Chapter 27

JADE

I thought Magdalene’s sour attitude would subside after her buzz wore off, but I was wrong. In fact, her attitude is much worse than it has ever been, and I don’t know why. She’s been a total nightmare lately and I’m starting to come unhinged.

“Make sure my son has enough sunscreen on,” she orders aggressively. “I don’t want him coming home burned.”

Even though her bad attitude is in full bloom, she somehow managed to pull herself together enough to shower and comb her hair. Unfortunately, she hasn’t let the wine go just yet. I know she’s not drunk, but I also know she’s not sober. If this goes on for much longer, I’ll be the one needing a drink just to calm my frazzled nerves.

She has some nerve being so nasty to me. I’ve never come home from an outing with Jacob being burned anywhere. She doesn’t even know what his sunscreen looks like, and what’s with this “my son” business?

“When you come home, I want this place cleaned from top to bottom. All your little outings recently have made you lax in your work, and I’m not paying you to half-ass clean,” she groans.

You are pushing the envelope way too far with all these insults and snide remarks.

I have never in my life half-assed anything, ever. Magdalene seems to be going out of her way to be nasty to me. Part of me wants to tell her off and let her know what’s what, and the other half of me wants to cry. I’m usually very understanding, but Magdalene has been going overboard. I try to chalk it up to her hurt feelings over Heath, but right now she’s just being downright mean to me for no reason.

Maybe she’s jealous I’m going out on dates while she’s stuck at home alone?

I double check Jacob’s diaper bag and push his stroller out the door and down the hall to the elevator. He coos and blows spit bubbles smiling up at me while beating on the tray in front of him with his Tiffany & Co. rattle.

It’s good one of us is completely oblivious to what’s going on right now. I just wish it was also me.

Today has been a hard one, especially with Magdalene being on the rampage, so I decide to take a break and head to the park. An hour of pushing Jacob in the swing and going down the slide a million times is the welcome break I need before heading back into the lioness’s den.

If anything, Magdalene is the one who needs to be out here getting some fresh air. It would certainly do her some good. Maybe I’ll get lucky and she’ll get bored and just go shopping.

I don’t really care where she goes. I just don’t want her home when I get back. Her attitude is too much to handle, and I don’t want to confront or ignore her. I’d rather she just left me and Jacob alone as she normally does.

I hate to seem like a tattletale, but maybe I should reach out to Heath and let him know what’s going on. He probably won’t care how she’s treating me, but perhaps he’ll be able to rein her in a little for Jacob’s sake.

I take Jacob out of the stroller, put him in the baby swing, and push him back and forth slowly. He laughs and kicks his feet as I push him higher. It’s been a while since I could spend quality time with him, and this is the break we’ve both been needing.

When Heath dropped him off the other day, he refused to even see Magdalene, demanding that I come get Jacob and his things from the lobby. Talk about crushed, she cried for hours after that happened.

I did my part and retrieved Jacob from his father, but one thing I hate is being trapped in the middle of someone else’s feud.

“It’s not fair is it, kiddo?”

Jacob looks up at me with his big green eyes, poking his tongue between his lips as he blows more spit bubbles.

So carefree and completely detached from the shit storm happening around him.

I envy his innocence so much and wish there was a way to take a piece of it for myself. If I could block this whole situation out of my mind, I would.

My phone rings and I fish it out of my pocket hoping it’s Asher, but my heart clenches tightly in my chest when I see it’s not him on the other end.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath before answering the call. “Yes, Magdalene?”

“Hurry up and bring Jacob home so you can clean this pigsty. I pay you good money to do a job and you’re not doing it,” says Magdalene. “I don’t want to hear any excuses for your laziness, either.”

I stare at the phone in disbelief and prepare to defend myself, but Magdalene suddenly hangs up the phone.

That’s it, I don’t care how hurt she is, I don’t deserve to be talked to like that. I’m going to give her more than a piece of my mind.

I hit the button to call her back, but it goes straight to voicemail. My heart thuds painfully in my chest and I feel a mix of anger and hurt wash over me.

“Let’s go, kiddo,” I say, scooping Jacob up into my arms. “We’ve been summoned back to the lioness’s den.”

I fight to keep my expression carefree as I finish packing up Jacob’s things, but on the inside my emotions are waging war. Tears sting the back of my eyes, but I blink them away, willing myself to present a strong front.

I must maintain my poker face in order to get through this.

Each step I take to the place I’ve called home for months is one more step to uncertainty. Magdalene is in a foul mood, but I won’t just stand by and take it.

I turn the corner and instantly recognize the Rolls-Royce parked in between the buildings.

Asher.

I practically sprint to the car, desperate for what has become my source of happiness over the past few weeks, hoping he’ll be able to say something to make me feel better. As if he’s been waiting for me, Asher immediately opens the door and steps out. I don’t give him the chance to say anything before I fling myself into his arms.

He rubs my back and strokes my hair quietly, allowing me the time and space to unload my feelings as if he could sense my need. A few tears fall, but these are tears of anger, frustration and relentless confusion.

“What’s wrong, baby?” he asks, after a few moments. His term of endearment makes my breath catch. I can feel our closeness, the intimacy both welcoming and overwhelming.

I lean back to see his face and he moves his thumb to wipe away the last few droplets of tears on my cheeks.

“Magdalene,” I blurt out. Her name springs forth from my lips like venom from a snake.

Asher sighs and drops his shoulders. “What happened? What did she say?”

I shake my head and sniffle a bit. “It’s really not so much what she said, but more so how she said it. Granted, she has said some pretty mean things lately, too. She’s being so nasty, and I haven’t done anything that I know to set her off.”

Asher’s jaw flexes and his expression grows cold and distant. He opens his mouth for a moment before waiting a few seconds and closing it without an explanation.

“What?” I ask. “What is it? You look like you want to say something.”

He smiles down at me, but I’ve been with him long enough to tell a real smile, and this one is obviously fake.

“I want to talk to you about something, but now isn’t the time,” he says, motioning to Jacob. He leans down and tussles Jacob’s hair, sending his long curls bouncing all over the place.

“Hey there, buddy,” says Asher. He then picks up a fallen hair from Jacob’s top with a smile.

Jacob shakes his elephant-shaped rattle around and babbles loudly in response. His excitement is so obvious, I regretfully wish I could spend time with just the two of them. Heath never seems to have a true connection with Jacob, and I naturally want that for the boy I’ve grown to love so much, but that’s not Asher’s obligation, so I force myself to let it go.

“I’ve got to go before Magdalene blows a fuse,” I say, excusing myself. “Wish me luck.”

Asher gets back to his feet and wraps his arms around me again. “Don’t worry yourself over Magdalene. Drop Jacob off and leave for a moment to meet at my place. I need to talk to you about something important. I’ll wait for you in the lobby over there.” He points to his condo building as he speaks.

I close my eyes and nod. “You’re my real-life knight in shining armor,” I giggle.

Asher smiles and shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t know about that, but I do try my best to be what you need,” he says. “Go on upstairs so you can hurry back down.”

I pull back from his embrace and exhale deeply. “Okay, I’ll be right back,” I say.

While I’m not a fan of confrontation, I firmly believe there’s a time and place for it. The conversation I need to have with Magdalene is long overdue. I’m a damn good nanny and she needs to respect me as the woman raising her son.

I go back and forth in my head several times as I attempt to cover all the bases of the hypothetical argument we could possibly have. There’s nothing worse than being so upset you’re too tongue tied to get your point across and I know that’s inevitable if I don’t prepare myself. One thing I know is that I have several points to get across and I want them to be as clear and concise as possible.

After the elevator ride, I stop the stroller just inches away from the door and start the search for the keys in my purse, but the door flies open before I find them.

Magdalene stands there, her arms crossed over her chest with her face covered in deep scarlet red splotches.

“I saw you,” she says, pointing her finger in my face.

I push the stroller by her, determined to keep my cool, refusing to let her under my skin. “Excuse me?”

She points her perfectly sculpted acrylic-coated nail with its nude polish to the window. “I saw you down there with my ex,” she says. “You two were hugging and kissing right in front of my son.”

My blood starts to boil as the heat rushes to my cheeks. “I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about, because the man I was just with downstairs is not your ex,” I say, my voice rising with each word. “Obviously, you’ve been hitting the bottle a little too hard today, and your vision is blurred.”

If she wants to play dirty, then we can do that. I know exactly how to fight fire with fire, and I refuse to hold my tongue any longer.

Magdalene folds her arms back over her narrow chest as she smiles confidently. “The only thing that’s obvious is how stupid you are. Asher Jordan is my ex-fiancé. You can even ask him yourself if you don’t believe me. While you’re at it, ask him his real reason for getting close to you, because I know for a fact he tried to be with you so he could get close to Jacob. He’s been hounding me about us getting back together to be a family, and this is probably the only way he thought he could do it. I talked to him recently,” she says, holding up her phone’s call log to my face.

Sure enough, Asher’s number is right there in her phone.

“He wants to prove he’s Jacob’s father so we can get back together. He’s pathetic to think that screwing my nanny would make a woman like me jealous.”

The blood that was boiling in my veins suddenly turns ice cold. I heard exactly what Magdalene said, but I’m having a hard time digesting it. Is this what he wants to talk to me about? Thinking back, I wonder if she was indeed his real target.

Maybe she’s who he was looking for the first day I spotted him with the telescopes, but I just conveniently inserted myself in the way.

Magdalene laughs and pushes her hair behind her ears. “It’s all starting to come together for you, isn’t it? He used you to get to me, but it didn’t work. I told you, men like him use women like us as pawns. You came in here night after night, probably thinking you really meant something to him. Now you know the truth.”

I stumble backwards a little and struggle to catch my breath. My lungs fill slowly as a huge weight sits on my chest, making each inhale a painful but necessary labor.

This must be what he wanted to talk about. There are too many coincidences floating around for this all to be an accident. How do you “accidentally” move into the building next door to your ex?

My heart and stomach both sink to the floor as the room begins to spin. My vision blurs with tears and I take off for my room.

I have to get the hell out of here.

Luckily, I don’t have much to pack, and even if I did, I would leave it all behind because one thing I know for sure is that I’m not staying here a second longer under these circumstances. The one time I let my guard down and allow someone into my heart, he viciously rips it and stomps on it.

I just had my arms around this man, crying into his chest while pouring my heart out to him. I can still smell his cologne clinging to my skin as I rush to make my exit. I’ve experienced heartache before, but this is a new low. This time, not only do I feel failure, but I also feel dirty and used.

I shove everything I can into every bag I can get my hands on and stumble back down the stairs with my whole life wrapped in my arms.

Magdalene is at the foot of the stairs, holding a crying Jacob in her arms.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” she asks.

I stomp by her and head for the front door. “I quit,” I say. “You can have Asher, but I won’t work for you or be in this place for a minute longer.”

“Don’t you walk out on me!” she yells. “You have a job to do!”

Magdalene is on my heels as I rush out of the place and my finger furiously jabs the button for the elevator repeatedly. Once inside, I hit the button to close the doors right in Magdalene’s face across which flashes anger and then fear. Jacob, sensing the emotions, starts to wail.

I hate to leave Jacob alone with her, but I have no other choice.

Alone within the quiet solitude of the elevator, I finally breakdown. My shoulders shake as my entire body tenses and I sob loudly into the palms of my hands.

I don’t deserve this. Nobody deserves this.

Every waking moment I’ve spent with Asher rushes to the forefront of my mind. I doubt everything and believe nothing now.

Lies. Everything has been one big lie. What kind of monster toys with another human being’s feelings like that?

As I think back to our first date, his odd behavior suddenly makes sense now. While I didn’t press the issue at the time, I figured he was reluctant to be out with me because he knew Heath or something. One thing I never could have fathomed is that Magdalene would be the connection that tore us apart. He was with Magdalene, of all people? She clearly has a type… rich.

I don’t want to stay anywhere near here longer than I have to, but I didn’t think about where I planned to run off to. I regret not having a backup plan, but it’s not like I’m exactly thinking rationally.

Maybe I can crash at Rachel’s place until I can figure this shit out?

The elevator reaches the lobby and I don’t even let the doors open all the way before making a mad dash for the parking garage across the street. I have tunnel vision with one thing on my mind, and that’s getting the hell out of here as quickly as possible.