Ex-Convict Nanny and Billionaire Single Dad novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Gate

By nine the board chair was on speaker in the kitchen.

Nate had set the phone on the island between the coffee and the orange juice, and he didn't pick it up.

"I'm going to say this plainly," she said. "Your nanny is on the front page. Our largest customer called me at six this morning. You have one option."

"I've heard it," Nate said.

"Then I'll say it again for the people in the room. She goes today."

I was at the stove making Lulu's pancakes.

I didn't turn around.

"She saved my daughter's life," Nate said.

"And tomorrow she's the reason we lose a contract. Pay her. Be generous. Then put her in a car."

Lulu was at the table in her pajamas, drawing a horse.

"Is that lady talking about Holly?" she asked.

Nate hit mute.

"Yes," he said.

"Tell her no," Lulu said, and went back to her horse.

He unmuted.

"No," he said, and hung up.

I flipped a pancake. My hand wasn't quite steady.

"You can't do that because a six-year-old told you to," I said.

"I did it because she was right." He came and leaned on the counter beside the stove. "But that's going to get louder before it gets quieter."

Lulu had a birthday party at noon.

A classmate in Clyde Hill, ten minutes away, with a bouncy castle and a magician.

She had a present wrapped in unicorn paper and a card she'd signed with three backward letters.

At eleven-thirty I stood at the front window and looked at the gate.

The vans were still there. More of them now.

"We'll take her out the back road," Nate said. "The driver can..."

"No."

He turned.

"If I sneak out the back," I said, "I'm what they say I am. Something you hide."

"Holly."

"I've been hidden for four and a half years. I'm done."

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