"Mommy, I want that." Sammy said, pointing to a store shelf.

"No, Sammy," Spencer replied as she continued to push the little girl down the aisle in a cart.

"Mommy, I want that," Sammy said again, pointing to another spot.

"No, Sammy.”

"Pwease," Sammy whined, kicking her legs inside the cart.

"Sammy, stop.  I’m not wasting money on…" Spencer paused to read the label, "…Heinz Gourmet Red Wine Vinegar.  We don’t need that…I don’t think."  She read the shopping list in her hands.

"But, it’s pretty," Sammy pouted.

Spencer hated grocery shopping.  But her family had gone to Ohio to visit her grandparents for the weekend, leaving her with the job of stocking up on groceries for the week.  Her eyes were strained from repeatedly looking down, studying the list made out by her father, the gourmet chef.  She could barely pronounce some of the items, much less find them.

An hour later, Spencer was unloading her cart full of items into the trunk of the car, relieved the treasure hunt was finally over.  Sammy sat in the cart nibbling on the puffy, sweet marshmallows she had convinced her mother to buy.

"Mommy, can we pway there?"  Sammy asked.

Spencer followed her daughter’s pointed finger to a small park across the street.  “I wish we could Sammy, but it’s too hot.  And you have to come with mommy to work."

"Pwease, mommy" Sammy begged, "I wanna pway outside."

"I know, sweety.  How about if after mommy finishes we come home and make hot fudge sundaes.  How does that sound?”

Sammy’s blue eyes sparkled with excitement, a bright smile shining across her face.

“But,” Spencer warned, “you have to be good. You can’t touch anything at mommy’s boss’s house."

“Okay,” Sammy mumbled through a marshmallow, “No touching.”

Spencer sympathized with the little girl.  She would’ve preferred skipping work and going to the park as well.  She dreaded facing her boss again after that night in New York.  Ashley had never been that cruel to her before, humiliating and belittling her like that in front of Kelly and Aidan at dinner.   If she hadn’t already given her notice, she would’ve quit.  

Still, the incident at dinner that night wasn’t what had her most on edge.  When Spencer stirred awake in her hotel room that next morning, foggy images of what happened later that night crept into her memory.  Most of them were a drunken blur, but she remembered enough to know Ashley had seen the marks.  All she could do was hope her boss wouldn’t bring it up.