Wonder Women by Fiore Rosie

Author:Fiore, Rosie [Fiore, Rosie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2013-09-20T04:00:00+00:00

Jo now

‘You’ll be divorced within a year,’ said Jo’s mother abruptly. ‘A house husband? Lee? Pottering about in a pinny doing your laundry? Running around after the children? No man would stand for that.’

‘But it was his idea.’

‘Of course it was. He’s always indulged your every whim. He’s just trying to make you happy.’ Jo’s mother snorted, as if trying to make someone happy was an aberration, or a weakness.

At that exact moment, Imogene fell over and bumped her head against the edge of the sofa, and Jo thanked her little girl silently. There was no way she would have been able to answer her mother without losing her temper.

It wasn’t just geographical distance that prevented Jo from visiting her parents often, though it was convenient to pretend it was. It was conversations like these. Her father was a taciturn man, who very seldom offered an opinion on anything, but her mother always had something to say, and it was almost always critical. Jo dreaded visiting with the kids, because she knew her mother would criticise the way they were dressed, what they ate, their manners, the way Jo spoke to them, not to mention offering a thought or two on Jo’s appearance. Jo’s mother had always parented with a fine balance of bullying and guilt, and she always knew best.

It was for that exact reason that Jo had come here today. In a fit of masochism, she wanted to ask her mother’s opinion on the proposed plan for Lee to give up his job and Jo to take up Richard’s offer to expand her company. She knew that her mother would predict the worst possible outcome, and wouldn’t hold back from articulating the worst of the things that Jo herself might fear. So far, Laura Morris had not disappointed. It wasn’t enough for her to imply that Jo was a spoiled brat who was hell-bent on emasculating her husband. Clearly she wanted to break her children’s hearts as well.

‘What about Zachary and Imogene?’ she asked plaintively. (Zach’s name on his birth certificate was just Zach, not Zachary, but she refused to call him anything else.) ‘Imagine how they’ll feel when all the other children have their mum come and collect them from school and they’re left with their dad? Everyone will think Lee is some kind of unemployed layabout.’

‘Will they? And if they do, do we care?’ Jo couldn’t resist saying.

Her mother gave her one of her Looks. It was a brilliant maternal Look, which incorporated disappointment, pity and disapproval in a single glance. The Look used to devastate Jo, but she was kind of over it now.

‘Really, Joanna,’ Laura said. ‘You don’t seem to be taking this seriously at all.’

Jo’s father chose that moment to wander into the kitchen. ‘What isn’t Joanna taking seriously?’ he said. ‘Is it laundry related? Or anything to do with potty-training? If it’s either of those, I’m going back into the living room to watch the golf.’

Jo opened her mouth to answer, but she should have known better than to try.

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