What a Mother Knows by Leslie Lehr Read Free Book Online Page B

sound calm, but it was impossible.
    â€œPrivate detectives did all that.”
    â€œSo, I’ll do it again,” Michelle said. “She’s just a name to them. Please, Drew. The Internet company will want a credit card and I don’t even have a purse!”
    Drew’s phone rang. He got up and fetched another beer while answering, as if relieved to get a break from her questions. “Hey Tyler. No, you have to sleep here. I need a ride to LAX in the morning.” He hung up. When he shut the refrigerator door, he saw Michelle’s frown and swore under his breath.
    â€œYou’re kidding, right? Don’t you dare say you’re leaving.”
    â€œI’m sorry, Michelle. I have to go back to New York. I meant to tell you.”
    â€œLike you meant to tell me my daughter is missing?”
    â€œOur daughter.”
    â€œIs that how you justify lying about her? And poor Noah? When were you going to tell me about leaving, Drew? In a postcard?”
    â€œCalm down, honey. I blew off two commercials to be here when you got home, but this is a feature. My assistant has done most of the prep, but if I don’t set the sound cues myself, they’ll replace me and I’ll be out months of work.”
    Michelle hugged her bad arm. “I just got home. We’ve barely had any time together. The director will understand!”
    â€œNo, he’s a prick. Won’t even pay my kit rental. But he works a lot and I’m his first call.” Drew chugged the rest of his beer. “Don’t worry, your mother is flying in to take care of you.”
    Michelle gave him a dirty look, already dreading the heavy perfume that clogged the air during her mother’s hospital visits. All that time, Elyse must have known the truth, and she didn’t say a word.
    â€œI know you two have issues, but she means well,” Drew said. “And I hired Lexi to come by every week to help.”
    â€œI don’t need help. I need you.”
    He tossed his beer in the trash and took her hand. “We need this job, honey. I took out a second mortgage to pay your hospital bills. You want to lose the house?”
    â€œNo, of course not, but…What about Nikki?”
    â€œMichelle, when I said everyone has been out looking for her, I meant it.”
    â€œThat doesn’t mean we should stop.” She poked at the mirrored ball hanging from the orchid until the reflections spun like Drew’s words in her head. Then she yanked it free and threw the earring across the room. She burst into tears. Drew touched her cheek, but she stumbled to the hallway to get away from him, away from the truth that he had known all along.
    Bella whined outside the French doors when he saw her across the room. Dizzy, Michelle leaned against the wall in the foyer and looked at the family portrait. Drew had hated the idea of family portraits, found it hopelessly bourgeois. But he’d grinned like a good sport that day on the beach, with his arm around Michelle’s shoulders. Tyler’s white polo shirt was already dirty, but his smile was goofy and sweet. In this larger version, Nikki’s fingers had been airbrushed from where she made bunny ears over her brother’s head. She smiled with her lips closed over her braces, but her brown eyes were as wide as could be.
    Michelle was drawn to those gold-flecked eyes, as if they were her own and she was looking in the mirror. She slid down until she was sitting on the floor. She no longer heard the dog, or her husband calling her name. She used to remind herself not to confide in her daughter when she was lonely, and yet Nikki always seemed to read her mind, as if Michelle’s life had imprinted on her before she was born. Michelle read once that females are born with all the eggs they’ll ever make, and the notion had resonated with her—it confirmed how she felt. Nikki had always been part of her. At this moment, curled up on the cold