Chapter 3

**Five years later**

**New York**

The 22-year-old college graduate Kelly was really excited about her new job.

One of the richest families in New York, the Lanton family was looking for a full-time nanny for their five-year-old only heir, Charlie Lanton. And it took Kelly two months to pass all sorts of investigations and interviews to finally get the job.

In the morning, Kelly got up at 7 a.m. She quickly dressed up and packed the last piece of her luggage before she checked around her apartment for the last time. After making sure everything was well-prepared, she went downstairs with her suitcases and saw the luxurious limo already waiting at the front door.

The driver took the suitcases and opened the car door for her politely.

Kelly sat in the backseat of the limo, feeling her heart pounding violently.

The Lanton family was not only exaggeratedly wealthy but also full of mysteries. There were rumors that they were actually vampires who immigrated from Europe. That was why every single male in the family was abnormally handsome and they didn’t seem to age.

Kelly had been a huge fan of urban fantasy since middle school. She was really looking forward to meeting those “vampires” in person.

The car drove all the way to the east at a fast but very steady speed. Soon, it took Kelly to an area she didn’t even know existed before today.

It was like a national park that wasn’t on the map, with intimidating old-growth trees all over the place. While the limo speeding along the well-paved asphalt road, Kelly saw a white-tailed deer running in the woods hurriedly being chased by a huge gray wolf. But the car moved really fast. They both disappeared before Kelly could get a good look at them.

After another half an hour’s soundless driving, the limo finally stopped in front of a huge three-story white villa.

There weren’t any gates or walls around the building. The limo stopped right at the front door. A uniformed young male servant had already been waiting there. He opened the car door for Kelly and took her suitcase. Kelly followed him and went inside the house.

It was the end of September, the very beginning of the cool autumn. The sun outside was bright, but somehow inside the house was abnormally cold. Kelly couldn’t help but hug her shoulders to keep warm. The decoration inside the house was elegant, neat, and modern. The ceiling was extremely tall; the space was huge. Weirdly, Kelly still felt the air inside it suffocating.

It indeed felt like a vampire’s house!

Kelly felt the hairs on her back stand up, but mainly out of excitement instead of fear.

She waited alone at the guest hall beside the stairs at the servant’s guidance, then heard vague arguments coming from upstairs.

Some woman yelling, “Fuck you! Vincent Lanton, you impotent wretch! Go fuck yourself!”

No voice replied to that, just an enormous slam on the door then a string of scary noises of glass broken.

Kelly widened her eyes. She had never heard vampires could be impotent, and she certainly shouldn’t have heard that argument!

There were angry footsteps from upstairs coming closer. Kelly panicked and tried to find a place to hide, but there wasn’t any.

Soon, a tall black-haired woman showed up at the top of the stairs. She seemed to be a beautiful woman with that customized clothes and expensive necklace she was wearing, but the furious look on her face made her look like a ferocious predator, very scary.

Seeing Kelly standing downstairs, she stopped at the top of the stairs and stared at this strange girl with uncovered venom in her dark eyes.

Kelly shivered under that gaze, but she wasn’t going to back off because of it.

She stretched her lips into a big, shining smile, then waved her hand to that woman.

“Hi, I am Kelly,” she introduced herself with enthusiasm in her voice. “The new nanny.”

The woman replied with nothing but hate in her eyes to the enthusiastic new nanny. She stared at Kelly for over one minute, then thumped down the stairs with her exaggerated high heels and stormed out the front door.

Kelly couldn’t help but pull a silly face. She certainly didn’t expect to walk into such a huge family drama on her first day of work.

She waited downstairs alone for two more minutes, then heard footsteps coming from the hallway at her right side of the guest hall. She turned her head curiously, then saw a middle-aged tall woman show up.

She was in a black uniform similar to the male servant, but had a very stern face and a pair of cold grey eyes. Kelly then knew she must be the housekeeper of this mysterious family.

“Hi,” the young girl waved her hand to the housekeeper, and introduced herself again. “I am the new nanny, Kelly.”

The housekeeper eyed Kelly closely. After making sure Kelly was indeed the selected girl, she turned back to the hallway, gesturing for Kelly to follow.

“I am the housekeeper here. You can call me Mrs. Mead as the others. You’ve already signed the confidentiality agreement. You shall remember. Everything you see and hear in this house will be confidential. You can’t release it to anyone, or else you will be sued by the family’s legal team and sent straightly to the prison,” the housekeeper said in her unsurprisingly harsh, cold voice while leading Kelly to walk through the hallway.

Kelly nodded her head.

“Yes, of course, I remember!” She replied with excitement in her voice, deeply convinced that she was now inside the cold vampire’s nest. “I will keep my mouth zipped tight! I swear!” She made the gesture.

The housekeeper cast a cold glance at Kelly. She really hated the playful attitude of this crazy young gal, but the pack’s doctor said that was what the Alpha’s son needed—someone who was extraverted and actually happy.

She led the young girl to the little boy’s bedroom on the first floor.

Before they went inside, she stopped and asked Kelly again, “You remember the most important rule to be around Charlie?”

Kelly quickly nodded her head. It was a strange rule, but she had already carved it into her brain.

“I can’t force him to speak or show upset if he doesn’t answer my questions or speak to me!” she said, still with excitement in her voice.

She actually didn’t have much experience as a nanny. But children loved to play with her. Taking care of a five-year-old boy wouldn’t be a problem for her.

She grinned at the stern housekeeper after giving her answer like a big dog waiting for praise after its very first accomplishment.

The housekeeper frowned at that optimistic spirit. She reminded the young girl, “Just remember he only needs company, not a teacher or anything like that. Also, be patient. Don’t push him to do anything.”

That confused Kelly a little, but she nodded her head very decisively.

The housekeeper then knocked on the door and informed the little boy inside, “Charlie, your new nanny is here. I will send her in.”

Nobody answered her. Not even any sound came from inside the room. The housekeeper slowly pushed the door open.

Kelly saw a blue children’s bedroom which was about the size of her own, and then a black-haired little body in a black T-shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans, sitting on the carpet beside the bed, playing with a pile of colorful toy blocks.

After Kelly went inside, the door closed behind her. It made some audible noises, but the boy didn’t raise his head, just kept playing with those blocks as if he hadn’t heard anything.

Kelly knew the boy was a healthy little boy—at least, the file she got said so.

She walked beside the boy and carefully knelt on the carpet.

After getting herself to the eye level of the little boy, she gently introduced herself.

“Hi, there,” she spoke with a big smile on her face, bending her neck so she could see the little boy’s face.

“My name is Kelly. I am your new nanny. What’s your name?” she asked.

The boy didn’t stop what he was doing until after a while. After Kelly waited for like two minutes, he finally raised his head and looked at her.

Kelly saw a very cute little boy with a pair of big brown eyes, but there were scares hiding inside them.

He stared at Kelly for about 30 seconds, as if trying to figure out who she was. After he finally got his answer, he lowered his head again and dropped all the blocks in his hands.

Kelly saw tears running down the little boy’s cheeks. She was surprised.

“Are you alright?” she widened her eyes, leaning forward from the carpet, and asked the little boy. “Why are you crying? Did I do anything wrong?”

The boy didn’t reply. He dried the tears with the back of his little hands, then turned and crawled under the bed.

Kelly lowered herself down to the floor and looked under the bed with confusion. She saw the little boy crawling towards the corner of it then hid himself under an old yellow blanket placed there…

***

On another side of the city, at the international airport, Doctor Gary Anderson was waiting anxiously for the arrival of his future colleague, Lena Evans.

Three years ago, they met at an academic seminar in Germany. Lena shared her insightful opinions about the prospect of psychology. Ever since then, Doctor Anderson had been thinking about her. He heard Lena chose to specialize in child therapy later and became a successful child psychologist.

About one year ago, when Doctor Anderson decided to open his own clinic, he invited Lena to be his partner. He had never thought Lena would agree to come to America, but she did. After a whole year of all sorts of preparations and applications, Lena finally got the license from the state’s government.

Today was the day she officially moved to America with her five-year-old daughter, Angela. Doctor Anderson was excited and nervous about it.

He arrived at the airport about two hours earlier and had been waiting at the Arrivals anxiously. When Lena’s beautiful figure finally showed up, he waved his hand to her excitedly.

“Doctor Evans, here!” he yelled.

Lena smiled at him first, then lowered her head to check on her little daughter.

The five-year-old girl was excited to be in the United States. She was turning her head, checking around with curiosity. Hadn’t Lena held her hand, she would have run after a strange couple who had colorful feathers on their hats.

It reminded Lena of her lost son, Lucas, who was somewhere in this strange country, being raised by the woman who stole him.

Tears struggled to run out of her eyes, but Lena forced herself to hold them back. Except for herself, nobody else knew that she had another child. The doctor who did the ultrasound for her swore that Lena only had one baby judging by the result. But Lena knew it wasn’t true. She gave birth to a lovely baby boy prior to Angela, and she was going to find him and… at least make sure that he was having a happy life.

She took a deep breath to suppress the surging emotion in her chest before she walked towards Gary with Angela in her hand.

Gary had already opened his arms to her. “Welcome to New York!” He grinned.

It was unusual for a psychologist to have such an outgoing character as Gary, but Lena kind of liked it.

The darkness was too thick in her overburdened life, she needed every sunlight she could get.

“Thank you for picking me up, Doctor Anderson,” she whispered with a smile then hugged her future colleague shortly in politeness.

The little girl got upset.

“Me! Me! Me! Mommy! I want to hug Uncle Gary too!!! Don’t leave me alone!!” she puckered her little mouth unhappily while jumping around her mom.

Gary laughed. He met the little girl a few times when he was in Lena’s country to help her with the paperwork. The little girl was the most vibrant child he had ever met, always had all sorts of strange ideas in her little head, but in a very cute way.

He bent over and picked the girl up to let her give him a big hug with her little arms. Angela smiled happily.

“Thank you, Uncle Gary. You are the best uncle in the world!” she praised. 

“And you are the cutest little angel in the world,” Gary said.

He let Angela sit on his arm, and started to walk towards the exit.

Lena followed them quietly. She wanted to be cheerful, but every time when she was in New York, her heart got flooded by the sorrow and pain of losing her son. Being happy seemed to be a sin while her poor child might be suffering in some place she couldn’t see.

She kept her head lowered, staring at the cold tile underneath her feet, struggling to keep all those bitter emotions in the depths of her heart.

Suddenly, she heard her angel call her, “Mommy!” 

Lena raised her head and saw Angela looking at her from Gary’s shoulder with worries in her cute green eyes—she inherited that from Lena.

“Mommy!”

Feeling the sudden down mood of her mother, the little girl reached out her arms from Gary’s shoulder, asking for a hug.

Lena quickly walked up and got the little girl from Gary. She held her little angel in front of her chest and hugged her tightly.

Angela was still a little girl, but she somehow was extremely sensitive to people’s emotions. She always knew it whenever her mother needed comfort.

She pressed her little cheek on Lena’s shoulder, and whispered, “I love you, Mommy. Please don’t be sad.”

Lena quietly nodded her head, using every strength she had to prevent tears from running out. She didn’t want Gary to see it and she didn’t want to explain. She didn’t want anyone to know about her stupid, dark, painful past.

“It’s alright. Mommy is alright. Don’t worry,” she whispered to her little angel, and kissed her smooth blond hair.

The little girl nodded her head. She put her little hand on Lena shoulders and whispered again, “I love you, Mommy, very, very.”

Lena smiled. She had calmed herself down. She looked at her little angel in the eyes and told her, “Mommy loves you too. Mommy loves you more than anything in the world.”

They cuddled each other for like one minute. Gary waited quietly beside them.

Lena never told him anything about her personal life, but he knew how difficult it was to be a single mom.

After Lena put Angela down, he took the suitcase for her and grinned at the mother and daughter, “Let’s go to your new apartment. I bet you will love the place.”

Lena nodded her head and said “Thank you” to Gary with a warm smile.

No matter how broken she actually was, right now she must put herself together and move on with her life. Even just for Angela’s sake, she needed to be a happy and normal mom. 

She held Angela’s little hand and smiled at her, “Let’s go to our new home!”

The little girl nodded her head with a big grin and repeated, “I love you, Mommy! Very, very!”