Revenge is Sweet (A Samantha Church Mystery) by Betta Ferrendelli

for cookies and coffee after the play and all the students were beaming because their parents had come. You know what April wanted to do, Sam? She wanted to go home. She was embarrassed because she knew that all the other parents knew why Samantha Church hadn’t showed up for her daughter’s first Christmas play. How’s a little nine-year-old supposed to cope with that?”
    His words played over in Sam’s mind. She did not realize she was crying until a tear fell and had landed and pooled on the top of the cell phone she held in her hand. She stared at the tear until another one fell and another one and another one.
    Sam brushed off the tears and dialed the area code and phone number to a home on an island in the Pacific Northwest. Esther Church answered on the second ring.
    “Hello, Esther, it’s me, Sam.”
    There was a slight pause and Sam did not realize that she had been holding her breath waiting for April’s grandmother to answer the phone. She had only started talking regularly to Esther Church since April had gone to stay with her. Though Sam was married to Jonathan nearly ten years, she spoke to his mother infrequently and saw her very little. It wasn’t a secret to Sam that Esther Church did not particularly care for her daughter-in-law.
    “Hello, Samantha,” Esther said stiffly.
    Another awkward silence.
    “How are you, Esther?”
    “Fine,” Esther returned.
    Sam was sorry she had called. “Good to hear,” Sam said and rushed right into her next sentence. “I know April’s probably not home from school yet, but I had a few minutes before going back to work so I thought I’d give you a quick call.”
    “I was just on my out to run a few errands before April gets home.”
    “This’ll just take a second.”
    Sam’s voice trailed off, as she found strength to prepare for the worst. Esther Church had never made anything easy for Sam.
    “I was, uh, wondering if you might be willing to put April on a plane and let her come and spend a long weekend with me. My grandmother and Howard really miss her and they want to see her. And, uh, I think April would really like that, too.”
    “Don’t you miss your daughter, Samantha?”
    “Of course, I do, Esther.” Sam paused, working to control her emotions. “It’s hard knowing she’s so far away.”
    “You should’ve thought about that before all this happened,” Esther said crisply. “Maybe my son would still be alive.”
    Oh God, Sam thought, now comes the lecture. In the background, Sam could hear one of Esther’s dogs barking.
    “I’m sorry for what happened to Jonathan,” Sam said and she truly was. It meant that April would grow up without a father. Sam continued, choosing her words carefully. “But what Jonathan was doing was wrong. There wasn’t anything I could’ve done to stop him.”
    “Maybe if you weren’t so self-centered and …” Esther Church’s voice trailed off for a moment. Sam was sure what was coming next. Her mother-in-law never wasted an opportunity to point out all of her weaknesses. Like mother, like son. “… And if you wouldn’t have been so drunk all the time and acted more like a wife to Jonathan and a mother to April, maybe my son wouldn’t have done the things they say he did.”
    Still in denial, despite all the evidence, Sam thought. “Esther, I’m doing everything I can to try and make it up to April. It would really be wonderful if she could come for a long weekend.”
    The phone crackled with an extended silence.
    “Please,” Sam said finally, knowing that it sounded as though she were pleading, because she was, but she didn’t care.
    “I don’t know, Sam,” Esther said in a huffy voice as if Sam’s request had wounded her. “I can’t decide right this minute and besides, how do I know you’ll send her back?”
    “Esther,” Sam said unable to stop the laugh that escaped her. “I can’t believe you’d say something like that. I’m not a fool. I want nothing more than to have my