The room snapped with tension when Hades made eye contact with Rosy, though. “You’d be wise not to laugh at Franny’s jokes.”
“It’s not a joke, Hades.” Franny lifted her chin and pointedly repeated, “You are a liar.”
His mouth dropped open, and Rosy stared straight at him, her gaze unwavering. “You’re right, Franny. I think he is a liar.”
“We came for snacks.” Franny batted her long eyelashes at Rosy, and Rosy immediately threaded her fingers through the child’s hand to walk her around the kitchen, picking out strawberries and grapes and cookies and chocolate.
Rosy arranged it all on a platter and pointed to the dining room for us to go sit.
Once there, Franny looked up from her massive pile of foodto say, “Well, this was a great idea. Ridiculous to think Dad would be mad about this.”
Although she didn’t directly call him out, Hades blinked a few times before his bottom lip almost pouted. “Franny, you’ve called me a liar, and now ridiculous? I don’t try to lie to you, and I’m not ridiculous.”
“Oh, Hades.” She sounded like she was the adult consoling the child. Then she lifted her binoculars to look through them at Hades as if gathering more evidence. She sighed and lowered them to say, “I think my daddy makes you lie. It’s okay, but I don’t like it, and we should be honest with Ms. Darling. Honesty is best, right?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“She’s living here now, Hades. You and Daddy said you’re my uncle because you live with us and now you’re family, right? She’s going to be family too.”
Hades glanced at me and then back at Franny like he’d been broken, like she’d crushed the heart that obviously belonged to the seven-year-old. “Franny, not everyone who lives here can be family.”
She tsked. “Of course not, but Ms. Darling is. And she doesn’t want to be lied to, right, Ms. Darling?”
Were we still talking about a snack? What else could I say other than “Right.”
“So anyway …” The little girl popped a strawberry in her mouth and chewed before she said, “I think you should go talk to Rosy before she gets really mad at you, because she said you’re a liar too. We’ll just eat snacks here.”
Hades’s frown got deeper, like his whole world was falling apart in front of him. “Are you okay for five minutes?” he asked me.
“Of course.” We’d be fine eating together for a few minutes, but as soon as Hades walked into the back kitchen again, Franny jumped up.
“I think today is the day you should probably see where Daddy works.”
“Franny, why don’t we eat and wait for Hades to get back?”
Curling her lip in disgust, she bolted down to the other side of the room. “Don’t be ridiculous like Hades, Ms. Darling. I’ll show youwhyHades is a liar.”
“Who’s a liar?” Two women that were drop-dead gorgeous, one with a pink bob and the other with brown hair curlier than my own, stood in the doorway of the kitchen.
“Auntie Pink! Olive!” Franny squealed before she leapt into the first woman’s arms, then the other’s. She whispered to them before announcing, “I knew something was happening today. I was just about to take Ms. Darling to the basement. She’s my new nanny.”
“Yes, I heard.” Pink’s gaze was on me, assessing, before she nodded. She had high cheekbones and skin just a bit lighter than mine. Her features were almost fairylike, but her stare was vicious. “You look nicer than I pictured.”
“She’s very nice.” Franny giggled and waved us forward. “Let’s go.”
Both the women eyed me expectantly, as if they were waiting on me to make the decision to leave Hades behind.
I glanced back and forth before stepping forward to follow the little girl in my care. I shouldn’t have. I’d told myself his life was his and a complete secret. I’d made sure to instill that today with a call to my sister. My focus was going to be on rebuilding my life with this salary … and maybe hers.
Still, I had to follow Franny. To make sure she was safe and all that.
“Good choice,” Olive murmured as we walked down the hall. Pink laughed at Olive and elbowed her.
“Don’t reinforce with positivity yet. The girl has to deal with whatever mood Jameson’s going to be in down there.”
“Who cares?” Olive shrugged and glanced at me. I didn’t find myself around other women much, probably because I’d learned the hard way that they could be cruel, but Olive’s eyes seemed warm and kind. And full of mischief. “He hasn’t even invited me over to meet Ms. Darling.”
“Oh, it’s Mia. And I’m sure he had intentions of introducing me to …” I hesitated, looking over the women. Neither of them looked related to Jameson or Franny. “To family.”
