The Cinderella Reflex Read Online Free PDF Page A

co-dependency counselling. Oh, and what about the hysterics when Anna didn’t get enough points in her exams to study psychology? And the drama when David was caught driving over the limit?
    On and on it had gone – was still going on, actually – taking up Richard’s valuable time,
time
he was supposed to be spending with her, the only time they had together until the time was finally right for him to leave Louisa. So far Helene’s goal of becoming the new Mrs Armstrong – which Richard had agreed was a logical, if long-range one – had been continuously postponed because the time never seemed right for Richard to leave the ‘children’.
    The fact that the children were now of an age when most people were out busy building their own lives seemed to be lost on Richard, who was as endlessly besotted with Anna and David as ever. What surprised Helene most was that she had allowed all this to happen.
    She doodled idly now on her notebook, trying to figure it out. She liked to think of herself as possessing a sharp and analytical mind. She would not have survived the cutthroat nature of the business she was in otherwise. She thrived on competition and frankly, the contest between herself and Louisa should have been over ages ago. And would have been, she reminded herself, if it hadn’t have been for Anna and David.
    Through the years whenever she’d had a horrible day – like today for instance when Ollie Andrews was being his usual despicable self, and Andrea McAdams was preoccupied with one of her interminable domestic crises, and Tess Morgan was at her most irritating – Helene had always soothed herself with the thought that it wasn’t going to be forever. Richard would eventually make good on his promise, leave Louisa and marry her.
    There had been a few scary moments along the way, mind you, when Helene had been forced to question her beliefs. Like the time Louisa had gone in for a boob job, for instance. What had all that been about? Helene had lain awake at nights at the time, worrying about it. But Louisa’s boobs, Richard had been quick to convince her, were irrelevant in a relationship that had been on the rocks for years.
    “She’s feeling her age because the kids are growing up and away,” he had explained fondly, as if he really liked his wife! “Louisa doesn’t have a career like you and she doesn’t know what to do with herself. She says the surgery makes her feel better about herself but I think it’s a distraction because she’s dreading the time when David and Anna leave home and she will be left facing an empty nest.”
    Like that was going to happen any time soon, Helene thought crossly. And Louisa could have
her
career, if she wanted one so badly. See how she felt about it after a week in charge of Ollie Andrews.
    Helene would quite like to be able to pick and choose whether she worked or not. She’d like to ramble along to a quiet gym at eleven in the morning instead of having to squeeze into the overcrowded, sweaty after-work classes. She’d like to indulge in leisurely lunches that didn’t involve endless brainstorming for ideas and ... and ... Helene searched her mind for what else she would like to do as a lady of leisure. She would go to art galleries or those lunchtime plays she was always seeing being advertised – something like that, anyway.
    But when was that ever going to happen? Normally Helene ignored this small voice inside her. But today it was more persistent, grabbing at the sides of her mind, forcing her to pay attention to her own intuition. And the fact was that Helene had begun to have a distinctly bad feeling where Richard was concerned. For one thing, he had started to hint recently about the possibility of being taken to the cleaners if he left Louisa.
If
he left Louisa!
    Now he fucking tells me! Helene had thought in a rage when he’d come out with that one night at her apartment after an evening working late together. Now, when the crow’s feet are