The Girls on Rose Hill Read Online Free PDF Page A

honest, lack of real interest, most of the day to day parenting duties fell on me. But I was lucky in the sense that what Brendan denied us in time and attention, he more than made up for in cash. Brendan was one of the most successful litigators in D.C. so we wanted for nothing. Nothing material anyway. Until Veronica was in the third grade, I stayed home with the kids full time and even had the assistance of a part time nanny. So while I made sure the kids did their homework and washed behind their ears, I also cheered Mike and Timmy at all their lacrosse games and knew the ins and outs of Veronica's very intricate social life.
    "You're going to hit rush hour and miss that plane if you don't get down here!"
    "Oh, relax, Mom." Veronica dragged her enormous back pack down the stairs. "Our flight's not 'til six."
    "Are you girls planning on hiring a sherpa to cart those things around?"
    Hailey giggled. Veronica snarked, "Oh, please, Mom."
    "Well, you'll build up muscle anyway. Okay, you have passports, tickets, cameras?"
    "Yes, of course we do."
    "All right, just checking." I handed Veronica an envelope of cash. "Make sure you tip the driver."
    "I know, I know," Veronica said, in full eye roll mode.
    "Come on, give your poor mother a kiss." I pulled her into an unwanted embrace. My sons were such cuddlers and still crushed me with their bear hugs but prickly Veronica was never very demonstrative and always wiggled her little body out of my frequent hugs. Well, I hopefully she'll be this averse to touch when surrounded by throngs of handsome Italian men. I begged the girls to be careful as they clattered out the door.
    The house was now silent, save for the distant whir of the engines of boaters lucky enough to get an early start on the weekend. I looked at my watch and saw that it was almost four. If I was lucky, I could still catch Brendan at his office before he headed off to a "client dinner" with whoever was the flavor of the month. Last I checked, it was Christine Schatten, a thirty-six year old partner in his firm's Corporate Securities department. Tall, big boned, dark-haired Christine was not his usual type. Brendan usually went for either the fresh young things in the legal assistants pool or older, elegant married women looking for a little excitement in between spa treatments and charity functions. Usually they were petite and blond, like me. But unlike me, they usually didn't last very long.
    Christine with her mannish laugh and ticking biological clock? I didn't see her making it past Labor Day. We'd met over the years at various firm functions, and a few years ago had even played tennis together at the annual summer outing. Christine was always friendly, in a casual, offhand sort of way, to both myself and to Brendan. As a member of the Corporate Securities department, they didn't work together much, but then last February one of her clients was indicted for insider trading, and she brought Brendan in as defense counsel. I didn't think much of it when Brendan had to go into the office a few weekends to work with Christine, but then when I saw her at the firm's Memorial Day picnic, I knew. She'd carefully avoided looking at Brendan and when I greeted her, her voice was unnaturally high and her eyes darted around, as if looking for an escape route. I knew.
    "Brendan Mills' office."
    "Susan, hi. How are you?"
    "I'm fine, Ellen. Thank God it's Friday, right? How are you holding up?" Susan asked, her voice full of concern. Susan had been with Brendan since he was a young associate and was looking forward to retirement next year.
    "I'm hanging in there, Susan, thanks for asking. Is he in?"
    "He's not in his office. I think he's down on the Corporate floor."
    Of course he was. "I need to speak to him before I go back to the hospital."
    "Of course, dear. Hold on." Susan had seen many Christines come and go. I knew she'd make sure he interrupted whatever he was doing and come to the phone.
    "Sweetheart, how are you? I'm so