Caleb hid behind me.
Noah started crying.
Luke ran.
I found him in his closet, shaking, the dinosaur pressed against his face.
“I don’t want to go with her,” he sobbed.
“You’re not going anywhere,” I promised.
But I didn’t know if that was true.
The visitation was a disaster.
Vanessa tried to hug Evan and he flinched.
She brought Caleb a toy he’d outgrown three years ago.
She called Noah by the wrong name.
And when Luke refused to come out of the closet, she snapped.
“This is what you’ve done to them, Adrian. You’ve poisoned them against me.”
“I didn’t have to,” Adrian said coldly. “You did that yourself.”
Her eyes narrowed.
Then she looked at me.
“And who are you?”
“The nanny,” I said.
Her smile turned sharp.
“How convenient.”
Something in her tone made my skin crawl.
After she left, Adrian pulled me aside.
“Be careful,” he said. “She’s going to come after you next.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re the one they love.”
He was right.
Two days later, Vanessa’s lawyer filed a motion claiming I was an unfit caregiver.
That I had no credentials.
That I was living in the house inappropriately.
That I was alienating the children from their mother.
