“Am I not meant to check in then? Just trust you.”
“Yes! You just said you believed me then turned about and said you didn’t trust me,” I said, screwing my face up as I exhaled slowly through my nose. “You can absolutely check in, but it doesn’t need to be every hour on the hour with messages every five minutes about whatever you can see through the nanny cam. I’ve never been so closely surveilled in my life.”
“Never? Didn’t your other employers—”
“No, they trusted me.”
“I’m sorry, I find that hard to do.”
“Obviously.”
He looked like he was about to say something else, maybe to crank up this disagreement into a full-scale row, when his phone rang loudly. The sound startled both of us, brash and alien but not entirely unwelcome. “Sorry,” he said as he pulled it out of his pocket. “I need to answer this.”
“Be my guest.”
“Hey, Hannah,” he said, turning away and walking out of the kitchen.
I tuned him out as soon as he left because it wasn’t any of my business. Besides, Matty leaving was the perfect opportunity for me to make my escape and I had to do it sharpish in case he came back.
Throwing my cooked pasta into the sauce, I gave everything a quick stir before scooping it into a bowl. The sauce was so thick and cheesy I could stand a spoon up in it, and if I’d had more time, I’d have put it under the grill to crisp up. But my time was limited, so I put the pan into the sink to soak, picked up my prize, and scuttled off towards the stairs.
Definitely not pausing for a couple of seconds outside the living room to catch Matty’s conversation.
Anddefinitelynot chuckling to myself when I heard a female voice say, “You can be a right prick sometimes.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Matty
“So letme get this straight. Not only did you monitor the new nanny through the cameras, but you also messaged him about what you could see as well as calling him every hour and making him adhere to a, frankly, fucking ridiculous list of demands. All because Jack had a slightly snotty nose and a bit of a temperature?” Hannah asked, glaring at me through the screen and reminding me exactly why most people who saw her coming started quaking in their shoes despite her corporate Barbie aesthetic.
It was making me question why the fuck I’d thought it was a good idea to tell her about everything that had happened today.
Maybe because I’d hoped she would be on my side instead of eviscerating me.
“My God, Matty, I love you but you can be a right prick sometimes,” she added.
“I was just concerned! Jack’s not even three. He could’ve become seriously ill at any moment,” I said as I ran my fingers lightly through my beard and glanced around the sitting room,which was weirdly tidy. Spotless in fact. But I was sure there’d been toys all over the floor when I’d left this morning and a selection of sticky marks on the coffee table from Jack’s cup.
“And do you think…”
“Harper.”
“And do you think Harper wouldn’t tell you if things changed? Did you think he’d let Jack suffer?” She raised her perfectly shaped eyebrows, her questions hanging in the air between us.
“No,” I said. “He’d never do that.”
“Then why don’t you trust him?”
“Because I don’t know him!” I snapped, my exasperation spilling out of me. “Yeah, he’s qualified—probably the most qualified person I’ve ever met—but that doesn’t mean anything. Lots of qualified people are shit at their jobs. You know that better than me.”
“I know, but he also came through one of the best-rated nanny agencies in the UK. And you’ve already told me what a nice person he is, plus it’s obvious Jack adores him,” Hannah said. Her expression softened for a second, the bright LA sunshine visible through the office window behind her. She was right in the middle of her busy day, but she’d still made time for two calls: one to say goodnight to Jack and the other to rip me a new one.
I could have managed without the second.
“Okay, let me frame this another way,” she continued, sipping a large cup of coffee which I knew had enough caffeine in it to flatten a horse. “Why are you okay with me taking Jack for whole weekends once or twice a month but not with Harper looking after him every day when he’s currently living in the same house? It’s not a trick question. I’m just asking.”
I frowned, not sure I understood her point. “You’re his mum.”
