“What is going on here?”
Lena froze at the sound of her mother’s voice raised in anger. Considering what she’d just been through, it surprised her that the scariest part was Mom showing up mad.
Steven lay folded up on the shreds of his own clothing, passed out, naked, and drooling.
A movement beside Lena made her turn. Precious was holding her cell phone out at arm’s length, pointed at Steven. So were Geri and Tonia. The sound of virtual camera shutters snapping filled the air.
Lena’s mother snapped, “Don’t you have work to do?”
The girls scattered in all directions.
“Hugh! Get over here this instant!”
Hugh Boncil was at the telephone. He, too, jumped at her voice.
She brandished a fistful of papers. “You have some explaining to do,” she said in her most sinister voice.
The senior surviving partner peered at the top sheet in her hand. “Oh. Yes. I was meaning to tell you, your share of the profits is being deposited in the trust fund John set up for you. It’s all there,” he twittered. “We’ve been doing very well.”
“The trust should have been revealed to me at John’s death.”
“I meant well, Maida,” Hugh said in his nice-old-guy voice.
“You meant to hold onto all the power. Illegally.”
Lena cringed at her mother’s tone. “Uh, Mom?”
“Come into my office,” she said to Lena. To Hugh she said, “And you bring the trust fund statements to me in half an hour, if you want to keep your job.”
“But—” Sharisse stood beside Lena with big eyes.
Mom whirled. “Yes?”
Sharisse was looking at Hugh, who was looking at his own shoes. “How can you fire Hugh?”
“He and John Baysdorter made me senior partner, on paper, four years ago, so they could establish BB as a woman-owned business and take city contracts, and John left me his share. And he never told me,” Mom hissed. Her voice ripped holes in the air. “Hugh owes me my share of the profits. More that that, he owes me two years of waiting on him like a servant — looking the other way when he screws my girls — being condescended to in meetings. That’s how I can fire him.” She looked Sharisse up and down. “Can you do his job?”
Hugh’s head came up at that. “Maida. You wouldn’t.”
“I control the firm,” Mom said, deadly quiet. “Sharisse?”
Sharisse blinked. “I suppose so.”
“Sharisse, honey,” Hugh bleated.
Sharisse stood tall in her high-heeled shoes. Her chin was up. “Nobody likes having to do it, Hugh. Not under threat.”
“I never threatened you,” Hugh said.
She leaned over and patted him on his bald spot. “You didn’t have to.” To Lena’s mother she said, “Yes, I can do his job. What about Steven?”
Mom turned to Lena. “I thought you might take over there,” she said, as if she were doing Lena a favor.
Lena frowned. “Let’s talk in private.”
“No, but what about Steven?” Sharisse said again.
On the carpet, Steven rolled over onto his back and sighed. His eyes opened. Only the whites showed.
“Better call an ambulance,” Mom said coolly, stepping over him.
Following her mother, Lena whispered to Sharisse, “What did you do with that other naked guy?”
“He’s in Steven’s office, putting on Steven’s spare suit. Is it true? Do you think Maida will keep me on? Because Hugh has been paying for my son’s daycare.”
“I’ll see to it,” Lena promised, wondering how she could.
o0o
In her office, with the door shut, Lena looked Mom in the eye, and she had a rare view of her mother as a person: a faded blonde with hard, sharp blue eyes and the kind of figure that costs thirty hours a week at the gym. And a whole lot of grit.
Mom also looked worried. She wasn’t pleading or apologizing, but at least she was explaining. She put one palm on her desk.
“Listen to me. I was very young when John got me pregnant. I didn’t have college, like you. I thought it was my only path to advancement. You went into an office and you found the right man and he married you. That was how it worked. Only John was already married, and he wouldn’t leave her for me. I got pregnant right away. He was thrilled to have a baby, and he adored you, but he wouldn’t leave his wife, and then his wife found out about you and forbade him to see you. He really cared about you, Lena.”
“Yeah,” Lena said flatly. “He paid for everything.”
“He took me into his confidence at work, made me his right hand.”
“Mom, I don’t care. That was at work. I wasn’t there. I was here, at home, wanting my mother—”
“And I wanted you, sweetheart.” Mom reached out and stroked the back of Lena’s head before she could pull away. “You were my life.”
“No,” Lena said in a hard voice. “The office was your life. I was a bid for power that didn’t pan out.”
“I was born to be a businesswoman,” Mom said simply.
Lena shut her gaping mouth. Well, that’s blunt.
“I had no education, no training, I didn’t even have the clothes at first. John made me his assistant for your sake. But when he found out what I could do, he gave me opportunities nobody else would give me.”
“Mom—” Lena swallowed. “This was what, the late eighties? You could have gone to college.”
“Not with a baby. Girls who do that have families to help.”
“Your parents—” Lena was aware she was on thin ice. Mom had never spoken of her parents. But, at this point, Lena had nothing left to lose.
“You never knew my father,” Mom said with finality.
I guess her father was a bad parent. Lena pressed her lips together. Or at least a good excuse.
“You’re pretty critical for someone who’s had life handed to her,” Mom said, as if she had spoken aloud.
“Well, jeez, Mom.” The word stuck in Lena’s throat. “You decided your only ticket to a business career was the casting couch. Fine. That worked for you. The thing is, those girls out there didn’t sign up to become office sluts. You’ve helped the men abuse them.”
“It’s the workplace reality.”
Lena put her fists up. “Steven molested me right there in his office! And you wouldn’t do anything!”
“I hated it. Believe me, I did,” Mom assured her. “I’ve been doing what I could to put him on notice. If he wouldn’t shape up, perhaps I could get him to overstep, and he’d be forced out.”
You, too, Mom? Who doesn’t have their knife into Steven?
“I suppose times have changed.” Mom looked at her desk, then at an award plaque on her wall, blinking. “You hate reality and you learn to live with it and then one day it changes, and girls are leaping ahead in business the way I never could.” She raised her eyes. “Give me credit. I’m promoting Sharisse.”
She looked at Lena and her face changed. With revulsion, she said, “You have no excuse for what you have done with your life.”
Lena took a deep breath. Here we go. “I could try to blame you, but why bother? My life is good. Unlike you, I enjoy sex. I feel good about myself. I’m spending my good-looking years getting paid for them. Onika wants to leave me her shares of the company, and she’s only sixty-five. By the time she retires, I may know enough that I can handle it.”
Mom said eagerly, “But, darling, if you want to go into business, you could work with me! I own the controlling share of Baysdorter Boncil.”
Lena made a face. “Thanks, but I have Onika’s power of attorney while she’s out sick. I’m needed at Artistic. Besides, I don’t like the culture here.”
“But I need you!” Mom clutched the bosom of her pastel blue power suit.
Now you say it. Lena appreciated the gesture, but it wasn’t enough.
Mom must have seen rejection in her expression. “You’ll keep making smut. Just throwing my sacrifice in my face.”
“Sacrifice.”
“You’re young. You don’t know how important appearances are. Appearances are everything, young lady, and they cost a lot.”
“I’m beginning to understand,” Lena said, feeling sick. “Thanks for explaining it.”
“You’re entirely welcome,” Mom said crisply.