by Alexa Davis
“You might not like school, but you really do have to go. I have your schedule here on my phone…”
Her eyes snapped open, and she gave me a piercing glare. “Trust me; I know all about the schedule. It’s on my phone too so I can see it whenever I want. Everything I do is on that stupid thing.”
Okay, so blowing past the fact that a seven-year-old had a cell phone, clearly the schedule was an issue. I would have to remember that it wasn’t something she enjoyed talking about. I locked that in my brain bank.
“Right, well let’s forget about that for now and get dressed so we can eat.”
“Argh!” Justine pushed herself into a standing position, gave me another look and stomped off to the bathroom.
While she got herself cleaned up, I made my way numbly into the kitchen and I idly washed Mark’s plate. I tried to scan through my brain to work out how I was going to get through to this girl. She had walls up much higher than any other child I knew. I wondered if it had to do with her nonexistent mother.
“Do you want an omelet?” I asked as brightly as I could manage as she finally came into the kitchen.
Justine screwed up her nose in disgust. “Grandma only made me cereal in the mornings.”
This was the first that I’d heard of any grandma, and the fact that Justine mentioned her in a way that suggested she looked after her was strange. Mark hadn’t mentioned that, which was just another secret. Or maybe it was an oversight; things had been very rushed when we met one another. There were lots of things missed out.
“Okay.” I chose not to take the bait. “I can work with that. Cereal, nice and easy.”
Justine ignored me and grabbed her cell phone while I sorted out her food. She looked like a mini teenager sitting there, typing away. I wondered if she was texting other rich kids who also had phones. This truly was a world which I didn’t understand. These kids lived in a very different world.
“What the hell is this?” Justine suddenly shrieked like a banshee. “What the hell is this new thing?” She looked at me expectantly while pointing to the therapist appointment put into her schedule. “I haven’t had to do this before. What’s it all about? What did my dad tell you about it? Tell him I don’t want to.”
I had a feeling that it was new because it had been entered in a different color, but I certainly expected Justine to know about it. I couldn’t believe that he hadn’t told his daughter about this. He’d left it to me. That was madness! I couldn’t believe that he would treat either of us this way. It was awful. I was starting to think that he wasn’t just a forgetful man but one who didn’t care about anything other than his work. I didn’t like that at all.
“I… I don’t know,” I admitted. “I haven’t fully discussed the schedule with your father. He just told me to follow it. I mean, I presume that your driver will know where he’s going, right?”
“Ring him,” she snapped at me. “Ring him right now. I want to talk about it. Ring him, or I will.”
My heart balled up in my throat; I couldn’t let things fall apart within moments of him leaving. I needed to keep a handle on things. “Your father is on a flight now. We can’t get through to him. For now, we just need to get through this day, okay? We can start making complaints tomorrow about things.”
There was an unexpected firmness to my tone which somehow worked. Justine pushed her half-eaten bowl of cereal away, and she jumped up. She chucked her cell phone casually to the side, with no regard for the fact that it was so much better than my own, and she raced into her bedroom, hopefully to get dressed.
As she left, I decided to take a deep look at the schedule, to learn it inside and out. I needed to see if there was anything I wanted to email Mark about. The therapist thing had really thrown me. I didn’t realize that it would go down so badly, and I didn’t want to have a shock like that again. It sucked.
“Right, I’m ready.” Justine’s sulky voice dragged me from my reading. “I need to wait downstairs.”
I nodded and stood up, and we both walked towards the elevator in silence. Anger rolled off Justine in waves; I could tell that today was going to be a very long and unhappy one for her. I wanted to take that burden off her shoulders, I didn’t want her to suffer, but I couldn’t. Not until she decided to let me in.
All the way down, we remained in silence. Neither of us spoke a word until we saw Lincoln on the bottom floor. “Well, hello there, Justine,” he said to her in a charming voice. “How are you today?” She huffed angrily at him, but I could almost see her shoulders unfurling a little bit. “Oh, well I hope you have a good day, Miss.”
Lincoln tipped his hat towards me, and I gave him a genuine smile. He really was a ray of sunshine in this quite bleak morning. I felt glad that he was here; he made me feel at lost less uneasy.
“The car is outside, Olivia,” he informed me. “If you would like to walk Justine to the vehicle.”
I did, because I wanted to talk to the driver. Justine’s therapy session was after school so he could have easily just taken her alone. I got the impression that was the point, but I wanted to go with her. It didn’t seem right to leave her to deal with something that clearly made her uncomfortable all by herself.
I introduced myself and asked the driver to pick me up first. I could have driven myself to the appointment, but since I wasn’t used to New York yet, I didn’t want to trust myself to turn up on time. He agreed, quite happily actually; he didn’t seem too annoyed that I was giving him extra work. If anything, he appeared happy that I wanted to be with Justine. The same couldn’t be said for her; she didn’t even say goodbye to me.
Once the car pulled away, I want back inside, and I made myself one of those delicious omelets. As I ate, I wondered what I was going to do today. I didn’t have enough time to do any exploring, and I couldn’t get lost today, not when I had something so important to do. I suppose I could have sorted out my stuff back home to get it shipped to me, but that wouldn’t take me too long. I was going to be lost…
“Oh…” All of a sudden, the elevator doors pinged open, which made me jump. I leaped up from my seat with my heart pounding, wondering what the hell was going on. I knew no one could come into the house without permission, but still, this felt strange. “Erm, I’m… I’m… Olivia,” I finally stammered out. “The nanny.”
The lady was shorter than me and Hispanic. She appeared to be a little bit older than me, but with a very happy smile. “Hello, Olivia, yes, Mark emailed me about you. I’m Rosa, the housekeeper.”
Ah, now I knew who she was. I could remember her name from the schedule too. The house was so clean, I didn’t imagine that it needed much work doing to it, but immediately I felt ready to help. This way, I could get to know Rosa better. Hopefully, I would learn more about the family since she obviously knew more about them than me, and it would give me something to do.
“It’s nice to meet you, Rosa.” I extended out my hand to shake hers. “Boy, am I glad to have you here.”
Chapter Seven
Mark
Thursday
I couldn’t get used to Tokyo time; I felt all out of whack. I hadn’t been here for long enough to adjust to the new time zone, and I knew I wouldn’t be either. It felt a little exhausted, but I tried my hardest to wipe the sleep out of my eyes. I had a lot that I needed to get done today. My brain scanned over it all as I watched the fascinating Tokyo skyline spread out before me. I did love it when traveling came into my work; it took me to all sorts of wonderful places. If only I could get used to time zones, everything would be okay.
Buzz… all of a sudden, I was distracted by a strange buzzing sound. Buzz, buzz…
It took me a couple of moments, but I soon realized that it was the video calling option on my cell phone. It was far too early in Japanese time for it to be someone from here, so it had to be someone in New York. Justine, of course. As soon as I saw her name on the screen, I knew that I was in for it. At least I had the distance on my side though. If she was about to yel
l at me, it was through the small screen on my phone, not in real life.
“Hello?” I answered the moment I swiped the accept option. “Justine? Are you okay?”
“No,” she shot back sulkily. “I hated today; it was the worst day of my whole life.”
Well, we both knew that wasn’t true, but I decided not to push that fact too hard. “What happened?”
“I had a horrible time with that man you forced me to meet.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I hate him. I don’t ever want to go to that stupid meeting again. I want you to make it stop.”
It took me a couple of minutes in my sleep addled brain to realize what was going on. Of course, the therapist. How had the jet lag made me forget that? “It’s for the best though, darling. I wouldn’t do it if not.”
“Urgh, Dad, you never listen to me.” She threw her hands in the air in frustration. “I hate that.”
“No, I’m not ignoring you, I do understand, it’s just hard for me to deal with when I’m so far away.”
“But, you’re always so far away. What difference does that make?”
I parted my lips a couple of times, trying to think of something to say. In a way, I knew that she was right, but what could I do to make her see it from my perspective? How could I make her understand that I couldn’t do anything to help her? That at work, I was powerful, but at home, I was useless. There was just no way.
“Okay, well whatever, Dad.” She rolled her eyes dramatically at me. “Thank you for that.”
She cut me off, the screen immediately going black. Usually, I would ignore that. I would let my mother deal with the aftermath of one of her moods, but today I couldn’t. For one, my mother wasn’t around, and for two, Justine’s behavior was getting so crazy I couldn’t ignore it anymore. She had been so sweet and quiet at the funeral, asking me the sweetest questions as she tried to process things, but now she was back to being cold and acting out even more so than before. She was always a little bad-tempered, but this was too much.
No, this time, I needed to call back. I instantly hit redial, and I waited for her to pick up. She didn’t answer the first time or the second, but on the third time, a picture started to form on my screen.
“Oh…” I was shocked. Instead of Justine’s surly face, it was Olivia. Her bright blue eyes pierced the screen. “Sorry, I was trying to get through to Justine again; she was in a temper and she hung up the phone…”
“Oh, no, I know. I was in the room listening. I only answered to let you know that she’s locked herself in her room and she won’t come out.” She glanced away from the screen, towards Justine’s room. “I don’t know what to do.” She paused and sighed, looking a little sad. For a moment, I wondered if she couldn’t handle it. Maybe I was going to have to get back on the nanny search again after all. “I can see where she’s coming from though.”
I wasn’t sure why, but those words instantly got my back up. I had a horrible feeling it was something to do with me. “What do you mean?” I snapped back. “Which part was she right about?”
Olivia didn’t seem bothered by my temper. Maybe because it was through the screen. I knew better than anyone how much that could dull the effect of any moods. “I mean about the therapist. He was a real jerk.”
That stopped me in my tracks. “You saw the therapist as well? You went with her?”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “Of course, I did. I wasn’t about to leave her by herself.”
“Right.” Wow. Maybe she was good after all. I needed to continue to give her a chance. “I see. And erm, what happened? How do you know that he was a jerk? He’s supposed to have a very good reputation.”
I’d done my research. I didn’t go into this without thinking it through first. I did an online look into who did the best work, and this man came out on top. What else was I supposed to do? I tried my damn hardest.
“Yeah, that might be so, but he doesn’t seem to know much about…” She paused and chewed thoughtfully on her bottom lip. I sucked in and held a breath while I waited for her to finally reveal all. “Grief.”
Grief… shit. I hadn’t exactly been open and honest with Olivia as to why I needed her. I hadn’t mentioned anything to do with Michelle or my mom. Maybe that was wrong of me; it meant she wasn’t exactly prepared. I sent her into the lion’s den without giving her any ammo to deal with. Shit, I was an asshole.
“Oh right.” I coughed uncomfortably. “I see. So, he isn’t great with, erm…” I sipped my lovely Japanese ice coffee, needing to bide for time for a moment. “Grief? He didn’t do well with Justine then?”
Shit, I was relying on this more than I cared to admit. I needed someone to help with Justine so I didn’t have to deal with it head on myself. I preferred to throw money at the situation instead.
“Yep, he told her, quite firmly I might add, that grieving in silence isn’t helpful and that acting like a… a brat doesn’t help anyone. And he actually used the word ‘brat’ as well. So, that didn’t go down well.”
“He did what?” I felt outraged. I wanted to shove my fist through a wall. Grieving in silence was what we did. And okay, so Justine wasn’t the best-behaved child in the world, but brat was a bit harsh. If only I wasn’t halfway across the fucking world then I would stalk towards the office now and go berserk.
“Yeah. It wasn’t pleasant, I can tell you that much. I mean, I said my piece, but I don’t think I was quite as eloquent as Justine. She might not talk too much, but when she does, she says a lot.”
I smirked to myself, knowing just what Olivia meant. When Justine got going, she really did. For a seven-year-old kid, she was pretty good at expressing herself. But only on her terms. She played by her own rules.
“Wow, yeah, that does sound like Justine. So, I take it she isn’t being invited back?”
“Actually, I told him where to stick it. I let him know that we wouldn’t be going back. Instead, I’m going to find another therapist, one that specializes in grief. I assume that’s okay with you?”
I nodded, silently impressed by her really taking the initiative. “That’s great, thank you.”
“Erm, I also feel that…” She leaned in towards the camera screen, her cheeks tinging a bit with red. “Justine could benefit from you being around at the moment. She seems a little aimless to me.”
Urgh, I hated that. All the good feeling ebbed away from my body as Olivia really overstepped the mark. She had no right to get involved in how I lived my life; that wasn’t why I paid her. I squeezed my fists by my side and resisted yelling at her for saying the same damn thing that my mom always used to criticize me for. My time at work… as if I didn’t need to make a living, as if my business wasn’t important.
“I have to go,” I snapped back angrily. “I have stuff that I need to do. Tell Justine I’ll email her and then I’ll speak to you later on if you need something.” I wanted to make it obvious that I was only available for emergencies. “And if not, then I shall see you when I get back home.”
“But, I—” Olivia tried to interject, but I just didn’t want to hear it. I was angry enough.
“Goodbye.”
I hit the end button on the video call a little too hard while anger bubbled up in my system. Why couldn’t everyone just leave me alone? I was doing what I needed to do; who the hell cared? Why couldn’t they just focus on helping Justine since she was the one who clearly needed it? Not me; I was doing just fine, thank you very much. I didn’t need to be around more because I couldn’t help. I had to be here, making a living. I made enough money to have other people solve my problems for me; wasn’t that the damn point of being rich?
Knock, knock.
I rolled my eyes angrily, not getting a moment to myself. I just needed to stew for a moment, to get rid of all the bad feelings that Olivia gave me before it was on to the next part of this, but clearly not. I swung the door open to see Holden on the other side looking as bright as a damn button. He never seemed to get as affected by jet lag as me; it was so
mething that left me endlessly frustrated.
“What?” I growled angrily, hunching my shoulders up in stress. His presence irritated me. “Time to go?”
“Woah,” Holden chuckled back, filled with mirth. “Someone got out of bed the wrong side this morning.”
“You have no idea.” Urgh, if only he understood my morning, maybe he’d go easy on me.
“Well, you better buck your ideas up. This is a very important investment meeting today, and I need you in top form. I want the best Mark that there is today because he can always win anyone around.”
See, this was why I loved work so much. I could do it with my fucking eyes closed; there was no demand that I couldn’t take charge of. All I had to do now was shake off this mood.
“Let’s go and eat first,” I shot back. “I’m probably just hungry.”
The food in Japan was the best part about coming here, and I wanted to enjoy it as much as I could. I felt certain that it would cheer me up somewhat. I just needed to get Olivia’s face and her words out of my mind before she drove me crazy.
“Okay, if it’s going to get you in form, I’ll feed you whatever the hell you want.” Holden narrowed his eyes at me. “Just don’t screw this up today, okay?”
Don’t screw it up… easier said than done.
Chapter Eight
Olivia
Friday
“Okay, right, well, I’ll see you later then.” I waved awkwardly to Justine. “Have a good day at school.”
She ignored me, purposefully shoving ear buds into her ears. I knew that she’d heard me, but I suppose that was the point. She didn’t want me to think that I was getting anywhere with her at all. I knew that much!
I watched the car pull away with my heart sinking in my chest. I just wanted that poor girl to be happy, but now everyone was mad at me. Even Mark was pissed because I dared to ask him to take some time out of his schedule for his daughter. I looked through his calendar, and he had time for everything but her. It was almost as if he couldn’t see that she was crying out for his attention… at least, I thought she was. Especially after losing her grandmother, the one person who was always a constant in her life. My God, it was a good thing I went to the therapy session with Justine or I wouldn’t know anything. To imagine that she went through all that… it made sense that she acted in the way that she did. Maybe now I would be able to get to her better. Somehow, I hoped that I would find a way to get through, and then Mark would forgive me.