Captured Nanny (The Nannies)

“I … I did, but when I was older,” Rain said. “I imagined being ready to have children, you know. Not … alone.”

“Alone?”

“Our parents didn’t agree with what we were doing and so they pretty much abandoned us. We were eighteen, and we could handle it. We stayed in town and all of that.”

“Did you handle it?”

Tears filled Rain’s eyes, and she gritted her teeth. “I did.”

“But Daniel didn’t have to.”

Her jaw clenched. “You’re taking my words out of context.”

“I’m wanting to understand you, Rain.”

“There’s nothing to understand.”

“You loved Daniel though.”

“Please, stop,” she said.

“But not in the end. You hated him. He was cruel, manipulative, and you hated how he made you feel, because along with it, came the guilt, didn’t it?”

“I think we should order.” This dinner wasn’t turning out how she wanted.

Wolf pushed the glass of wine toward her. “You didn’t answer my question.”

She had the urge to shove the glass of wine in his face. Instead, she cleared the glass.

The waiter came with another bottle of wine. This time, Wolf took the bottle from him and ordered for the both of them.

She turned toward the window, staring out.

“You don’t have to feel guilty for hating the man, you know. I imagine a lot of women would have felt the same way.”

“I do not have to put up with this.” Rain got to her feet.

She didn’t know what the hell she was doing. There was no place for her to run to.

Storming out of the restaurant felt good. Evelyn was back at Wolf’s house, and she would go get her daughter. This wasn’t going to last.

There was no freedom right now.

She took several feet away from the restaurant before Wolf grabbed her arm and spun her around.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asked.

“Getting the hell away from you.” She tried to pull away from him, but he wouldn’t let her go.

“Have you forgotten about Evelyn?”

“Hell no. I will never forget about my daughter. Regardless of what you say, but I don’t have to sit and listen to you judge me.”

“I wasn’t judging you.”

“But you think you know everything, huh? Do you know what it’s like to live with a man who is sucking every single ounce of happiness out of your body? Do you know what it’s like to cling on to the small snippets of love? To wake up in dread in case he’s in a bad mood. Or the goddamn guilt that claws away at you because you wish for just a second that he’d die already just so you can take your daughter and get the hell away from him!”

Rain gasped, covering her mouth with her hands as tears filled her eyes. She was going to be sick.

Chapter Ten

Wolf didn’t get out of the way in time. Rain bent forward and threw up the contents of her stomach, and he imagined most of it was the wine.

He had fucked up in pushing her. The guilt she felt was very much real.

Wolf held her hair back as she threw up.

“Oh, God, this is … I’m so sorry.” Her body was shaking, and as he put a hand to her forehead, he winced. She was burning up.

Pulling out his cell phone, he called his driver, and within seconds, he had her in the car, curled up against his side.

She shivered in his arms. “I … I’m cold.”

But she was hot to the touch.

She had gotten sick on his pants and shoes. The car was filling up with the stench, and it was making his stomach recoil.

He rolled down the window, removing his jacket and wrapping her up, so she didn’t get too cold.

“I’m a horrible person,” she said, in between chattering teeth.

“You’re not a horrible person.”

“Who wishes their husband dead?” She shook her head. “He was so mean. He said he hated Evelyn and wished we’d never gotten married.” She sniffled. “He told me I was ugly. That he took pity on me because no one wanted to be my friend. It was like he turned into this whole other person.”

“I imagine he was afraid.”

“Of what?”

“Of dying.”

“He knew he was going to die. He would make jokes about it in the beginning.”

“And at the start, you had a good life, right? A happy one?”

She nodded.

“And it made him realize what he was going to lose. You and Evelyn. He was never going to make love to his wife, nor walk his daughter down the aisle. He couldn’t even take her to the park. His wife was doing everything, and from what I can tell, Daniel was once an active young guy.”

Rain smiled. “Yeah. When we were kids, we’d have races together. He wouldn’t stop. His parents would go crazy with trying to control him. He was a force to be reckoned with. I struggled to keep up with him, but every single day was an adventure. He was the man I fell in love with.” Rain sighed. “We’d been best friends since before we were in kindergarten. Our mothers went to the same baby group or something. When we got to kindergarten, we were inseparable. We were besties. We shared our first kiss together at ten. His lips were too wet. He told me we were going to be married and grow old together. When I think about him, I … he was everything, but he changed.”