Chapter Six
Kelly returned home the next day to find that April was gone and the usual house staff were also absent. She made her way to her room to get settled and call Oscar, so she could figure out what to do. As she passed the kitchen, she noticed a woman standing in there. She had her back turned to Kelly and she seemed to be looking at something on the kitchen counter. Kelly wasn’t sure what to do, so she opted to clear her throat to get the stranger’s attention. The woman turned around and Kelly was surprised to see that it was Julianna, April’s mother.
“Oh, hi,” Kelly said, walking towards Julianna. She looked surprised to see Kelly standing there.
“Kelly, I presume,” she said.
“Yes,” Kelly replied. “Is Oscar somewhere around here?”
“Oh no, but he called me and told me he wanted me to come back,” Julianna said.
Kelly raised her brow skeptically. From everything she had heard about this woman, she had her doubts that Oscar would ask her to return.
“He did?” Kelly asked.
“Oh, yes. We had a long conversation. I convinced him that I had changed and he told me I could come back home and we could be one happy family again.”
“Well, that’s none of my business,” Kelly said, doing her best not to let her emotions get the best of her. Sure, Oscar had made love to her, but there had been nothing else. He hadn’t called her or texted her, and he hadn’t given her any promises that there would be any future for them. For all she knew, all that had been a momentary lapse for him.
“Where are you going?” Julianna asked.
“I’m going to my room,” Kelly said, turning around to face her once again.
“No, you’re not. You’re leaving. We won’t be needing you anymore, since I’ve returned,” Julianna said.
“Are you serious?” Kelly replied.
“Yes, please leave,” Julianna said.
Kelly could tell she was being vindictive, but there was nothing she could do. After all, Kelly had no claims to this life she had been living for the past few months. All she knew was that she had fallen in love with the little girl she had been paid to care for, and she was only just trying to figure out how she felt towards the father. She was now forced to see that, no matter what she had thought, she didn’t belong here in this family.
“Sure,” Kelly replied, trying to be nonchalant. After all, this was April’s mother, and Kelly had no claims to Oscar.
“I’ll have the rest of your things delivered to you,” Julianna called after Kelly, as she made her way to the door. She called a taxi and waited outside. Minutes later, the taxi returned to get her. She didn’t look out of the window as the taxi took her away. She kept her eyes focused on the gate. There was no way she was going to cry about having to leave this place behind.
“Why are you back?” her mother asked, when she walked through the door. “Did they fire you?”
“No, mom. Well, technically, yes. Oscar’s wife, or ex-wife showed up and told me to leave,” Kelly told her mother.
“His ex-wife. The woman he left and told to stay away from their child?” her mother asked.
“Well, I wasn’t there yesterday. I have no clue what could have happened between then and now,” she replied.
Her mother looked at her for a few minutes.
“Do you have something going on with that man?” her mother asked.
“What! No,” Kelly said.
“You do,” her mother said with a smirk. “Otherwise you would have sent that woman out of the house.”
“Mom, what could I possibly have with a man who is more than twice my age?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?” her mother asked. “That’s why you came here the other night so suddenly. Something happened between you two.”
“You’re crazy, mom,” Kelly said, trying not to blush.
Her mother had always been strangely fascinated by her love interests, ever since she had been sixteen and had brought Allan Dennis, a pimple-faced senior, home to meet her parents.
“What, did he come on to you?” her mother asked.
“It’s complicated,” Kelly said.
“What happened?”
“We, sort of, umm, we-” Kelly was having trouble admitting to her mother that she had got down and dirty with Oscar. “We had a connection,” she lied.
“Wow, a connection, and then what?”
“Then his daughter knocked on the door and we stopped.”
Her mother laughed, making Kelly cringe.
“You’re terrible, mom,” Kelly said, standing and walking away so that she could go into her room.
“So what now?” her mother asked
“I have no idea,” Kelly replied. “I have a month break from school and I don’t have to work, so I think I’ll go with Janice and her family to Europe.”
Janice was Kelly’s oldest friend. As a child she had been aware of their differences, but Janice had never made her feel like less of a person because she had less money. They had grown up together and made plans to travel the world. Recently, Janice had pitched the idea that they travel to Europe to do “country hopping”. Kelly had originally disagreed because of her jobs and the need for money, but now that she had saved up some and her fees had been paid off she didn’t have as much to worry about. Plus, she needed to get away from Oscar as far as possible.