All Chapters of Nanny To The Billionaire's Secret Heir : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The house slowly learned how to breathe again.Not all at once.Not in some miraculous moment that fixed everything.Just a little more every day.Monday became Tuesday.Tuesday slipped into Wednesday.Grief still lived in every room, but it no longer shouted. It lingered in the corners instead, quieter than before.Marielle learned the rhythm of the house before anyone else realised it existed.Theo always woke at six forty-three.Not six forty.Not six forty-five.Six forty-three.He padded down the hallway with his stuffed dinosaur tucked beneath one arm and his hair sticking up in every direction imaginable.He refused to wear matching socks.He hated bananas but loved strawberries.He insisted toast tasted better when it was cut into triangles.By the end of the week, Marielle had stopped asking why.Some battles simply weren't worth fighting."...The blue plate?" she asked one morning.Theo nodded once.She smiled."I thought so."She placed his breakfast onto the blue plate ins

Marielle didn't expect the photograph to change anything.People took pictures of wealthy men every day. They photographed expensive cars, charity galas and business conferences. One more image on one more website hardly seemed important enough to disturb the quiet rhythm the house had finally begun to find.By the following morning, she understood how wrong she'd been.She came downstairs expecting another ordinary breakfast.Instead, she found Grayson standing in the kitchen with his phone pressed against one ear and another lying face up on the island, vibrating every few seconds with new notifications. His untouched coffee had long since gone cold."...No comment," he said into the phone, his voice clipped but controlled. "Tell the communications team the same thing I told you. No interviews. No statement."He ended the call only for another to arrive almost immediately.Marielle hesitated in the doorway."Bad?"He looked up, and she saw the fatigue in his eyes before he covered i

Marielle had been in the Cole house almost a month when Grayson finally asked her to come see the rest of his world, not just the parts that fit inside the house.Wednesday evening. Theo had gone up with a stack of picture books, announcing on his way out of the kitchen that dinosaurs needed bedtime stories too, obviously, and Marielle was still at the sink when Grayson came in. Tie loose. Sleeves shoved up past his forearms. He had that particular tired look he always had by evening, the kind he never let sit on his face for long before straightening it back out."You free tomorrow?"She didn't turn around right away. "Free from what, exactly. Making sure someone in this house remembers breakfast exists?""I deserved that one.""You did."He came and leaned against the counter next to her, not quite looking at her yet. "The Cole Foundation's doing its luncheon tomorrow. I need you there.""No.""You didn't even hear what it is.""Didn't need to."She kept drying plates. He kept stand

Marielle woke because the house had gone quiet. Wrong kind of quiet. She blinked at the clock before she'd even fully surfaced, sure for a second she'd slept through her alarm, but it read 2:07 and rain was going against the window, steady, blurring the pool lights into long gold smears outside. She almost turned back over. Then she caught the light under her door, wrong side, not the hallway.The study.Grayson had gone in there right after dinner, hadn't he. Seven hours ago, maybe more, she'd lost track somewhere around ten.She got up without deciding to, really, pulled a cardigan on over her sleep shirt and crossed the hall, and the study door sat half open same as it had every night for two weeks now. Files everywhere. Shipping reports stacked crooked, legal folders leaned up against a coffee mug that had gone cold hours back, laptop still glowing that pale blue in the dark room.He wasn't working though. He was out, gone, one arm folded under his head and the other still draped

Saturday arrived quietly.No phones ringing before sunrise. No assistants waiting outside the study. No lawyers asking for signatures before breakfast. Even the television in the kitchen stayed dark because Odette had announced she was "declaring the entire house off duty," then disappeared to visit her sister for the day before anyone could argue.Marielle was buttering toast when Grayson wandered into the kitchen wearing jeans and a navy sweater instead of one of his tailored suits.She blinked.He noticed."What?""I was just checking you hadn't accidentally walked into the wrong house."He looked down at himself. "These are clothes.""They're suspiciously normal clothes.""I own normal clothes.""I was beginning to think your wardrobe only came in expensive shades of charcoal."That earned the smallest smile."I'll have you know I own blue.""I can see that."Theo burst into the room before either of them could say anything else, socks sliding across the wooden floor."Can we go s