Shameless (Lost and Found Book 1) by Mary J. Williams

Author:Mary J. Williams [Williams, Mary J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-09-21T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎

COUNTING TO TEN no longer worked with Reese’s mother. Since she turned eighteen, the battle lines grew closer and closer to all-out war.

Valerie had become even more impossible with each passing day, and Reese no longer had the patience to deal with the drama.

The pattern was infuriating yet straightforward. Valerie picked at Reese’s appearance—too casual to be chic. Or her choice of reading material—much too intellectual. Forget Proust. Try Agatha Christie now and then.

Nothing could meet her mother’s exacting standards.

At one time, Valerie’s opinion mattered. However, once Reese realized that her mother’s main goal was to mold an exact copy of herself, the minor arguments over her daughter's behavior, grooming, and wardrobe turned into full-blown shouting matches.

Reese’s bedroom was once her haven—the place where she could get away from her family and live in peace. Everything changed when Valerie started invading her privacy with unscheduled visits to talk.

The problem was that talk was Valerie’s code word for listen and don’t argue.

With her safe place gone, Reese started to spend her time with friends. Or at the library. Or on long walks. Anywhere but the place that no longer felt like home.

Reese couldn’t hate her mother. Just the opposite, she loved her and wanted Valerie to live a long healthy life. But with her beloved son off at college, her daughter was all she had left. Some children might be flattered by all the attention—if they were crazy.

Valerie needed a hobby—something unrelated to Reese. Since the chances of her mother taking up knitting or learning to bake seemed slim to never in a million years, the war continued to wage.

Luckily for Reese, she would soon be free. In two months, she would start college, and like her brilliant brother, she chose a place on the other side of the country.

With Reese’s superior grades and stellar extracurricular activities, she had her pick of universities. Harvard made a hard push to land her, and she jumped at the bait.

On September first, Reese would board a plane for Connecticut. She could hardly wait.

“How did your date go with Tom Jenkins?” Valerie asked.

Breakfast was the only meal where the family was together. Her mother insisted.

Nothing changed. Merritt stayed behind his newspaper; Valerie picked at her bone-dry piece of toast almost as much as she picked at her daughter. And Reese drank her juice, enjoyed her scrambled eggs and checked her watch—every other minute.

“Tom is one stop up from Fred Lister. Barely,” Reese said. “He left with another girl before we even ordered.”

“How rude,” Valerie said with a disapproving click of her tongue. “You must have said something to upset the young man.”

“If I recall, I said the chicken primavera sounded good. You’re a man, Dad,” Reese said, her eyes wide and innocent. “Is chicken a subject I need to avoid from now on?”

“What?” Merritt coughed, but the paper remained in place. “You want chicken for dinner? Sounds good.”

Valerie ignored her husband’s vague answer the way she always did and focused on Reese.

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