The Billionaire's Nanny

Family dinner

It was a night to celebrate, yet I could not bring myself to shake off the bad mood seeing that room had put me in all week. Mia's fiancee, Mason had returned and he was meeting the family for dinner tonight. Lucas had noticed my change in behavior towards him, but he was too busy this week to acknowledge it. He had asked a few times why I was gloomy, to which I told him I had caught something and felt a little under the weather.

I could not tell which hurt more, the knowledge that he had still not let go of her after those many years or the fact that he was too busy to care about how hurt I was. He was thoroughly occupied with trying to fix the security breach at the Milan branch and I feared he would have to travel there himself to fix things. Mia and Lilan frequented their visits and that was a more than welcome distraction for me, after Sarah's last message left me on edge.

With enough space between us in the last few days, it had been easier to go on without telling him the real reason I was upset, but dinner tonight would make it harder to keep that up.

Celine had managed to give a reply to my texts before I made the choice to go to the cops searching for her. She had asked for a week's break to collect her thoughts and apologized deeply for worrying me. I hated the fact that I could not do enough to console my best friend seeing as she was halfway across the world and would not even give me her whearabouts. I would fix that though, the moment she got back here.

"Are you cold?" Lucas asked as we pulled into the driveway. He gave me a genuinely worried look that reminded me of the Lucas I knew before all of the secrets began tearing us apart. I was one to talk though. I had gone into the room he had strictly forbidden me from entering, but I was sure my disregard for his rule would be greatly overlooked when he found out that I knew he had kept a whole room dedicated to his ex-wife whom he claimed to not feel a thing for.

"I'm fine," I answered more sharply than I intended to.

He opened his mouth to speak, but the sound of the kids struggling to get the back door open stopped him. He opened it up from his side and the kids skipped with glee out of the car, racing through the walkway that led to the mansion.

"What's wrong Chris?" he asked wrapping his warm palm around my thigh.

So you're no longer too busy to notice? "Do you think this is okay?" I held up the bottle of wine we had gotten for his parents on our way here.

"It's my mom's favorite," he pushed the bottle down slowly, "what's going on? I know you were lying about catching something that made you sick and I didn't push it because I want to respect your boundaries, but I cannot have you hiding whatever is wrong from me anymore,"

"I would not be the only one would I?" I gave him a rueful smile and pushed the car open before he got a chance to comprehend what I meant.

"Christine!" Mrs. Maxwell called as I crossed the threshold of the house. She made her way to me in hurried steps and grabbed me in a squeezing hug. It was not hard to tell where Mia got her tight embraces from.

"It's so nice to see you again Mrs. Maxwel," I smiled, hugging her back.

"Oh stop it dear," she feigned a frown, "I told you to call me Martha. My oldest son is only in his thirties."

"I apologize, Martha," I said following her lead past the lobby to the living room. My eyes took in the surroundings around, admiring for a second time the decorative pattern of the house and of course the piano that sat next to the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the pool outside.

"No need to sweetie, whatever errs you make tonight are already forgiven by me before you even make them," She said with a playful wink.

"Oh," I said, barely hiding my confusion and surprise. I had a feeling that had to do with the fact that she already knew about mine and Lucas's relationship. At least that was a good enough hint that she was happy about it. "I brought you this," I gave an earnest smile and handed the wine to her.