9 Chapter 8

Something was fishy about this woman and it was not just about her non-existent background information. Well, that too. Rina had done a background check on Bella Clair and apparently, the woman had not existed until a week ago.

At the risk of sounding like a total asshole, I had run a background check on Bella while she was on her way here. She had hung up on me when I called to offer double the amount she had been promised earlier if she took up the job she had rejected because I was a jerk to her. Then I let Rina talk to her. I had no idea what my assistant told her but women knew each other best. Whatever, as long as my daughter was taken care of.

In the end, she had agreed to come—even though it was half an hour to midnight—but made it a point to let me know she was only doing this because Aurora was her little friend. I should have been grateful and respected her privacy, right?

Wrong. It might be urgent but I was not letting anyone spend hours with my daughter on her own unless I knew everything about them. Which brought me to my current predicament.

Forget about bumping into each other in Rome, only to appear in the same city at the same time and then happen to be browsing the internet for jobs on the same day my advertisement was published. Even if all these were coincidences, how come this woman didn't exist a week ago? And why was she so oddly familiar?

She must have felt me staring at her. She looked up and when our eyes met, she flashed a smile. Heavens, she was beautiful. Aurora had taken off the oversized glasses she had on earlier and I had to admit, her eyes were everything I had imagined them to be beneath the glasses. They were big and blue and had a sparkle I had definitely seen before but couldn't remember where. Which reminded me. I needed to get to know her before I left her alone with my daughter.

"Bella, can I go to the little girls' room?" Aurora asked.

"Of course. Do you need help?"

I chuckled when she scrunched her little nose. "No. I'm a big girl." She then made a dash for it and I used the chance to take the seat I had avoided—the one opposite Bella.

"So, Bella Clair?"

She looked up at me oddly.

"Are you going to ask me to stay away from your daughter again? Because if I remember correctly, I was doing that until you called me an hour ago and begged me to come."

The way she said 'begged me to come' had my brain conjuring up images that had no business existing in my mind. She was my daughter's nanny, for fuck's sake. Well, maybe for a day before she called it quits and ran for the hills like every other nanny before her anyway.

"Your background came out clean. Way too clean if I might add." I said, hoping she got my meaning.

She did, but she merely grinned. "Maybe that's because I'm not a criminal? Why were you checking my background anyway? Don't you trust me?"

"Should I? When we first met, you had your hand holding my daughter's." I reminded her. I had almost had a heart attack.

She rolled her eyes. "And when we first met, you had abandoned the said daughter in the bathroom on her own."

I swallowed. That was not true. Aurora had insisted on coming with me to Italy on my business trip so we had brought her newest babysitter along, who stayed with her most of the time while I worked. The two of them had gone shopping and even bought a few gowns for her upcoming play and then they had joined me for lunch, so imagine my horror when the babysitter took her to the restroom, only to storm back to the table in tears and throw my credit card at me before bolting for the exit.

My first instinct had been to find my daughter, and then I saw her, holding hands with a woman I had never seen before.

I ran a hand through my hair. "I'm sorry for how I treated you in Rome."

She shook her head. "It's not okay but I kinda get it. I would freak out if my daughter took off with a stranger."

I felt compelled to tell her what happened so I did. "She didn't even demand her pay and paid for her ticket back to Hustace from her pocket. I imagine the rates are sky-high during this time of the year. I wanted to punish her for being heartless enough to leave a little girl on her own in a public restroom but again, heaven knows what Rory did that set her off."

Bella scrunched her face. "I don't understand. Rory is a sweet girl."

"She is." I agreed with her. "Let's just say you wouldn't use 'sweet' to describe her when she has a meltdown. PTSD."

"Oh." She didn't give me the look everyone did when they learned what Aurora was struggling with. It was a relief to not have to tell her it was nothing to be sorry about.

"Tell me about yourself." I steered the topic to what I wanted to know the most. "Since your background check claims that you existed a week ago. I don't believe in the existence of aliens so, who are you?"

"Santa's elf? He forgot about me when he took off for the next home on Christmas Eve." She laughed and it was contagious. "But seriously, I have no idea why your investigators didn't get anything about me. I'm…"

She looked at me as if changing her mind about telling me what she wanted to say. She sighed and shifted in her seat. "What do you want to know?"

"Is Bella short for anything?" I was most curious. "Anabelle? Arabella? Isabella?"

"Just Bella." She swiped a strand of hair behind her ear.

I nodded, following her hand with my gaze. She had said she was married in our previous argument…

Don't ask.

Don't fucking ask.

"When you said you were married, were you…trying to tell me off?"

It took moments for her to respond and when she did, she shook her head. "Actually, I'm really married."

Disappointment crept into me. What was wrong with me?