Waylaid

Austyn had refused to let Kira wake up Jennie. The girl overslept for ninety minutes. Kira was suddenly glad that Austyn was absent for the first three years of the kids’ lives. He would have spoiled them rotten. Kira vowed to instil some sense of discipline—not just into the kids, but also into their immature father. She ran into Tara Gilbert again at the kindergarten. To her surprise, the woman just glared at her and stomped away. Maybe Austyn was right. Standing up to bullies worked better than quiet acquiescence. Austyn dropped her off two streets away from the office building of Globe Today. Kira had used up her leave days accumulated from the past three years. She was probably going to have her pay docked for showing up late. ‘I’ll pick up the kids after school,’ he said. ‘What time do you get off work?’ Kira unbuckled her seatbelt. ‘Isn’t it time for you to return to Rinton?’ He said he was only here for a short business trip, yet he’d been staying in Stamford for almost a week