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My mother said nothing as she sipped the table wine. She focused on taking three delicate bites, sampling everything on her plate. In some ways my mother was painfully predictable.
“Did you attend college?” she asked. “As you know, Ezra is a Harvard man. Something that I’ve always been proud of. He was a difficult child, but always so smart.”
My grip on the fork was painful.
“I didn’t have the opportunity,” Annie said, her eyes going to her plate.
“Annie’s one of the smartest women I have ever met. She’s got a strong eye for detail.” I’d never been a snob, but in the past, I wouldn’t have dated a woman who hadn’t attended college. My mother knew that.
“How nice.”
I sighed and returned to my food. My mother might have driven me insane, but whenever I came home, the food was divine. She might not eat more than five bites of any meal, but my mother was a snob, and she always needed to have the best of everything.
And the only time she’d failed to be the envy of all of New York was when she married my father—at least, that was how she saw it.
“Annie, dear,” my mother’s voice was full of saccharine sweetness as she spoke, and I knew that whatever was coming next was not something that I was going to like. “Can you go to the kitchen and ask the chef to ensure that we have a dessert that pairs well with champagne? I’m dying for something bubbly.”
I didn’t know who was more surprised. Me or Annie. I wanted to offer to run the errand, which seemed ridiculous, but at the same time, I would rather be stabbed in the eye with a butterknife than leave Annie alone with my mother.
“The kitchen is through those doors,” I said, pointing to the farthest door from the table.
Annie nodded. She was the type of person who was always happy to help, so she didn’t question why my mother would want her to run this errand.
“What are you playing at?” I asked, the moment Annie was out of the room.
My mother dropped the polite act and turned to me with the full force of her strong gaze. I might have hated my mother, but I had to admit that she was one of the strongest people that I knew.
“That girl isn’t right for you,” she said. “I could tell the second she opened her mouth.”
I blew out a hot breath of anger. “Unbelievable,” I said, dropping my fork with a loud clang. “You better leave her the hell alone.”
“I will not,” my mother said harshly. “You are running for mayor, and your star is tied to my own. The last thing you or this family needs is a scandal.”
“Annie isn’t scandalous.” I laughed at the notion. I laughed at the thought of Annie being scandalous. I’d dated women who were worse than her by a mile, and my mother had never interfered with that before.
“She’s hiding something.” She pointed her fork at me. “That girl is too polished to be from a middle-class family in Michigan.”
I snorted. “That’s what you are basing this on, the fact that she’s got good manners. Jesus, mother, Michigan isn’t some backwards province on the steppe.”
She sighed and shook her head. “I’m right about this. The girl is trouble. She’s got a past, and she's doing everything she can to hide it.”
My mother’s words left a sour taste in my mouth because in some ways I knew that she was right. Annie was hiding something. “Marcel did a full background check on Annie. He didn’t find anything.”
She scoffed and waved her hand. “Marcel isn’t infallible.”
“And you are?” I asked.
I could hear the sound of Annie’s heels from down the hall, and I clammed up. I didn’t want her to catch us talking about her, and apparently, my mother didn’t either.
“If you don’t get rid of her, don’t expect me to fund your campaign.”
“What?” I asked, shocked. While I had my own money, my mother was still the matriarch of the family, and she controlled the larger purse strings. Though I was independently wealthy, there’s no way I could fund a mayoral campaign with my own money, and I hadn’t thought that I would need to court donors. “What are you saying?” I asked.
“You’ll need to choose,” my mother said, “the girl, or you campaign.”
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Ezra and I hadn’t spoken for nearly a week, so when he called me late on a Friday asking me to breakfast the following morning, I was excited. I hated the way that Ezra pulling back made me feel. We weren’t in a real relationship, so the fact that I hadn’t heard from him shouldn’t have mattered.
