Chapter 1

Intro

Our nanny leaned on the fact that she'd raised my husband, so when I told her not to bring anyone into the house during work hours, she ignored me.

She looked after her three-year-old grandson while she worked.

Right up until the boy smashed an antique I'd won at an overseas auction.

"Marilyn Gray, dear, Toby broke a vase by accident. No harm done, right?"

My voice came out cold. "Two million dollars. When are you wiring it to my account?"

1

Paulette Glass, our nanny, had no sense of boundaries at all.

She leaned on her seniority and never treated herself as an outsider. She'd even cast herself in the role of my mother-in-law.

Sometimes she'd order me around too. If Neil James hadn't kept telling me she was nearly sixty and about to retire, I'd have fired her long ago.

I'd told her more times than I could count not to bring outsiders into the house during work hours. She never took it seriously.

Now that Toby had caused real trouble, Paulette was finally scared.

"Marilyn, you're not really going to hold a grudge against a child, are you?"

I couldn't help but frown.

"Paulette, let's keep this strictly business."

Her mouth twisted. She didn't like that.

"I'll pay for it, but Marilyn, you can't shake me down either!"

"Who's to say whether that vase is even real? Two million dollars, and you just leave it sitting out in the living room—"

She wasn't finished, but I couldn't hold back and cut her off.

"I have the purchase receipt, and I won this vase while I was on my honeymoon with Neil out of state. If you won't believe me, surely you'll believe Neil?"

Paulette rolled her eyes at me. "The most I'll pay is two hundred."

For a second she'd left me speechless.

"You open with shaking me down for two million—does Neil know about that?"

Her shameless act made me laugh out of sheer anger. "I paid for that vase at the auction with Neil standing right there."

"Fine, I'll call Neil and have him wire it to you."

Since reasoning with her was going nowhere, I just gave her my final word, cold and flat. "Paulette, pay the two million, or take your grandson and get out right now."

At that, Paulette stared at me in disbelief.

Then came the words that left me stunned. "Do you even know who the boy's father is?"