Page 10 of Secrets, Lies and Love

“Either way, the girl is so young . . . I’m feeling really bad.”

“Calm down. Tomorrow I’ll return to the hospital to find out more about her, and I will support her in whatever way is necessary.”

He finally seems to relax, and I do what I’ve been wanting to do since I found out what the girl’s name is: I call my cousin Odin.

“Dionysus, how is she?” he asks after the phone rings only twice.

My other older cousin, Christos, has also sent me a text, because for us, the problem of one is the problem of all. Boundaries of privacy are unknown among my relatives.

“I just left the police station. It looks like she was distracted. According to the lawyers, Anderson will be exempt from any responsibility, but I’ll make sure the girl is okay. However, I would like you to find out some basic information about her. I don’t know anything other than her name: Harper Cecily Bradley.”

“No problem. I’ll have your answers by tomorrow morning at the latest. Who did Joseph end up with? Elina was worried.”

“With Ares. I’m going home.”

“If you need anything, just call.”

“I know that, cousin.”

I leave the device on the vehicle’s center console and close my eyes, thinking about the chaos the day was. I need to go to the station tomorrow for a meeting with the board of directors, but it will be impossible. In addition to having to solve the issue of my son’s possible soon-to-be new night nanny, I need to stop by and see how Harper Cecily is doing.

Half an hour later, Larry drives past my guardhouse and parks in front of my home in Brooklyn. After quickly saying goodbye to the two employees and dismissing the bodyguards, I go to find my brother.

“How was it with the nanny? Were you able to reschedule for next week?” I ask as soon as I enter.

“No. I dismissed her.”

“You did what?”

“Shhhh . . . Keep your voice down. Joseph just went to sleep.”

He’s very lucky that my son is home, or I would kill him. It took me about two weeks to find a candidate who met almost all the requirements.

The“almost”is due to her name, which I think is fucking weird, and the fact that I didn’t get any vibe from the woman that could tell me she really likes kids, which makes me question why the hell anyone would look for a job like that if they don’t have a calling.

“I dismissed her,” he repeats, without flinching.

“Are you telling me that you dismissed her fortoday?” I ask, hopefully.

“No. Forever. She doesn’t fit.”

“Why would you do shit like that?”

“Joseph is afraid of her.”

“Are you crazy? He’s just a little boy.”

“No. Children have better intuition than we do. The woman wouldn’t look in his direction,” he says, confirming what I hadalready noticed in the last interview, “so I picked him up and tried to get closer to her. He was terrified. You know that’s not normal behavior. He never reacts like that to people. Even though he’s not the friendliest child in the world, he doesn’t scream when he sees someone. He hated thepain in the ass miss,and I did too. Get another one.”

“What did she do when he started crying?”

“She seemed irritated. She got up and went to the window, as if she couldn’t bear his crying. She’s no good, Dionysus.”

I run both hands over my face, thinking about what I’m going to do now. “There are no more candidates. Each one has a characteristic that doesn’t fit.”

“We’ll find a way. Even if we need to take turns spending time with Joseph every day of the week.”

Even though I’m pissed that he got rid of a good candidate, I know he did it for my son’s wellbeing. “If I don’t find someone, you’ll have to stay with him so I can go on that business trip in two weeks,” I threaten, partly laughing but still irritated.

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