Instead, I straighten my shoulders and meet my future ex-nanny's furious gaze.
"Then I suppose we're both better off ending this arrangement."
Margaret blinks, clearly taken aback by my calmness. She'd probably expected begging or groveling. But I'm done groveling. I'm simply too exhausted for this.
"Fine," Margaret snaps. She adjusts her purse strap and turns on her heel. "You'll receive my invoice by the end of the week and it will include a hairdressing appointment."
She marches down the walkway, her footsteps heavy and deliberate.
I watch her go, my heart pounding, my hands trembling.
Nanny number five. Gone.Shit.
The car door slams. The engine starts. My nanny drives away without looking back.
I stand alone on the porch, the November wind tugging at my hair, and fight the urge to scream into the void.
A few minutes later, I walk into the house and carefully close the front door behind me. The house is as quiet as a tomb. Matthew is curled up on the couch, watching me. His pale-green wings are tucked behind his back and his purple eyes are red-rimmed. He's clutching Mr. Gears, his favorite stuffed robot, and he looks up at me with an expression of pure misery.
"Mom—" he starts.
"Not now, Matthew." I lift my hand, silencing him.
My tone is sharper than I intended, and Matthew flinches. My heart clenches with guilt, but I don't have the bandwidth to soften right now. Because Zoe is standing in the middle of the dining room with her arms crossed, her blue hair wild around her face, her expression defiant and defensive all at once.
"Why did you do it?" I ask, my voice dangerously calm.
"Do what?" She has the gall to lift her chin, all prickly teenage-girl attitude out.
Like I need this. Like any of us needs this.
"Don't play dumb with me, Zoe." I grind between my teeth. "Why did you set a trap to hurt Margaret?"
"I didn't hurt anyone." Zoe's jaw tightens and her wings snap shut. "Margaret's fine. She's exaggerating."
"Fine?!" My voice cracks like a whip. "She had to cut off her hair! You assaulted her, Zoe!"
"It was just a prank!"
"It was a deliberate attempt to harm another person!" I drop my bag on the floor with a heavy thud. I know I'm raising my voice and I should stop, but I just can't. "Do you have any idea how serious this is? She's going to make it impossible for me to find another nanny!"
"Good!" Zoe shouts back, her blue eyes flashing, her wings opening and closing behind her like a dragonfly. "I don't want another nanny!"
"Well, that's too damn bad, because I have to work!" This time, I don't even try to lower my voice. This is too much. "And I need someone to take care of you and your brother while I'm gone. I can't do this all by myself."
"You're always working!" Zoe's voice cracks. "That's all you ever do! Work, work, work! Maybe if you weren't at the office all the time, Dad wouldn't have—"
"Don't." I hold up a hand, my chest tightening. "Don't you dare finish that sentence."
But she does. Of course she does.
"Maybe if you'd been home more, Dad wouldn't have left!"
The words explode out of her like she's been holding them in for months. Which she has. I knew full well this moment was going to happen. I knew I was going to be the bad guy at some point and I know that Zoe doesn't really mean it. She's just lashing out because she's hurt and I'm the only safe person she can direct her anger at.
It still hurts like a bitch.
"It’s like you don’t even want to be here with us!" Zoe finishes, her voice breaking at the end.
