Read Online The Arrangement [Box Set] by Abby Weeks - Free Book Online

shopping sprees, the whole deal. What more could she want?
    She told herself that the new arrangement was just an enhancement of the marriage contract she’d always had with Walter. She still had to provide essentially the same services, playing wife and mother and giving sexual pleasure, only now the sex was more exciting, and the financial security was a lot more luxurious.
    As if on cue, a maid in a black dress with a white apron came out and offered her another glass of wine. Of course this was a life she could learn to enjoy.

II
    A PRIL WAS NERVOUS AS THE day approached for the girls to go to their new boarding school. She was terribly conflicted about sending them away. Although Greenwood Springs was just a few hours from their home and she had been assured repeatedly that it was one of the best schools in the country, the girls were so young that it went against her maternal instincts to let them go.
    Lucy was six and was just beginning to become a friend to her mother. April would let her sit with her in front of the vanity while she got ready in the morning and the two of them would put on makeup together. They always laughed and had fun as Lucy tried on the different colors of eyeshadow and lipstick and blush. She would miss that little morning routine.
    Mary was four and was really just starting to settle into her own personality. She could be willful and stubborn but she was also the sweetest little thing April had ever seen. She wanted a dog and with all the space around the new house it would have been the perfect time for them to get one. But April knew that there was no point. It would only be cruel to get her a dog and then tell her she had to leave it behind while she went off to boarding school.
    There was so much of their childhood that she would miss now. She would always be their mother of course but she wouldn’t be there every day to see all the little things that comprise the substance of a life. She would become like a relative to them, someone they knew loved them and who bought them presents on holidays but no longer as intimate as a mother should be. She was afraid that her importance to their lives would gradually fade.
    During that first week in the new house April tried to spend as much time with them as possible while she still had the chance. She took them into the city and bought them clothes, she took them to the zoo and the Smithsonian, she even took them for walks along the forest paths around the house.
    She was still embarrassed every time she stepped into one of the firm’s black town cars and saw that Akbar was her driver but he had shown her nothing but respect since she’d given him that warning. In fact, she usually found it strangely comforting having Akbar with her when they went into the city. They didn’t talk much to each other but he would nod and smile when he picked her up, letting her know that everything was alright, and she knew that he would always be there waiting with the car for her whenever she was ready to go home. She found that the city had become a lot more accessible and inviting to her now that she had a driver. She didn’t have to negotiate traffic or find her way in a new neighborhood and parking was never an issue. Just another perk of being with the firm, she thought.
    And it was just one more thing that she found she was able to get used to when she corrected her thinking. At first when Walter told her that she wouldn’t be having her own car she had panicked. That was always her first response. She saw it as an attack on her autonomy. But now that she was used to it she realized just how many advantages there were to having your own private chauffeur. She hoped it would be like that with the girls’ school. It was no small thing, sending them away. She’d be able to visit them on the weekends but she prayed that they were happy enough at the school to survive the whole week without her. They’d be allowed to call home every evening, which was