Page 16 of Balance

“I don’t flaunt my money. But you don’t need to worry about it being a mistake or taking advantage. You’re taking care of my daughters. I want the best, and you deserve to be paid for it.”

She blinks at me repeatedly and shakes her head. “Money has always freaked me out,” she sighs and turns to the fridge, pulling out a ton of items in her arms and starts to chop vegetables on the counter after taking her time washing them in the sink. “Well, if I’m going to be here for a while, I can tell you a little bit about my past.” She clears her throat and shakes her head. “My… parents adopted me as a baby, my birth parents were teen parents and didn’t have the means of raising me, supposedly. My adopted mom was an actress, her husband a director. We lived in LA and traveled a lot, so money and lavish lifestyles are honestly not new to me.

“When I started my period at a young age… They started acting really weird. Parading me around weird parties, oldermen constantly talking to me. I just figured they wanted to finally introduce me to their friends.”

Tears stream down her cheeks and she wipes them on her shoulder.

“I was sold to pay my parents’ debt because their movies kept tanking. Luckily the man that ‘bought’ me was an undercover cop… he was undercover for so many years, that no one suspected a thing. Instead of taking me to a creepy basement, a cage, or a drug den or something, he took me to the police station and I was asked a million questions.” She smiles sadly and sighs. “A social worker took me to a group foster home when there were no available families in the area at the last minute. A few weeks later, a sweet older couple drove all the way down to LA from San Francisco and they took me home.”

I frown… it’s harder to not want to pull her into my arms. “You don’t talk to them? I thought you said you didn’t have anyone or any support? What happened to them, if you don’t mind me asking.”

She shakes her head. “Betty has Alzheimer’s and Francis passed away about ten years ago. Their ‘real’ kids don’t allow me to visit her in her nursing home. They took me off of the visitor’s list and told me they would call the cops if I ever showed up again. I didn’t have the money for legal help, so I just went to school. I think I just kept pushing myself harder and harder, trying to get my ‘siblings’ to notice me, to see that I don’t care about Betty’s money, I just loved her. But they never did. They blocked my number, social media accounts…”

I open and close my mouth several times, I have no idea what to say. “Holy shit… I am so sorry. I wish I had something to add, to say.”

She shrugs and sends me a soft smile. “I received a ton of free therapy from my high school and college. It’s helped a lot. And then all of my health issues after, it just… I’m glad to be out ofthat city, that state. Betty doesn’t remember me at all and she doesn’t have much time left anyway. I’ve made peace with it. At least I was there for her when Francis passed away. Not one of their children came around until Betty was taken to the hospital after leaving the house and going missing for several days…

“She was trying to walk to the high school she met Francis at. So of course her real children took control of her estate, her house, and her money. That’s all they cared about. They already sold her house, her cars… took everything valuable, and are probably smiling while splitting the interest from her bank accounts. Francis was a banker for decades, made his way up to CFO, and she was a real estate agent. They had a ton of money.”

I just shake my head. “I’m an only child… but I’m not close to my parents, as we’ve talked about. I just can’t imagine doing anything like that to my sibling, blood related or not. I still can’t imagine all you’ve been through, you mentioned health issues… are you okay now?”

She shrugs. “I’m on medication for everything now, hormones mostly, like an old woman. Speaking of, I need to head to the pharmacy next week to fill my script. I already called it into the one down the road… Blythe’s I think?”

I chuckle. “Yeah, that’s where I get mine filled, Vince is a great guy. Well, if you ever need anything, if you need a day off for a doctor’s appointment or something…”

She waves it off and puts two casserole dishes in the oven. “I’m perfectly fine now, I promise. I don’t need another checkup for like eight months.”

I try to figure it out without asking a million questions. She seems healthy. If it was cancer she’s obviously in remission, or close to it. I shake out of those thoughts. She's not mine. She’s my nanny and she will tell me if there’s anything I need to know. Especially if it’s something that can harm the children in some way. Like if she passes out or has a seizure or something.Nothing like that was on any of the medical papers with Lindahl’s Nannies though.

“I’m going to go into my office for a bit, call out when dinner is ready?”

She nods and waves me off and I end up sitting with the girls in the playroom instead. I need to get my head on straight. I can’t be attracted to my nanny, even if she looks nineteen but talks like she’s in her forties.

She’s been through so damn much. Teen parents that couldn’t care for her, then being adopted by pedophiles and sick pieces of shit.

What would have happened to her if she was sold to a predator and not an undercover cop? Was that the first time her adopted parents did something so vile like that?

Then everything with her foster family. Fucking hell, she’s so young to have been through so much.

I want to save her, protect her, and comfort her. I want to sue the shit out of those people who are blocking her from seeing her foster parent. I want to murder her first adoptive parents… I hope they’re in prison. I think I was too fucking shocked to ask more questions, it would be a quick internet search away to get my grabby hands on the information.

It’s her past, her life, her trauma. I’m sure there was a lot more she didn’t tell me.

The comments about control, the flashbacks. There must have been more going on in that house for her to have that response. Maybe in time she will open up to me again.

Chapter 6

Lillian

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As soon as Morgan leaves the room, I slide to the floor and let the tears fall. My body is shaking uncontrollably, I have no idea why the hell I would tell him any of that.

He must think I’m a basket case, too much drama, trauma, and insanity to be around his children. Right?

Oh gosh, now he’s going to fire me, isn’t he? I just need to plaster a smile on my face and be normal, show him that none of it bothers me, even if I itch to pick up the phone and call Betty every fucking day.

It breaks my heart that her children pushed me out of her life, all because they don’t think I’m entitled to a penny of her money. I’m not, I never even wanted any of it.

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