The censure was thinly disguised behind a level of politeness.
Very. Thinly.
Someone else might not pick up the disapproval in Kathryn’s face. But she’d had years of practice at this.
“My apologies. I was here fifteen minutes ago, perhaps you missed me ringing the doorbell. I’ve just been having a lovely chat with Vince. He’s just a regular chatterbox, as I’m sure you know.”
Kathryn pressed her lips together before smiling. Her smile didn’t reach those dark eyes. But then Maya wasn’t sure that she’d ever seen her smile reach her eyes.
Deep breath.
Kathryn is not the devil incarnate.
Maya was aware that she liked to cast her stepmother as the villain but it was a bit cliché, wasn’t it?
“Yes, I suppose he is,” Kathryn said. “He does like you, after all.”
Gross. No, he didn’t. He liked to torment her. To scare her. To hurt her.
This time Kathryn’s smile seemed more genuine. Great, obviously her fear was on her face.
Shit.
Get it together, Maya.
She drew her shield around her to keep her safe.
“So? Are you planning on leaving me on the doorstep all day or am I allowed in? I do have an appointment after all.”
The smile disappeared off Kathryn’s face and she frowned. “There is no reason to be rude, Maya. You know that you never need an appointment to visit here. It’s your home.”
Yeah. Right.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
But Maya took a step forward. Neither of them moved. She kept her chin raised as she glanced from one to the other.
Kathryn ran her gaze over Maya, disgust filling her face. “What are you wearing? You couldn’t even dress appropriately? Have you not finished with this phase of your rebelliousness? It wasn’t cute at fifteen and it’s not cute now at twenty-six.”
“I came straight from work,” Maya said darkly. “If there was a dress code for me to enter my mother’s house, then you should have let me know.”
Oh, Kathryn didn’t like that. Maya braced herself for what she was going to say next.
“What’s going on out here? Dad wants to know what the two of you are doing . . . Maya.”
She glanced around to see Marlin standing there. He was frowning as his gaze flicked from the stepmonster to Vince to her.
And yes, she was aware of how immature she sounded calling Kathryn the stepmonster. But she’d been fifteen when she’d firststarted calling her that. And it wasn’t like she hadn’t earned that nickname.
“Maya, Dad’s been waiting for you,” Marlin said to her. He held out his hand.
She and Marlin were no longer close. However, he’d never hurt her, he’d never been mean. So she stepped to the side of Kathryn, walking around her to take Marlin’s hand.
He squeezed it as they headed down the hallway. He walked to the door leading to the formal greeting room.
They could have just met in the living room which was more comfortable. Or even in the eat-in kitchen. But Kathryn would never allow that.
Still, Maya hated this room. Her mom had rarely used it unless she was having a party as it was big enough to comfortably hold around thirty people. It was filled with uncomfortable, stiff furniture that definitely didn’t invite people to sit and chat, to make themselves at home.
