That came out wrong, but I wasn’t going to admit it. Dragging a hand down my face, I tried my best with a different angle. “I don’t have time for bickering, but you’re staying … For your safety. And for my daughter’s well-being.” The latter was mostly what I cared about, what I needed her for.
“And how long will I have to stay for that?”
For as long as my daughter needed. Mia’s needs weren’t my concern. But my daughter’s love for her was. With me workingovertime to ruin everyone who’d threatened my child, she would need stability.
And the idea that Franny was being targeted as leverage meant my relationship with my daughter had to change too.
Everything had to change, but not at the detriment of Franny if I could help it. If Mia could help it.
I’d keep the nuisance here as long as necessary. Instead I answered, “At least until the end of the summer.”
She spun around, as if looking to grab anything of hers she might be leaving behind. My crew had packed most of her belongings, and she hurried over to her purse and a duffel. “I think leaving today is better.”
“You’re not leaving, Ms. Darling.” I waited a beat. “You’ve signed a contract that commits you to providing services to the children of the academy for the summer. Do you recall?”
“That … was a job offer.” Her hands fisted together enough that her tan knuckles whitened. “Look, let’s be frank. If you’re keeping me here because of what I saw, honestly, I barely talk to my older sister, and definitely not my parents. I … don’t have many friends. I won’t tell anyone—”
“You could tell the whole world, Darling. No one would do a thing. You’re here because Franny will need you this summer.”
She pinched her lips together before murmuring, “Someoneshotat your daughter and me. We had to hide in a crawl space. I should have been made aware that there was a possibility I would actually have to use such a thing.”
Fuck, did she want an apology? I wasn’t born a gentleman or a businessman. I’d grown up with a father that wasn’t and a mother that could endure the most brutal shit in the world. Kindness was only a tool where fear and power were threaded behind it as a base.
Still, Mia Darling was a necessity, because I had a daughter that I didn’t want raised in the same type of world I wasraised in. I hated admitting fault, but I appreciated that she’d included my daughter in her worry, nonetheless. “I should have had better control of that situation, Ms. Darling.”
That’s all she would get from me.
She raised a dark eyebrow and crossed her arms as if she wanted more. “I agree. And then your response was to kill them and choke me. Can you at least control your response in the future?”
What the actual fuck? Was she now reprimanding me like I was the child here? “You’re using the wordchokevery loosely. If I’d choked you, you’d be dead.”
“That’swhat you want to argue about?” she almost screeched as she threw up her hands. After snatching her purse up, she shoved it over her shoulder. “You know what? You have a beautiful home from what I can tell. And an absolutely perfect daughter. I don’t know what type of life you’re living here, but I know I want no part of it because it must not be legal.”
“Jump to a conclusion like that, you’ll find yourself in a hole you can’t crawl out of.”
“It doesn’t really feel likeI’mthe one in a hole here. I mean, were those people there for you yesterday, or for your daughter?” I opened my mouth to answer, but she continued. “Actually, don’t even tell me. I don’t want to know. That way, I can wash my hands of this more easily.”
It was actually best she didn’t learn more about my life. She only needed to be involved in my daughter’s. “So easily? So you don’t care about my daughter at all then?”
“What?” Her stance snapped upright, and those pretty brown eyes ignited with a blaze that was wild. “Don’t twist my words when it comes to my students.”
“You’d leave her?”
She frowned, and I knew I had her. She’d need to stay, but I could warp her perception if that’s what it took. She gripped herpurse so tightly I saw the whites of her knuckles as she fought with herself on what to do.
“My daughter still needs a teacher.”
“Teachers don’t live with families—”
“A nanny that teaches, then. Franny would be devastated if you left. Surely you can adjust to a new environment for one of your students.”
As if on cue, my innocent little girl came barreling into the room. “Ms. Darling!” she cried, and the woman’s face changed from fury to pure, unfiltered joy.
“Franny! Oh, my sweet Franny.”
I might as well have not been in the room in that moment. My daughter flew at this woman like a chick finding comfort in a mother hen.
And Mia Darling welcomed her by dropping to the ground to catch and curl around her like she could protect my daughter from the world—and from me. Her eyes filled with tears instead of anger as she soothed Franny, who was now sniffling in her arms. Mia didn’t look at me but focused solely on calming my child.
