Chapter 24

24

It’s a bunny-eat-bunny world.

—Anonymous children’s book editor

Only the presence of the kids made the trip back to Chicago bearable. It had always been difficult for Molly to hide her feelings from her sister, but this time she had to. She couldn’t taint Phoebe and Dan’s relationship with Kevin any further.

Her condo was musty from having been closed up for nearly three weeks and even dustier than when she’d left. Her hands itched to start scrubbing and polishing, but cleaning chores would have to wait until tomorrow. With Roo scampering ahead, she carried her suitcases to the sleeping loft, then forced herself back down the steps to her desk and the black plastic crate that held her files.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor, she pulled out her last contract with Birdcage and flipped through the pages.

Just as she’d thought.

She gazed up at the windows that stretched all the way to the ceiling, studied the mellowed brick walls and cozy kitchen, watched the play of light on the hardwood floors. Home.

Two miserable weeks later Molly stepped from the elevator onto the ninth floor of the Michigan Avenue office building that held the offices of Birdcage Press. She retied the cardigan around the waist of her red-and-white checked gingham sheath and made her way down the corridor to Helen Kennedy Schott’s office. Molly had long ago passed the point where she could turn back, and she only hoped the concealer she’d dabbed under her eyes hid the shadows.

Helen rose to greet her from behind a desk cluttered with manuscripts, galleys, and book covers. Even though the weather was muggy, she was dressed in her customary editorial black. Her short gray hair lay neatly against her head, and although she wore no makeup, her nails shone with slick crimson polish. “Molly, it’s wonderful to see you again. I’m so glad you finally called. I’d nearly given up trying to get hold of you.”

“It’s good to see you,” Molly replied politely, because no matter what Kevin said about her, she was, by nature, a polite person.

A strip of the Chicago River was visible through the office window, but the colorful display of children’s books on the shelves drew Molly’s attention. As Helen chatted about the new marketing manager, Molly spotted the bright slender spines of the first five Daphne books. Knowing that Daphne Takes a Tumble would never join them should have felt like a stab in the heart, but that part of her was too numb right now to feel anything more.

“I’m so glad we’re finally having this meeting,” Helen said. “We have lots to talk about.”