Todos los capítulos de Nanny To The Billionaire's Secret Heir : Capítulo 31 - Capítulo 40

Grayson reached the school in twelve minutes. Marielle knew because she'd watched the clock every thirty seconds while standing outside the principal's office, willing the black SUV to appear. Twelve minutes should have been impossible at that time of day. Apparently impossible stopped mattering when someone believed their child was missing. She saw the vehicle before she saw him. It cut into the parking lot too fast, tires hissing across wet pavement before stopping halfway across two parking spaces. The driver's door flew open almost immediately. Grayson didn't slam it behind him. He forgot. He crossed the lot without once looking where he was going. Parents moving toward their cars instinctively stepped aside. A crossing guard lowered the stop sign in her hands and simply watched him pass. He stopped in front of Marielle. "What happened?" She'd spent the last fifteen minutes rehearsing how to explain it. Now that he was here, all the careful sentences disappeared. "The

Theo didn't come running through the front door. That was the first thing Marielle noticed. Every other afternoon since he'd started calling the Cole house home, she'd barely had time to open the door before he was inside, talking before his shoes were even off. Today the front gate opened. The car rolled in. The engine died. Nothing. She was already halfway down the front steps when the passenger door finally opened. Theo climbed out slowly, one hand clutching the strap of his little backpack. There was another bag beside him, glossy paper with a toy store logo printed across it. He picked it up because someone had handed it to him, not because he wanted it. Grayson came around the other side of the vehicle. Neither of them spoke. Marielle had imagined this moment a hundred different ways while she'd waited. She'd imagined tears. She'd imagined Theo running into her arms. She'd imagined herself crying before she reached him. Instead she simply stood ther

The first Saturday after Theo came home arrived quietly. No court letters. No lawyers calling before breakfast. No cameras waiting outside the gates. For one morning, the house almost remembered what ordinary felt like. Almost. Marielle found Theo already awake, sitting at the kitchen table in oversized dinosaur pajamas with his chin resting in both hands while he watched rain collect on the window. "You've been up long?" He shrugged. "I heard birds." "That's usually a sign it's morning." "I know." "But?" "I wanted to make sure." She understood without asking what he'd wanted to make sure of. She crossed the kitchen, opened the pantry, and pulled out flour. "What are we making?" Theo asked. "Pancakes." His head tilted. "It's not anybody's birthday." "It doesn't have to be." "Not even a holiday?" "No." She smiled over her shoulder. "I've decided Saturdays deserve pancakes." He considered that as seriously as if she'd announced a new law

Marielle didn't notice she'd stopped eating until Theo pointed it out. It happened on a Thursday that looked exactly like every Thursday before it. Gray sky outside. Toast burning because she'd been trying to sign a permission slip while scrambling eggs. Odette humming somewhere in the pantry. Theo sitting on the counter swinging his legs and insisting blueberries belonged on pancakes whether anyone else agreed or not. She set three plates on the table without thinking. Theo looked at them. Then at her. "Where's yours?" She blinked. "What?" "Your breakfast." "Oh." She waved it away. "I'm not really hungry." "You said that yesterday." "I did?" "You had coffee." "And half a banana," Odette called from the pantry. Marielle looked over. "You were keeping track?" "I live here." Theo frowned the way only children could, all sincerity and no hesitation. "You tell me breakfast makes my brain work." "It does." "So..." He waited. She knew exactly where the conversation was

The hardest part turned out not to be the court. It was the waiting. The hearing had come and gone. Lawyers had argued. Papers had changed hands. Another supervised visit had been scheduled for Saturday morning, as though it belonged on the family calendar beside dentist appointments and school concerts. Nobody in the Cole house mentioned it much. That somehow made it worse. Theo knew. Children always knew. By Friday evening he had gone strangely quiet again. He still answered questions when someone asked him one. He still finished his dinner after Odette reminded him twice. He still laughed once when Marielle accidentally dropped flour across half the kitchen while trying to bake cookies. But every now and then she caught him looking toward the front door. Not at anyone. Just at the door. As though measuring how long it would take somebody to walk through it. ... Saturday arrived too quickly. Marielle woke before her alarm, though she hadn't slept much any