myself, years ago, as godmother.

"Annie Presnell," I said.

"Mr. Bancroft said she'd be helping out in the afternoons. She seemed lovely on the phone."

"Did you meet her?"

"Only on the phone. He sent a photo ID by email."

I held my voice level.

"Annie Presnell is not my husband's cousin," I said. "She is a junior assistant at our company, and she has worked for us since July."

The teacher's face changed.

"Oh. Oh, I'm so sorry. He was very clear that you knew."

"I'm sure he was. Please take her off the list, and don't release my daughter to anyone but me or Mr. Bancroft until I send you something in writing."

"Right away. Of course."

I signed the book. Junie slid her hand into mine, and we walked out together.

Eleven pickups, last time, and nobody told me until it was read out in court.

I held Junie's hand harder than I meant to, and she complained.

The rain had stopped. The sky over the playground was a flat, clean white.

"Can we get pancakes?" Junie asked. "The ones with the faces?"

"We can get any pancakes you want."

"Even the faces with whipped cream hair?"

"Especially those."

She hopped over a crack in the pavement, then another one. I felt every hop in my own hand.

We were halfway across the lot when she stopped and waved.

"Hi, Annie!"

I turned.

Annie Presnell stood at the school gate in the same oversized blazer, holding a pink gift bag with tissue paper sticking out the top.

She was supposed to be on the third floor. It was 11:40 on a Monday, and she had a board packet due.

She was smiling at my daughter, and the smile was warm and practiced and entirely relaxed.

"Hi, Junie bug," Annie said. "I brought you something."

Junie knew her name.

She did not ask who Annie was, and she did not look at me to see if it was all right.

Annie looked up at me, and the smile did not move at all.

"Hi, Mrs. Bancroft," she said. "Desmond said you might be here."

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