Nanny and the Alpha Daddy

Nanny and the Alpha Daddy
#Chapter 36: Afterparty
Moana

I felt a hand on my arm in the crowd and turned around, expecting to see Ethan or one of his friends standing there.

But it wasn’t any of them.

It was Edrick.

Without speaking, he kept his grip firmly on my arm and pulled me away from the crowd, into a private room.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, although I was certain that he had already seen me with Ethan and his friends. “I thought you were sick and had to go to urgent care.”

I felt my heart rate quicken. “I…”

Before I could answer, he raised his hand to indicate for me to stop speaking and then rubbed the bridge of his nose exasperatedly. “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that you’re making a mistake by hanging around Ethan. And now you lie about your health so you can sneak out and galavant all over town with him?”

“I wouldn’t feel it necessary to lie and sneak if it wasn’t for the fact that you seem to have boundless enmity for your own brother.”

Edrick’s face darkened. “He is not my brother,” he snarled. “Besides… Do you have some fantasy of being with him? Because I’ll be the first to tell you that he would never be interested in someone like you.”

“Someone like me?” I asked with a scoff. I folded my arms across my chest and took a step back, but Edrick closed the distance again by taking a step toward me. He towered over me, even when I wore high heels. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, look at you,” Edrick said, gesturing toward my appearance. “You’re just an ordinary human nanny. And you’re pretty enough, sure, but you don’t do yourself any favors by dressing so plainly and homely. Don’t I pay you enough to create a nice image for yourself?”

I felt my face get hot at Edrick’s words. I glanced down at my plain black dress, thinking about how Ethan had told me that I looked perfectly fine.

“Ethan might seem like a nice person on the outside,” Edrick continued, “but you can rest assured that he’s not interested in someone with a social status as low as that of a human nanny who couldn’t find a job until someone felt pity on her.”

but I wasn’t about to let Edrick make me cry on a night that was supposed to be fun and lighthearted. I turned

for lying about my health,” I said, reaching for the doorknob, “but you and I only have an employer-employee relationship. Nothing more, nothing less. And if I wanted to be deceived

I left Edrick standing speechless in the private room. A few moments after I walked out and continued to make my way to the restroom

but as soon as I looked up at my reflection in the mirror, the tears that were welled up in my eyes began to spill over, smudging my mascara and causing it

I had thought that I had begun to earn a bit of respect from him. I thought back to the day we went to the orphanage, and how he had opened up to the children, and even me. Was I correct in assuming that it was all just an act for positive publicity? Was I really

Ethan’s friend, Haley, and she noticed me crying immediately. She came over to me with a concerned look on her face and pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket, beginning to dab at my cheek with it as

to make sure you didn’t get lost,” she said as she wiped the black tears away. “I didn’t

head vehemently. “Not at all,” I

need to talk about

head. “No. It’s okay. It’s

stepped away once the black streaks were cleaned off of my cheeks. “I’ll meet you out

taken a few more deep breaths and calmed my nerves, I walked back out to the table. Ethan jerked his head up

you alright?”