Chapter 3
CARA
Five Years Later…
As the car pulls up outside the mansion, I draw in a deep breath, trying to contain my surprise. It’s one thing seeing it online and in pictures, it’s quite another to be confronted with it face-to-face like this for the first time...
My new home. Hard to believe that a place like this could ever be called mine, even if I’m just working here.
In the two weeks since I got confirmation that I had landed the job, I had kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for them to change their minds and decide that they wanted someone else for this position entirely.
I mean, I wouldn’t have blamed them; it’s not as though I’ve a huge amount of nannying experience, beyond taking care of my own daughter, and no matter how much I puffed up my resume, I was surprised that I had gotten away with it.
“Wow!” Nina gasps, as she leans down to peer out of the car. “Is this it?”
I nod, reaching across to give her hand a squeeze. “It sure is,” I reply. “What do you think of it? Our new home?”
She stares for a moment, clearly just as shocked as I’m that we are actually here, actually doing this. “It’s....big,” she replies, and I laugh.
Understatement of the century.
“Mhm,” I agree, as the gates slide open in front of us, and the driver takes us up the driveway and towards the steps that lead to the front door.
A water feature sits just outside, a man grappling a serpent carved in marble that spews water from its open mouth.
Whoever lives here, they must have a serious amount of money to their name—not that it should have surprised me, given the pay packet that I was getting for my newfound job.
And the NDA probably meant something, too.
The driver pulls open the door and gestures for me to get out, and I do as I’m told, slipping out of the vehicle and catching my breath as I stand there and gaze up at the towering building before us.
With two large spires that reach up to the sky on either side, it looks like something out of a fairytale, and I wonder, briefly, just what kind of beast lives in there that he called on me to take care of his son for him.
Snap out of it, Cara. I’m letting my head get the better of me, and I need to keep it as professional as possible.
“The security guards inside will show you to your new quarters,” the driver tells me, as he leads me up the steps, pushing open the door so that Nina and I can go inside.
I try to take in what he is saying, but the sight of the entry hall is enough to stun me into silence for a moment.
It’s this great, sprawling space, immaculate dark wood flooring and wall panels gleaming under the golden light as far as I can see, only interrupted by a few paintings and sculptures that line the walls.
A huge staircase leads off to the floor above, carpeted with deep red that looks like it belongs more in some European palace than a house on the outskirts of Chicago.
“Um, thank you,” I mumble, as Nina slips behind my legs, clearly a little nervous at the enormity of everything we are looking at right now.
The most I’ve ever had to my name since she came along is an apartment on the East side, hardly the most glamorous place to raise a child, but this.
.. This might actually be exactly what she needs.
A man I assume to be a security guard approaches us, greeting me with a nod. He extends his hand to mine.
“Viktor,” he introduces himself. “I’m the head of security here. This way, please.” He speaks with a slight accent that I cannot place immediately, but I brush off my curiosity as I follow him.
All the stuff from my old apartment has been packed up and put into storage for the time being, since one of the details of the contract was to leave behind everything. They’d said they would provide all that we could possibly need here, and I guess I’m just going to have to trust them on that.
I brush that thought aside as Viktor keys in a code to a keypad that sits next to a large wooden door.
There is a hiss of hydraulics, and a moment later, the door pulls back, to reveal a corridor that is lined with a few sculptures like the one I saw outside—snakes in marble, curling up towards the ceiling, their mouths open and their fangs practically glistening with venom.
What kind of person owns this place?
“You’ll be staying here,” Viktor continues, as he pushes open a door that leads to a small apartment-like area. “There’s a kitchen, though Marsha will provide most of your meals so you shouldn’t have to cook much. Two bedrooms, there, and there. And a small living space here...”
I follow him into the living room, where my eyes widen once more. Small? This is what passes for small in a place like this?
A large television dominates one side of the wall, and an enormous couch sits in the middle of the room, next to a coffee table that I can already tell will be perfect for all the board games that Nina likes to play.
I feel a pang in my chest when I think of how many we have left back in the storage locker, but I brush it off. T
his is for the best, for both of us.
“Maxim stays across the hall,” he continues, gesturing towards the area where the little boy I’ll be taking care of will be living.
My heart skips a beat. God, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to keep up with this.
I know that I swore up and down on my application I knew exactly what I was doing with a little boy, but honestly, I’ven’t nannied for more than a few hours at a time before this. I’ven’t even met this kid, and it’s hard not to worry that I’ll find some way to screw up this opportunity...
“Of course,” I reply, realizing that I’ve just been standing there in silence. “Uh, we have today to get settled in before work starts though, right?”
Viktor nods. “And the Pakhan will be down to meet you tomorrow,” he replies.
I wrinkle my nose, confused. “The Pakhan...?”
He clears his throat. “The head of the household. Maxim’s father,” he explains.
“Okay, thank you,” I reply, as I draw Nina to me, letting her lean against my legs so she can steady herself.
As much of a change as all of this is for me, it’s triple that for her.
She’s only known one way of life for so long, and that’s the one the two of us shared in those tiny apartments I called home for so long.
She’s never complained, never once brought up the fact that all of her friends from kindergarten have actual homes to live in instead of studio apartments, but as she gets older, I can’t help but wonder just how much of a gulf it puts between her and the people around her to feel that kind of difference.
“Your security pass is on the counter,” he continues. “And the code to the keypad changes daily, you’ll need to scan the code on your pass to get it every morning.”
“Every day?” I reply, incredulous. I mean, I guess I can see why someone like this would want to keep a close handle on everything in their life, but changing the code day in and day out seems kind of... excessive, to say the least.
“Every day,” he replies calmly, not missing a beat, seemingly unmoved by my surprise.
“Oh, okay,” I mumble. “I–I guess I can keep up with that. Is there anything else I need to know, or...?”
“Anything that comes up, you can call Marsha on the intercom,” he replies, gesturing to a small metal box that sits just next to the doorway. “She handles household matters, she’ll be able to help you.”
“Thanks,” I mumble. I feel, for some reason, as though I’m in some sort of trouble, as ridiculous as I know that sounds.
It’s always that way, whenever someone starts telling me how things are going to go.
It’s like I just snap back into that younger version of myself, the one who couldn’t seem to do a damn thing right.
I can still remember, all too clearly, the way my mother would glower at me as she pressed her hand against the Bible, as though some force would magically make me comply.
Viktor nods one last time, and makes for the door, finally leaving us alone in this new home. I glance around, taking the place in, chewing my lip as I try to wrap my head around it.
So, this is it, then—my new home, my new job, all wrapped up into one.
And it’s being treated as though it’s a bank vault, the security measures enough to keep anything and anyone under wraps.
But what kind of threats have been levelled against this place to make something like that feel neccessary?
And what exactly have I brought my daughter into?
“Mommy?”
I look down at Nina, who’s gazing up at me with those big, brown eyes of hers, the ones that can cut right through me in a matter of moments. I plaster a big smile on my face, not wanting her to feel for an instant that she has anything to worry about.
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“Can I see my new room?”
“Of course you can,” I reply, and I hold my hand out to her, allowing her to lead the way. I want her to feel excited about this place, God knows she deserves to. She’s had far from a conventional childhood, at least so far.
With her father not part of her life, it’s only be me taking care of her.
Well, my sister too, of course, but that’s different.
I’m distinctly aware of the fact that she’s going to start noticing how her family doesn’t look the same as the families of the kids around her, and, eventually, I’ll have to tell her why her father isn’t around.
Though I’ve not figured out exactly how I’m going to handle that conversation, that much I’m sure of.
Because how in the hell do you tell your little girl that you hooked up with a guy one time five years ago, and you didn’t even get his name or see his face, but that you fell pregnant from a single encounter?
And that, while she’s the best damn thing that’s ever happened to me, I don’t even know the name of the man who helped me bring her into the world?
Not even Sophie knows about the truth of how my little girl came to be born, and that’s how I want to keep it.
I can still recall, with a startling clarity, the moment that I looked down at the pregnancy test and saw those two little pink lines staring back at me, the way my heart sank like I had been punched in the damn gut.
Knowing that I didn’t have family to fall back on, knowing that I would have to do this virtually alone, knowing that even the man who had been part of this would never find out about his little girl. ..
I had thought about digging through the invitations for that night at the gala, but I doubted it would have been any use.
Even if I could somehow match a name to the man who took me to his hotel room that night, what are the chances that it would actually turn up anything useful?
He might have given a fake name, anything to disguise his true identity.
And even if I did manage to dig him up, how would he feel that I had waited so long to get in touch with him?
And besides... I know what it means, to get involved with the wrong kind of man.
To choose the wrong person to have a child with.
When my mother married my father, I doubt that she could have imagined the hell he would rain down on all of us—or maybe it was what she had always wanted, given how she had allowed him to control us so harshly.
Regardless, I would never be able to forgive myself if I had accidentally invited a man like that into my daughter’s life, not after everything I had been through.
“Hey, this looks great!” I exclaim, trying to keep my voice as bright as I can as we check out her new bedroom.
Hell, it must look like a damn palace to her, given that she has never had a room of her own before.
There are books here, a closet that looks to be full of clothes, and a bed more plush than any I’ve ever slept in before.
I drop down on to the duvet, patting the spot beside me, and Nina leaps up next to me. I put my arm around her. “You like it, sweetheart?” I murmur to her, pressing a kiss against her forehead.
She nods. “Yeah, I do!”
“Good,” I reply. And, as I squeeze her close, I pray to God that I’ve made the right choice—and whatever these intense security measure are here to protect us.
Not trap us.