“But we’ll pull up to the entrance when you come out,” he informed me as I exited.
I smiled and nodded, allowing them at least the appearance that they were in control. It was a two-way street, after all. They hadn’t told on me yet, so I let them feel like they were doing their job, even though I’d been ditching them pretty often to be with Tony lately.
I entered the school and signed in to pick up Mariah. Even though they knew me, they always asked for identification, which I didn’t mind at all. A lot of wealthy parents sent their children here, so nothing was taken for granted.
“Any problems with my baby today?” I asked Miss Abernathy, the head administrator. I could swear the woman had a computer inside her head the way she remembered everyone.
“None at all, Mrs. Grant,” she replied. “Just the usual sweet bundle of energy. Want to kiss her to death.”
I grinned, thinking how glad I was that Mariah had such a joyful spirit. Looking at how Paris and I turned out, I sometimes wondered if perhaps my baby had been switched at birth.
After a few minutes, Mariah was delivered to me, her uniform still clean despite her love of cookies.
“Hi, Mommy!” She jumped into my outstretched arms for a kiss.
“How was your day?” I asked as I led her outside and down the stairs to where our escort waited.
“Good,” she said, making that adorable face of hers. It meant she was about to ask for something. Maybe she was related to Paris, after all. “Dora’s coming to town. Ayanna told me. Her mommy’s taking her and her sister. Can we go see Dora too?”
I pretended to consider her request, even though I already knew my answer. “As long as you promise to behave, we might be able to do that,” I said, squatting down to face her and adjust her shirt collar in a motherly fashion. Of course I would take my daughter, but I had to teach her that you couldn’t just get anything you wanted. My daughter would not be growing up to be like my spoiled sister.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she gushed, hugging me tightly.
I buckled her into her car seat, and we headed away from the school. As soon as the car was moving, Mariah had another request. “Can we go see Grandpa today?”
“No, baby. Grandpa is kinda busy today.”
Saying he was busy was an understatement. As bad as things were sounding, I wondered if maybe I should head out to the Hamptons, or perhaps Florida, to get my daughter clear of what was becoming a militarized zone at the mansion. It bothered me that I should have to be thinking of those plans on my own. Harris was supposed to be the man of the family. Pity he hadn’t considered moving us out of there long ago.
At the red light, a scraggly-looking panhandler was coming up to cars with a bucket in hand. I wasn’t paying him any mind, until he became aggressive at our window. The driver motioned for him to go on, but the man in the old army jacket and cheap sunglasses kept knocking.
“C’mon, help a vet out,” he chided our driver as he shook his bucket again.
“If you blast his ass, he’ll stop,” the other escort joked, until he remembered Mariah was present. “Oh. Sorry, Mrs. Grant,” he offered as he looked back, regaining his professional demeanor.
The man continued knocking even after the light ahead turned green. Traffic had snarled in front of us, so we had no escape from his persistence.
“I’ma just give him some change so he can be on his way,” our driver said.
“Ain’t he in the wrong part of town?” our other escort joked, leaning over to better see the panhandler.