Free Lisa Djahed - Bee Stanis 01- The Foolish Stepmom by Lisa Djahed Page B

light of morning my name was called and I thought , well. this is it, I’m going to be charged and sent to the big house. But to my surprise they were “un-processing” me. Letting me free? How could that be?
    Turns out my wonderful husband was there, had posted bond and they released me before my arraignment. Bless his head.
    The only thing we did when we saw each other at long last was hug. Just stayed on that ramp leading up to Stark’s main entrance and hugged.
    “Oh honey, I’m so sorry” “No baby, I’m so sorry” “No honey, I’m sorry”
    “Ok baby , me too, me too”
    And then we walked to the car and I felt so relieved to be leaving that awful place and that awful night behind me.
    “Did you pick up the girls, are they ok? Do they know?”
    “Of course I didn’t tell them , I said you were at your mom’s” “Oh thank god, I’m so embarrassed honey.”
    “No , it was all my fault, I should have never had you go with me.”
    “It was just my stupid shoes , I couldn’t keep up.”
    And with that we just held hands and he drove and the stress of
    the full night was starting to weigh in on me. It was only 7:45 in the morning and in another hour and a half I was supposed to be at work.
    “I have to go in baby , I have a presentation.” I thought about the Kinnear account and how they expected to see draft layouts of their new season’s line up. I had to go in, at least for that, and then leave.
    “Oh no”
    “Hey, why did we go in Ray’s house in the first place, what were you looking for?”
    “Oh honey , I found it. I found it.” “Found what?”
    “In Ray’s bedroom , on the second dresser, a prescription bottle for sleeping pills, just like the ones that killed Drew, or helped kill him.”
    “Oh honey , that doesn’t prove it, does it, I mean, how many people take sleeping pills”
    “Yeah , but this one, this bottle, it was empty.” Empty indeed.
     

 
    Chapter Nine
     
    Parent-teacher conference night. Of course it had to be Monday night. The night after I had spent the night in JAIL and had gotten only a miserable hour and half nap that afternoon. The problem with Parent Teacher conference night was of course, being the non-parent parent. Being a step-parent is an odd thing. You are involved in the kids life, up to a certain degree, for their daily needs (if you are custodial like us) but you had no rights to the child. In the eyes of the law and in this case, the eyes of the school district, I was a non-being. No rights. No right to say anything, to question curriculum, barely even a name. Ben had to even fight to get me listed on the contact sheet for the school. Ridiculous. And yet, there I am, the one helping with homework, doing those stupid science projects, rushing to Walmart for the right binder and tabs and pencils and paper. Me. The non-being.
    Plus there was the possibility , even remote as it might be, that Countess Von Stinker would show and bluster her way in asking about how her “babies” were doing and soaking up the praise about Yaz and nodding in agreement when Jules’ teachers talked about her indifference. She gets to be the mom in the spotlight and dang if she wasn’t going to take her bow.
    I had spent extra time at the mirror trying to hide my baggy eyes and drooping skin. I had worn a power suit just to highlight the difference between hippy mama and me (in case she showed).
    Which , of course, she did.It was just how this week was turning.
    “Hello Doris” I said using the countess’s formal name. “Hello Elizabeth, Ben”
    Ben grunted. He hated these nights almost as much as I did.
    And we went in for the first leg of the trip which was to Jules’ English teacher.
    “Mr. and Mrs. Stanis, please sign in,” and that’s when I thought I would lose it, because of course Mr. Egghead teacher didn’t realize our situation and assumed that Doris and Ben were still married and I was some nanny or something- of course it didn’t help that Doris,