Chapter 1

My mother-in-law spent years chasing miracle cures. Somehow, she actually found one that made her young again, leaving her trapped in the body of a five-and-a-half-year-old.

My husband, a hopeless mama's boy, ordered me to quit my executive job and stay home full-time to "raise Mom."

She took full advantage of her new body. She trashed our house, then cut my company's confidential bid documents into confetti.

When I tried to stop her, she slapped me and planted both hands on her tiny hips.

"Don't you dare look at me like that. I've got more life experience in my little finger than you have in your whole body."

"I cleaned motel rooms on the night shift to put Grant through college. Now that I'm little again, you will kneel to put on my shoes every morning and feed me premium caviar. If you don't, I'll tell Grant what a heartless wife you are."

She threw herself onto the floor, kicking and screaming.

I did not get angry. I laughed.

She was right about one thing. Linda had suffered when she was young, and she had never even finished elementary school.

Now that she had been given a second childhood, how could I possibly let her waste it?

So I used her private annuity to enroll her in thirty back-to-back residential math programs at Hawthorne Learning Center, the strictest place I could find.

Wake-up was at six. Every wrong answer meant ten extra problems.

Linda, this time I promise you will get the head start you missed. One point short means one more day at school.

Linda Parker was picked up at 5:47 in the morning.

She had both arms locked around the doorframe, her legs clamped around the shoe cabinet, and the corner of my wedding portrait clenched between her teeth. Nothing could make her get in the van.

"Lena Shaw, if you send me to that place, I'll make Grant divorce you!"

I put her backpack in the van and checked the clock on the wall.

"Check-in is at six. If you're late, they add three worksheets to today's placement test."

"I'm not going! I'm too old for school!"

Her voice had the shrill pitch of a five-year-old, but every word still carried the same old venom.

Mrs. Collins, our housekeeper, stood by the living room door clutching a folder full of shredded paper.

"Ms. Shaw, the documents from last night..."

"Box them up," I said. "Don't throw away a single scrap. They go to corporate counsel."

Mrs. Collins looked from the scraps on the floor to Linda. "Even these?"

"She cut up confidential bid materials, not yesterday's newspaper."

Linda tore free of my hand, snatched a glass off the coffee table, and hurled it at Mrs. Collins.

Mrs. Collins jumped aside. The glass shattered against the wall, and a shard sliced through the top of her shoe.

"I'll throw another one if she keeps running her mouth!" Linda pointed at me. "Lena, get on your knees and apologize right now!"

I walked over, tucked her left hand into the side pocket of her backpack, and fastened the buckle.

"Today's first lesson is reading comprehension."

"Are you calling me stupid?"

"I didn't say that."

She kicked me in the shin. I did not move. I let the toe of her shoe connect, then tapped Record on my phone.

Mrs. Collins saw the screen light up and immediately understood.

"Did you record what she said?"

"I've been recording since she picked up the scissors."

Linda lunged for my phone. I held it out of reach.

"The security cameras are running too. Three broken glasses, six destroyed documents, and one assault on Mrs. Collins. When you grow up, it all goes on your tab."

"You think that stupid phone scares me?"

Her scream carried into the hall. Grant Parker came charging down the stairs, his pajama shirt only half buttoned.

"Lena, are you bullying Mom again?"

He scooped Linda up as if she were an injured child.

Linda wrapped her arms around his neck and instantly changed her tone.

"Grant, she won't let me have caviar. Now she's shipping me off to some prison school. She called me ignorant and useless."

Grant's expression hardened.

"Sending her to tutoring was bad enough. Now you're recording her? What exactly are you trying to do?"

"Teach her that rules apply to her."

"She's your mother-in-law!"

"Right now, she's a five-and-a-half-year-old student."

I pulled out the enrollment agreement and opened it to the authorized caregiver section.

"You signed as her authorized caregiver yesterday. The agreement clearly says she cannot withdraw during the first three months."

His finger froze on the page.

He had signed it himself. To explain Linda's sudden appearance, Grant had filed an emergency caregiver affidavit identifying her as a young relative living in our home. That way, he said, no one would ask why a fifty-seven-year-old woman had vanished and a little girl had taken her place.

I slipped the agreement back into my bag.

"Linda also authorized the tuition payments from her annuity account. If you want to pull her out, pay the early termination fee first."

Linda thrashed in his arms. "Grant, pay her! Take me home!"

Grant opened his banking app. The color drained from his face.

He did not have enough.

I finished the thought for him. "$165,000. If you can't produce it by this afternoon, she stays in class."

Grant stared at me.

"You planned this from the beginning, didn't you?"

"The only thing I calculated was how many problems she needs to solve each day."

The van door shut. Linda slapped the window and cursed at me as the driver pulled away.

I bent down and picked up a shard of glass. Half of a torn bid page was stuck to the back.

Only one line was still intact.

Southside redevelopment project. Final bid presentation: Executive conference room.

I folded the scrap and placed it in an evidence bag.

Grant thought the documents were gone.

He did not know I was waiting for him to reach into company funds to buy Linda's way out.