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“Thank you.”
“Maybe we should meet up sometime, Josie? I could take you for a spin in my helicopter. How about that?”
“Sure. Sounds lovely.”
“I’ll be in contact.”
“You’ll get my number through to Alda, Victor?” Josie asks, but Mother merely smiles.
“I have my own ways of finding out everything about you, Josie. Everything I could possibly want.”
“Oh.”
Josie is at a loss for words. It’s exactly where Mother wants her to be. She loves to have the upper hand in every interaction, and now she’s found it.
And now she’s satisfied. Now she’s got her talons around Josie.
She’s displayed her power, and now Josie is really, properly terrified, and that is exactly what Mother wants. She’s back on top of the order.
“And now I must leave,” Mother says. “I’ve got friends around here somewhere. Friends I should find who owe me a million in terrible investments...”
And, with the mission to bite at Josie accomplished, Mother leaves us, freeing our escape from the row.
It seems like Josie breathes out a sigh of relief at the sight of the back of Mother gliding into the crowd.
“I need the restroom, Victor,” she tells me. I understand she needs a moment to breathe.
I nod and point towards the front door.
“You’ll find them there.”
“Thanks,” she says.
I reach for her as she goes.
“Josie... my mother, she’s...”
And the barista looks back at me.
“It’s okay, Victor. I know. I was trying my best, but that’s clearly not enough.”
And then she’s gone.
68
JOSIE
My heart is beating at a million miles per hour as I turn away from Victor and walk toward the restroom.
I did not expect to meet Alda Penmayne just then. I did not expect to see that woman with the perfect teeth and skin and powerful allure. I am knocked sideways and I’m still feeling so daunted by our tit-for-tat little interaction.
I’m... unsettled.
My stomach is turning over and over.
How otherworldly she seemed...
How she said she can find out everything about me. That was scary. I don’t doubt for a moment she can’t - the Penmaynes are a scary bunch.
