#Chapter 59: The Truth Comes Out
Edrick
I put Ella to bed myself that night. It was calming to see how peacefully she slept; if only I could have
slept like that. As I returned to my room, still fuming over whether Moana was lying to me or not, I felt
as though my daughter’s nanny was being suspicious.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that Moana was pregnant with my brother’s baby. I knew that she went out
for dinner with him the other night, and had seen him multiple times before that. For all I knew, she only
ever accepted the job with me to try to climb the social classes, and now she had gotten herself
knocked up by my brother. I wanted to believe that I was wrong, that she really was just sick and
gaining a little weight, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something more was going on behind the
scenes.
For quite a while, I tossed and turned in bed. Finally, I gave up on sleep altogether and decided to get
myself a drink from the minibar. I grumbled to myself, feeling rather a lot like a grumpy old man with
insomnia, as I climbed out of bed and headed out of my room.
The living room was peaceful and quiet when I walked in. Surely everyone else was already asleep.
The only sounds I could hear were the sounds of the city outside, and the only light that illuminated the
room was the soft glow of the city lights coming in through the big open window. I sighed as I poured
myself a glass of whiskey, then walked over to the double doors leading out onto the balcony and
swung them open. I stood out there for a few minutes, drinking my whiskey as I leaned on the railing
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtand looked down at the city below.
As I stood on the balcony and looked down at the city, all I could think about was how suspicious
Moana’s behavior had been recently.
She’d been sick with “food poisoning” now for far longer than the three to five days that food poisoning
would typically last. The smell of eggs and sausage made her gag, she was constantly touching her
stomach, and I couldn’t forget that night that she fell asleep on the living room floor. I would never admit
it, but that night was the first night since we terminated our sleeping agreement that I actually got a little
sleep without having to take sleeping pills or drink too much alcohol.
Speaking of alcohol: my glass of whiskey was already empty.
I sighed and turned around to go and pour myself another glass.
But just as I did, I caught a glimpse of Selina sneaking out of Moana’s room — and she was holding
something in her hand.
“Selina?” I called from where I stood in the balcony doorway. She froze. I could see her slip whatever
she was holding into her apron pocket, and I frowned. “What are you doing?”
“I was just checking on Moana,” Selina said. “She’s been sick.”
My frown deepened. I approached Selina, and as I did, I could tell that she was hiding something from
me. Were my own loyal servants, who had worked for me for years, hiding something so important
from me?
“Did you give her medicine?” I asked.
Selina nodded. She still had her hand in her apron pocket, as though that would stop me from noticing,
but she saw me looking and took her hand out.
“Show me what you gave her, please,” I said quietly.
Selina hesitated for a moment. I had never seen the housekeeper so nervous before. Normally, she
was as cool as a cucumber. “Selina,” I insisted, “come on.”
Finally, she let out a deep sigh and pulled the object out of her pocket: it was a bottle of pills. I took the
pills from her hand and turned it over in my palm, taking in a sharp breath when I read the label. They
were pregnancy vitamins.
“I knew it,” I said, holding the bottle up. “Why does it seem that everyone in my house wants to keep
things from me?”
Seeing the bottle made me begin to fume even more than I already was. I had asked Moana if she had
anything important to tell me, and she had said that there was nothing. I wanted to trust her — I really
did. I was going to give her the benefit of the doubt, and I was even going to offer to pay for a doctor’s
visit in the morning to sort out what was happening with her stomach, since she’d seemed so haggard
lately. And yet, all along, both my nanny and my loyal housekeeper had been keeping something much
more important from me.
“Don’t be mad at her,” Selina said, reaching out and touching the arm that was holding the bottle of
pills. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I had already become so angry that my hand was shaking. “She’s
going through a lot right now. Give her time.”
“This is important, Selina,” I said, speaking through my teeth. “How long have you known?”
Selina shook her head. Her hand was still gripping my arm. “Only less than a week,” she said. “She just
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmfound out, herself. She told me she was going to make a decision about what to do by the end of this
week.”
“So you’ve known for several days now and you couldn’t be bothered to mention it to me?” I snarled.
“I’m her employer. Her performance with my daughter has been slipping and I think that I deserved to
know why earlier.”
Selina sighed, shutting her eyes for a moment, then opened them again and looked at me with a
serious expression on her face. “I promised I wouldn’t say anything until the end of the week,” she said,
her voice low. “Telling on her would have only caused more upset for her–”
“Do either of you know who the father is?” I asked. My mind went back once again to all of the times
that Moana spent private time with Ethan. How was I to know that, on the night of the family banquet,
they might have had s*x when no one else was around? Is it some sort of plan of hers to ensure her
future in the Morgan family? Is she really was just like Ella’s mother: a scheming woman with no regard
for anyone except herself? By doing this, she was hurting my daughter.
“I don’t know,” she said. “She didn’t say. She only mentioned that the baby will be a werewolf.”
I froze. So, my suspicions were solidified; Moana had, most definitely, intentionally gotten herself
knocked up by my brother so she could use the baby to enjoy the finer things in life for herself. That
must have been why she secretly went out for dinner with him the other night. Did he really think that
he could rent out an entire restaurant for his date with my daughter’s nanny and I wouldn’t notice? Did
he even know about the pregnancy yet?
I had to confront her right now. I brushed past Selina and began to storm toward Moana’s door.
“Wait!” Selina called, running after me. “She’s sleeping now. It can wait until morning.”
Selina grabbed my arm again, but I tore away from her and closed the distance between myself and
Moana’s room. The bottle of pills was still in my hand as I grabbed the doorknob and flung the door
open.