Jace
I couldn’t concentrateall day at work.
Silas Construction was a new venture for my company, and they had been looking to us for capital backing. I saw an opportunity for major profits, so I took it. Bringing Elliot with me had been a last-minute idea, and I still wasn’t sure if I did the right thing or not, but when I realized the company was located in Boston…
Well, I didn’t think about it too long.
I had packed up Elliot’s bag and had Jerry pick him up from school on the way to the airport.
Doing what I did meant that I had to travel a good amount of time for work, especially if the clients weren’t located in New York.
Before now, I had foolishly left Camila in charge of his care. I had trusted that she could care for her own son, even if she had never planned on being a mother—no mother could possibly be that cruel to their own kid, right? I was naive, which was fucking stupid, and Elliot ended paying for my mistake.
In an attempt to get my attention, or perhaps in a desperate attempt to escape the title of mother she so willingly took on to stay married to me, she left Elliot alone with a nanny I didn’t know about when he was four.
The nanny had never been thoroughly checked by anyone, least of all by me. If Camila had done her due diligence, she would have seen the woman had a criminal record of child neglect. If I had known, I would have never let such a woman get close to my child.
The woman ended up leaving Elliot alone for three hours, thinking no one would know.
Anger still surged through me at the thought. Anger and guilt.
I should have been there. I should have paid better attention, and I was lucky nothing happened to him that day.
Even still, three hours was three hours too long to have left a toddler alone in his room, and had I not gotten home early from work that day, who knew how long Elliot would have been there.
That was the day I served Camila the divorce papers for the second time. I had the nanny arrested, and I never left Elliot alone with anyone I didn't trust ever again, especially not with his so-called mother.
A few months after the nanny incident, I found out the truth about Elliot’s existence, and I kicked Camila out of our lives for good.
Though everyone said he was too young to remember, it still affected him. It affected his development and his growth, and I could see those effects in the way he never mentioned the mother who couldn’t stay behind for him, in the way he looked at me sometimes, especially when I left a room, like he wasn't sure if I was coming back.
Elliott never mentioned Camila, even though I was sure he remembered her. It wasn’t that long ago that she left.
And for as long as I lived, that bitch would never get close to my son again.
She would do well to remember that.
She knew I got her backed into a corner and that there wasn’t anything left for her in the marriage that I was willing to give.
Especially not since I finally found out the truth.
My phone rang and I looked at the screen. Jensen was calling. And I had about a million things I needed to do, too busy to be taking a social call, but I was thankful for the distraction, and it wasn’t like I was getting any work done sitting here thinking about the past.
I picked up the call and held the phone to my ear.
“Hey, man.”
“Hey, how is Boston?” he asked. I imagined he was in his office, going over the company’s accounts. Jensen worked as the head of Finance at Kinsley Reed Financial. A man with a gift for numbers, and my longest and closest friend.
He knew the trip to Boston was more than just for work, and he knew why I had chosen to take Elliot with me.
I could have left Elliot home in New York with Jensen, one of the very few people I actually trusted with my son’s care, but I had thought it was important for Elliot to be here. I didn’t come here with the intention of hiring Evelyn as Elliot’s nanny, but I didn’t regret the decision either.
“It’s to be expected.”
“Have you met her yet?”
Her being Evelyn.