A BABY FOR THE CEO

CHAPTER 3

EMMA

I take the pacifier from Bethany's hands and place it over her mouth. She accepts the object and stops crying little by little while I keep moving my body around the office.

“She liked you...”, I hear Enzo's voice and smile at the little boy, realizing that Liza has stopped crying completely.

“Incredible!”, I turn around to see Bethany looking at me with an expression of surprise and disbelief at the same time.

“No one can almost ever get her to stop crying in a few seconds; you have been the only one since she was born.”

“I told you I'm good with children...”, I murmur, smiling.

I continue with Liza on my lap, who starts playing with my hair, while Enzo plays on the carpet with his toys. Bethany continues with my interview, and I can't believe it when she tells me that she will give me a chance at this job.

My heart filled with hope when she told me that I wouldn't have to worry because the salary was great; my eyes filled with tears in the same second; and I got a gentle smile from her.

I asked her about the parents of the children, and she told me that they are very busy with their jobs and have little time to spend with their children.

They are very rich, and I cannot believe that the parents themselves leave their children behind and worry more about their work.

We settled the issue about the documents, and I learned that Liza is only 6 months old and Enzo is 4 years old.

I did it!

Thank you, God!

During the interview, I realized that the reason for Liza's crying was that she was hungry, so I offered to give her a bottle, and soon the girl was asleep in my arms.

“Come, her room is down the hall...”, I follow Bethany out of the office with Enzo.

I hold the little girl in my arms carefully while the housekeeper opens the door to the room at the end of the hall. Bethany takes Enzo to his room while I am responsible for putting the little girl to sleep in her crib.

When I enter the little girl's room, my eyes are amazed by the purple-colored walls and the childish decorations scattered all over the room. There is a closet in one part and a wall with many teddy bears of all kinds on shelves.

It is the perfect room that every child would love to have, and it makes me think of Benjamin and realize that I don't have the chance to provide this for my son.

“You are so lucky, little girl...” I whisper, placing her carefully in her crib before putting the pacifier in her mouth and leaving the room.

“So, it's all right, you can start tomorrow; do you live far away? The house has a driver available who can take you there and bring you back...”, Bethany offers me when we are walking back to the living room.

“I live in another city and have to take the subway to get here, but...”, I am interrupted when the door of the house is opened by someone.

“You arrived just in time!”, I hear Bethany's cheerful voice, waving to someone approaching us.

I make the incredible mistake of turning around, and at that moment everything seems to spin around me as I stare into the blue eyes that have been haunting me for over a year.

The feeling I feel is frightening, and it makes me freeze in front of the man I have been thinking about every day since I found out about my pregnancy.

I feel a tremor in my body, and it feels like everything is going to go away in seconds as I stand unblinking, my eyes still staring at none other than Alex Laurent.

The father of my baby.

“Mr. Laurent, this is Emma Cooper, the children's new nanny.”, I hear Bethany's voice from my side, but I am still looking at the man.

He is married, owns a billion-dollar network of companies, and is the father of two children...

Three...

It is much worse than I ever imagined if I were ever to face him again after that night.

Facing his blue eyes, it is impossible not to notice the uncanny resemblance between him and Benjamin, the son he doesn't know exists.

And it must stay that way...

Everything around me begins to spin more intensely, and I break the exchange of gaze with him when I close my eyes for a moment, losing the strength of my own body as I feel myself falling backward.

“Miss!”, I hear someone's scream, but everything goes dark in front of me, and I only feel hands holding me before I completely collapse in front of the father of my child.

I feel an extremely sharp pain when I try to move my head, and great difficulty opening my eyes. When I finally do, my eyes are fixed on the luxurious ceiling, and recent events come back to haunt me.

I blink several times, still feeling a little dizzy, realizing that I am lying on something too soft; maybe it was just visions of my troubled head.

Part of me wants to believe that the father of my child is not the owner of this house or the father of the children I will take care of in my new job.

Job. All the expectations I created after hearing I was hired were quickly destroyed, as if they were never here.

I let out a sigh and turned my head to the side, realizing that I was lying on the couch in the living room of the house and not on the floor.

“Thank God!”, My eyes are fixed on the housekeeper, who looks at me, sighing with relief, holding her cell phone against her ear.

I sit up quickly, seeing that there is no one else in this room besides Bethany and me. I close my eyes for a second, trying to organize my thoughts, and see that the woman approaches with a worried expression.

“My goodness, is the young lady all right? I thought it would be better to take you to a hospital if you don't wake up easily...”

“I am fine, thank you!”, I try to smile, but at this point, I can't and am stopped by Bethany as I get up from the sofa.

“You were pale and fainted a few minutes ago; sit down for a moment. Did you eat anything before you left home?”, she asks me as she sits down beside me on the sofa.

My hands are shaking, and my heartbeats are still racing as if I had just had a big scare.

“I left home very early...” I whisper, denying her question.

But that's not exactly why I didn't eat anything before I left the house I share with Coral; the truth is that I didn't have many options, and the worry about how I was going to support Benjamin from now on prevented me from being able to try to eat or drink a glass of water.

I feel Bethany's hands landing on my shoulder, and it makes me realize that the woman is more caring and gentle than I had thought before.

“Is she awake?”, My whole body shudders again as I hear this voice again for the second time today.

It wasn't some kind of hallucination; it was real, and he was here!

I don't have to turn around to know that Alex is approaching us, and this makes me get up from the couch quickly before I turn to Bethany and whisper:

“I'm sorry, but I need to go now...”

I grab my purse from the couch and hurry toward the front door before I have a chance to see his face again.

“Miss Cooper!”, I hear his voice calling me, but I don't stop as I start running away from the house.

Outside the condo, I let the tears well up in my eyes without any control, and it hurts me too much. I put my hand on my chest, still looking toward the house.

I can't do it...