Chapter 2 - The Sixth NannyHarrison had survived hostile boardrooms, billion-dollar lawsuits, and a kidnapping threat during a business expansion in South America.
Then one Tuesday afternoon, he came home early and found the housekeeper asleep in her bed.
With both of his sons wrapped around her.
Harrison stopped so abruptly in the doorway that his briefcase slipped from his hand.
Five-year-old twins Caleb and Connor lay on either side of Elena Ruiz, the newest member of his household staff. Connor’s cheek rested against Elena’s shoulder. Caleb had both fists tangled in the front of her pale blue work apron.
Neither boy was screaming.
Neither was shaking.
Neither was awake.
Harrison had almost forgotten what his sons looked like when they slept peacefully.
His first instinct was anger.
“What the hell—”
Elena’s eyes opened.
She sat up immediately, careful not to disturb the children.
“Mr. Cole.”
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“You were told this room was off-limits.”
“I know.”
“You were hired to clean downstairs. Not to come into my wife’s bedroom.”
“I know.”
His jaw tightened.
During the fourteen months since Caroline’s death, five professional nannies had left the Cole estate.
Technically, Harrison had fired three.
Two had resigned.
The difference no longer mattered.
One nanny claimed the twins were uncontrollable.
Another said Caleb had locked himself in a bathroom for six hours.
The third found Connor standing barefoot beside the swimming pool at 3:00 a.m., whispering that his mother was waiting underneath the water.
The fourth lasted eleven days.
The fifth lasted forty-eight hours.
Harrison had responded the way he responded to every problem in his life.
He paid more.
He hired better experts.
He installed more security cameras.
He arranged more therapy.
Nothing worked.
Then Elena Ruiz arrived three weeks ago to replace a housekeeper who had retired.
She had no childhood-development degree.
No prestigious references.
No training in pediatric trauma.
She simply cleaned.
And somehow, his children had started following her around.
Harrison looked at them now.
“What happened?”
Elena swallowed.
“They had an episode.”
“You mean a tantrum?”
Her expression changed.
“No, Mr. Cole.”
The correction irritated him.
“What do you call screaming for forty minutes and throwing furniture?”
“Grief.”
The room went silent.
No employee spoke to Harrison like that.
Most executives did not speak to him like that.
Elena slowly slid out from beneath Connor.
“The storm started around one.”
Harrison glanced toward the window.
Rain tapped softly against the glass.
“The thunder frightened Caleb,” Elena continued. “Connor tried to calm him. Then Connor got frightened too.”
“Where was Mrs. Langley?”
“Your current nanny?”
“Yes.”
“She locked herself in the pantry.”
Harrison stared at her.
Elena nodded.
“She resigned twenty minutes later.”
Of course she had.
Nanny number six had lasted nine days.
Harrison closed his eyes.
“I’ll call the agency.”
Elena looked at him for several seconds.
Then she said quietly, “That’s the problem.”
His eyes opened.
“Excuse me?”
“You keep calling somebody.”
“I’m sorry?”
“When they cry, you call the nanny. When they stop eating, you call the pediatrician. When they wake screaming, you call the therapist.”
Harrison’s face hardened.
“You have no idea what I do for my sons.”
“I know exactly what you do.”
Elena pointed toward the children.
“You find someone else to do it.”
His voice dropped.
“You should be very careful.”
“I am being careful.”
“No. You’re speaking about things you don’t understand.”
Elena’s eyes softened.
“That’s what everyone tells themselves when the truth hurts.”
Harrison looked toward his sleeping sons.
“Why are they here?”
That was when Elena hesitated.
For the first time, real uncertainty crossed her face.
“They brought me.”
Harrison frowned.
“What?”
“Caleb took my hand and led me upstairs. Connor unlocked the door.”
Harrison stared at the brass key sitting on Caroline’s nightstand.
He had hidden that key inside his office desk.
“How did they get that?”
“I don’t know.”
Harrison walked to the bed.
Caroline’s perfume still faintly clung to the room.
Or perhaps he imagined it.
He had not slept there since the night she died.
He slept in a guest suite on the other side of the mansion because lying beside her empty pillow had become unbearable.
“What did they say?”
Elena did not answer immediately.
“What did my sons say?”
Her eyes filled with something Harrison hated seeing.
Pity.
“Connor said this was the only room where Mommy could still hear them.”
Harrison’s chest tightened.
“And Caleb?”
Elena’s gaze shifted toward the smaller twin.
“He said Daddy doesn’t hear them anymore.”
The words entered Harrison slowly.
Then all at once.
He looked at Caleb.
The boy had always resembled Caroline.
Same dark lashes.
Same crooked little mouth.
Same stubborn way of clenching his fists when frightened.
Harrison suddenly remembered coming home three nights earlier and finding Caleb sitting on the staircase.
“Dad?”
“Not now, buddy. I have a call.”
“But—”
“Tomorrow.”
There had always been tomorrow.
Tomorrow after Singapore.
Tomorrow after quarterly earnings.
Tomorrow after the acquisition closed.
Tomorrow after Harrison felt strong enough to look at his sons without seeing the woman he had lost.
Elena moved toward the doorway.
Harrison spoke without looking at her.
“Why were you in the bed?”
She stopped.
“They wouldn’t let me leave.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Elena’s eyes turned toward Caroline’s empty side of the bed.
“Caleb asked me to lie down because he couldn’t remember what it felt like when someone stayed until he fell asleep.”
Harrison said nothing.
Elena reached the door.
Then she added the sentence that would keep him awake for the rest of his life.
“Mr. Cole, your boys aren’t destroying nannies because they’re difficult.”
She looked directly at him.
“They keep making everyone leave because they’re testing whether anybody will fight to stay.”
Harrison’s throat closed.
“And so far…”
Elena glanced toward the hallway.
“They’ve been right every time.”
She left.
Harrison stood alone beside the bed.
A minute later, Caleb stirred.
His eyes opened.
For one hopeful second, he looked toward Harrison.
Then disappointment replaced it.
“Where’s Elena?”
Harrison sat on the mattress.
“I’m here.”
Caleb stared at him.
That should have been enough.
Once, it had been.
May you like
But his five-year-old son pulled the blanket tighter around himself and whispered four words that broke something inside Harrison Cole.
“I didn’t ask you.”
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