Page 29

Lux

K eeping things professional in front of everyone was harder than I thought.

After Juliette finally admitted she was mine, I wanted nothing more than to spoil her.

It was the least she deserved.

The more I learned about her—about how she grew up and the people who abandoned her—the more I wanted to make up for all the lost time.

She was so perfect. I knew from the start that she had to be mine. I tried to fight it for so long, but it was hopeless.

It was like everything I’d been looking for my entire life finally showed up on my doorstep in a nice pretty package just waiting for me to open it.

The days passed in a blissful blur. Each day I spent with her seemed more perfect than the last. During the day, we would keep up the facade. We would meet in the kitchen with Bella, have breakfast, and separate for the day so I could go to work and she could take Bella to school.

She would give me updates on what they were doing, I would sometimes reply with a not-entirely-professional thing or two, and then I would come home and have dinner with everyone. Sometimes we all had lunch together.

Then we would spend the rest of our time together before Bella went to sleep. It wasn’t long before Bella started asking Juliette to accompany her during her bedtime routine, which I later learned meant braiding her hair and reading her the bedtime story my sister did.

Bella had come a long way from insisting she did it herself and locking everyone out to padding out in her pajamas when she was ready for Juliette.

I wish one day she’ll trust me that much.

But I was content with this for now. Because at least she was opening up to someone.

And that someone being Juliette had my obsession with the nanny only deepening. She was an integral part of our life. Both Bella and I desperately needed her, and I was unable to hide it any longer.

Once Bella was asleep and everyone had gone home for the day, Juliette would sneak into my bed.

It was starting to feel a little bit unbelievable. Like at a moment’s notice, the powers that be would realize just how well things were going for me and would snatch it all away. I had held onto her extra tight at night over the last few days as the feeling started to weigh on me.

I hated that as soon as things started to feel good in my life there was this overwhelming sense of panic and fear that everything would go wrong.

Even if it would, I tried to push everything to the back of my mind. I tried to enjoy what I had.

“I can't believe she's actually playing with someone,” I murmured as Juliette and I sat next to each other on the grass. My fingers were just barely grazing her hand. I was being extra careful so we wouldn’t get caught.

We were at a large park filled with trees, and the sweet smell of blooming flowers permeated the air.

There was a large playground with a handful of kids, and Bella had found a playmate to play frisbee with.

She was laughing and looking happier than I'd ever seen her. She had been hesitant at first, but after a few minutes, she really got into it, and she was barely looking back at us anymore.

“I know,” Juliette murmured. She shifted so she could brush her fingers across my own. “I'm so proud of her.”

“Me too.”

My heart swelled every time I looked at Bella. Just a measly almost eight months now, she had been a shell of a child. Her eyes were hollow, she would barely eat, she wouldn’t get enough sleep. She had no interest in doing anything, and her grades were slipping.

This was a completely different child. A child reminiscent of the Bella she used to be before her parents died.

That's not to say that there weren’t bad days. She had them for sure. But they were few and far between when compared to before.

“It's all because of you, you know?” I said and stole a glance at Juliet.

She was wearing a yellow dress and a large sun hat, looking perfectly in place at the park. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a little ponytail, and she had accessorized with cute flower jewelry that I hadn't seen before.

She took my breath away. Every single day I saw her. It didn't matter if she was dolled up or in her sweats or in that skimpy pajama set I loved.

She turned to me, smiling, and opened her mouth to say something, but then we both heard, “Why don't you go ask your mom? And I'll go ask mine.”

“Okay!”

Bella ran over to us, grinning, her feet taking her as fast as her small legs would let her. When she reached us, she was breathless. She was wearing a cute yellow shorts-and-tank set that had small embroidered flowers on it.

Bella didn’t have her ears pierced, but Juliette had taken the time to braid her hair and place small flower pins to make up for it. She also wore a matching necklace with a single pink flower in the middle that matched Juliette’s.

“Gloria wants to know if I can go get a frozen yogurt with her!”

She was addressing… me. My mind went back to the first day Juliette came to our house, and she mistakenly called me “Mom” in front of Bella. It ruined Bella's day, but now she didn't even bother to correct the other girl.

It made my heart soar.

I never wanted to replace my sister, but seeing that Bella hadn’t broken down because of the mistake was a huge step forward.

“Yeah,” I said with a smile. “We don't have anywhere to be after this, so that sounds perfectly fine to me. Why don't we meet her there?”

“She said we could walk. Is that okay?”

“I'd like to walk,” Juliette replied and got up, brushing off the remaining grass that stuck to her dress. “Where is her mom?”

“I’ll go find her!” And Bella was off in a flash.

I looked away for a second to send Juliette a wink. One goddamn second.

But that was enough for me to lose sight of Bella.

I was on my feet in seconds, my heart pounding in my chest. I took a moment to find her, just in case I was freaking out for no reason, but after coming up empty, I really started to panic.

“Where’d she go?” I asked frantically. Juliette was by my side, her hand gripping mine as she scanned the park with me.

“I don't see her,” she whispered, fear lacing her voice.

How the fuck did this happen?

My eyes scanned everything. The playground. The place where I saw the little girl she was playing with run off to. All the trees. Various people sitting on the ground having their own small dates. Everyone was happy and smiling, and there was no sign of Bella.

No. No no no no.

This can’t be happening .

We started moving further into the park, getting more anxious by the second, and then I saw her with someone who was all too familiar.

Before relief could even show its head, rage hit me.

I rounded on them, walking as fast as I could, anger boiling in my veins. And then Juliette saw it too, and I watched the fear on her face, even if she wasn’t fully aware of what my mother was capable of.

“Oh no.”

Bella was looking down while my mother’s hands were on her shoulders. All the happiness had drained from Bella's face, and now she was standing there with a frown, looking like she wanted to be anywhere but there.

“Bella!”

Bella’s panicked face cracked my heart as she saw me and ran to me. Juliette grabbed her, hid her behind me, and hugged her, making sure my mom couldn’t get anywhere near her.

“What a coincidence,” she said, though her voice and the look on her face told me it was anything but. And I knew this woman would do anything to try and get Bella.

Even if it meant stalking us.

There was no such thing as coincidence with her. Because of how important her image was to her, she made sure she had everything planned.Nothing surprised her. Nothing rattled her.

And the only thing we had in common was that she would not let something go until she had her way.

“I told you I didn't want to see you again,” I hissed and kept Juliette and Bella behind me. Bella grabbed my hand and held it close to her face. I could feel Juliette shift so she could hold onto Bella tighter.

My mom looked at me with hatred in her eyes.

The thing about my mother was that she had always loved my sister. She had been her first child—the first everything. She was perfect. And while it annoyed me, I loved her. She took care of me when my own mother cast me aside for not being perfect enough.

My mother volunteered at schools. In her community, people knew her as the friendly lady across the street.

But they didn't know that she hated her mistake of a second daughter.

My sister and I did not have the same father. But both of those men decided to leave my mother. I figured that they saw the true her and couldn't bear to be with her regardless of their children.

Nothing I ever did had been enough for her.

I did everything right. I got straight A’s. I never skipped school. I graduated at the top of my class. I went to an Ivy League college. And I owned my own fucking company.

But none of it was good enough because she never wanted me.

Maybe I was a constant reminder of a man she had loved and lost. One who had wanted nothing to do with her. And every single day she saw me, it reminded her that she’d lost him. She’d let him slip out of her grasp.

When my sister died, she was devastated, but she knew that if she could have Bella, she could still keep a little bit of my sister with her.

Her reaction when she found out that I was named the guardian had been nothing short of explosive. I never heard her cuss so loudly.

At first, I had tried to keep their relationship strong.

I thought Bella would need her grandmother.

But after she’d shown up back home, looking broken-hearted and asking never to see her again, I changed my mind.

Bella’s mental health and feelings were more important than any blood ties.

I vowed to never have her near Bella ever again.

But she keeps fucking showing up.

“If you keep interfering like this, I'm going to call the cops,” I warned, the threat clear in my voice.

“You wouldn’t dar?—”