When Her Cheating Husband’s Luck Ran Out Chapter 01

When Her Cheating Husband’s Luck Ran Out Chapter 01 Three Years a Servant
My father, Adrian Pierce, spent $300,000,000 building a fake frontier town called Ashmoor. Then he tricked my mother, Vivian, into walking through the gates and told her she had slipped back into the 1800s. Inside, they sold her to a brothel called the Ivory, broke her leg, and kept her there three years as a house servant. Three years later, my father finally pulled off the mask he had worn the whole time. He looked down at her, kneeling on the packed dirt, and smiled. “Three years ago you filed for divorce, then turned the internet loose on Sadie. They called her a homewrecker until she nearly didn’t make it. “So how did three years of scrubbing floors taste? Learned your manners yet?” My mother knelt with her head bowed to the dirt and answered without any change in her voice. “Whatever you decide, sir.” That stopped him for a second. Then his smile came back, wider than before. I ran at her, crying, and threw myself into her arms. She held me tight, and her tears ran down into the side of my neck when she spoke. “I’m sorry, Josie. Mom has to go. But before I do, I’m going to make sure you’re taken care of.” I thought she was talking out of anger. Anybody who had lived through what she did would say things like that. I locked my arms around her neck and got the question out between sobs. “Mom, where are you going?” She didn’t answer right away. First she wiped my face dry, and then she spoke very quietly. “I’ll tell you, but you probably won’t understand it. “I came into this world out of a book, and something called the Fortune System attached itself to me so I could build your father’s company for him. “The day your father’s company is big enough to stand on its own, I get to go home. I meant to stay until you were grown, but now…” She stopped there and left the rest of it unsaid. I didn’t understand the part about the book, and I understood the part about the system even less. One thing did get through to me. If she left, I was never going to see her again. “Then can I come with you?” My mother opened her mouth to answer, and footsteps came up behind us. My father still had on the old frontier coat from Ashmoor, phone in his hand, like he had walked straight off a movie set. “Car’s here in a few minutes.” He rested a hand on my mother’s shoulder, and his voice came out almost gentle. “Viv, I’ve never forgotten what you did for me. “Behave yourself and nobody takes your place. You’re still Mrs. Pierce. “Go home, get along with Sadie, and things between us can be the way they used to be.” My mother lowered her head and dipped into a small curtsy. Her eyes stayed flat and empty, and nothing moved behind them. “Don’t worry, sir. I know my place.” The car rolled up to the gate, and my mother limped toward the open door. She moved slowly, dragging the bad leg, her shoe scraping over the gravel with a dry rasp. My father glanced back and his eyes caught on her for a second. He came back, bent down, and lifted her off her feet. She went stiff in his arms and pushed to get down. “This isn’t proper, sir.” “The show’s over. You don’t have to follow any of those rules anymore.” He carried her the rest of the way to the car. I held on to the hem of her sleeve and followed them. She used to walk so fast that I had to jog to stay with her. She would get ahead of me and turn to call back. “Josie, keep up!” Then she would wait, laughing, until I caught up and she could take my hand. Now she couldn’t even walk straight. ***** We pulled up to the house. Sadie Larkin waited in the doorway with six-month-old Teddy on her hip. She was my mother’s little sister. She had moved in three years ago, and since then she wore the best clothes, used the best of everything, and the staff took their orders from her instead of from my mother. Teddy was the son she had with my father. She smiled and looked my mother over from head to foot. “Vivian, you’re back.” My mother looked at Teddy, and the hand at her side curled into a fist. Whatever she felt never reached her face. She bent her knee. “I’m at your service, ma’am.” Sadie froze. Then it registered, and she laughed out loud. My father’s face darkened. “Viv, you’re home now. You’re not a servant anymore.” Sadie’s laugh died on her face, and something ugly flickered behind her eyes. “Yes, sir.” My mother kept her head down all the same.