Protecting Her(52)

When I get to the house, I don’t see that black car anywhere on the street. My next door neighbor is weeding her flower garden and my neighbor on the other side is sweeping off her porch. So at least I’m not alone. I relax and take Garret into the house and put him down for a nap.

As I’m coming back downstairs, I jump when I hear a loud knock at the door. Maybe it’s one of my neighbors, although my neighbors don’t usually knock that loud. The knocking continues and I cautiously open the door.

Holton is standing there in his black suit and gray tie. I tense up and my pulse quickens. I don’t know why he makes me so nervous. He’s my father-in-law. He shouldn’t make me nervous. But he does. He has since the first day I met him.

Pearce’s parents have been back in our lives for over a year now and we haven’t had any problems with them. They’re still not friendly to me, but we get along okay, and Eleanor is much nicer to me now than she was before I had Garret. But Holton still makes me very uncomfortable.

I see the serious look on his face and start to worry. Did something happen to Pearce? Is that why he wouldn’t answer his phone? Is his father here to tell me something bad happened?

“Holton. Is something wrong?”

He steps past me into the house. “I need to speak with you about my son.”

Now I’m panicking. I close the door and turn to him. “What happened? Is he hurt?”

“Hurt?” Holton gives me a strange look. “He’s fine. He’s at the office.” He points to the couch. “Sit down.”

I don’t like him ordering me around, but I sit anyway. He sits in the chair.

“Pearce is entering a very critical phase of his career,” he says. “As the future—”

“Wait. Could you please explain why you’re here? I wasn’t expecting you and I just got home and—”

“Do NOT interrupt me,” he says, even though he just did so to me. “I’m here because my son apparently is unable to say no to you.”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“This morning my son informed me that he will be cutting back his hours at the office.”

“Yes, but that was—”

“Let me finish!” He raises his voice.

By now, I should be used to this man and his rude behavior, but I’m not. I don’t understand why he’s always so angry and hostile. He had cancer and almost died. You’d think that would make him turn a new leaf. Be happy to be alive. Be thankful for his family and our support during his treatment. But it didn’t have that effect on him.

He continues. “My son is being groomed to take over the company someday. He’s the future CEO of Kensington Chemical.”

Why is he telling me this? I already know all this. But I sit quietly and let him talk.

“As I was saying, Pearce is in a critical phase of his career. He’s making connections with clients, learning the business, acquiring the skills he’ll need to be CEO. He cannot be sidetracked by a needy wife, demanding he be home at a certain hour.”

I want to yell at him for making such a rude and sexist comment, but that wouldn’t do any good. I’ve learned that getting angry only makes him continue the behavior. He likes getting a rise out of people. It makes him feel powerful. It’s better if I don’t react at all. He finds it irritating. And he hates it even more if I’m nice.

I smile at him and calmly ask, “May I speak now? Or do you have more to say? I’m in no rush, so feel free to continue.”

As predicted, he’s annoyed by my reaction, as evidenced by the sneer on his face. “I need you to convince my son to return to his regular hours. As the wife of an executive, it is your job to take over the household chores and childrearing, so that Pearce’s sole focus can be his career. If you are unable to handle those duties, there are plenty of suitable companies that can handle them for you. Eleanor can give you the names of such services.”

I nod, like I’m agreeing to it, even though I’m not.

He leans back and crosses his legs. “Now that we have that settled, let’s talk about Garret.”

“What about him?”

“I have researched the private schools in this area and picked the one that would be most appropriate for my grandson. There’s a waiting list, so I added his name to the list.”

Now I’m really angry and finding it hard to hide. It was bad enough he’s trying to control Pearce, but now he’s trying to control Garret as well?