“Waaah waaah waaah…”
Ben Raymond had fallen, so he simply lay on the floor and cried at the top of his lungs.
The chef, a middle-aged man, saw this and instantly felt overwhelmed. His brows furrowed deeply as he shot Jolene a helpless look.
That look was easy to read—after all, he was in charge of meals, not childcare.
Holding children was the nanny’s job, and since Jolene had already been hired, the chef didn’t bother with the boy crying on the floor. Instead, he extended his hand. “Giovanni—that’s my name. I heard from Mr. Raymond that you have a lot of experience?”
“Oh, yes, I certainly do have a lot of experience.” Jolene didn’t have time to chat with Chef Giovanni, though.
After all, this was her first meeting with her young client. If she performed poorly and lost the child’s trust, this hard-won job might slip away.
By now, she fully understood why Mr. Raymond had given her that unreadable look earlier, why he’d demanded so many years of experience, and why he required the nanny to have a child of her own.
She had good reason to suspect that this household had gone through many nannies already. Otherwise, why would Ben react so strongly to her? Perhaps Mr. Raymond had deliberately come home late because he couldn’t handle his little brother.
Raymond had emphasized that he liked a quiet environment—yet his brother was so noisy. Suddenly, Jolene felt a wave of sympathy for the older brother.
As the older brother, he really didn’t have custody rights over his sibling. She had no idea what the exact situation was between the two brothers.
“Emma, can you help Mom with something?” Jolene was already feeling overwhelmed.
The person who had been a nanny was the original owner—the one with all the experience. Jolene herself had never actually interacted with children before. In the original owner’s memories, the two kids at the congressman’s house had never acted like this either…
So what was she supposed to do?
Panicking inside, Jolene kept a composed exterior.
“Mr. Raymond will be back soon—he said dinner would be a little late tonight,” Giovanni said from behind her.
But Ben, still lying on the floor, acted as if he hadn’t heard a word and kept crying relentlessly, even louder than before.
Oh no—if the employer came back and saw the child crying like this, she’d really lose her job…
Jolene racked her brain, trying to recall from the parenting novels she’d written in her past life how to handle children who were always crying and throwing tantrums. It seemed like they just wanted attention from their loved ones—for instance, maybe Ben just wanted his brother to give him more attention?
“Mom, what should I do?” Emma tore her gaze away from Ben and blinked at Jolene.
“I think Ben is lying on the floor because the ground is nice and cool, don’t you think?” Jolene blinked back. Since she couldn’t stop him, she might as well join him—that was her first instinct.
Emma tilted her head, looking at the boy still wailing on the floor, puzzled as to why another kid would lie there. Shouldn’t he just get up if he fell?
But she was more than happy to help Mom, and Emma understood that taking care of this Ben was her mother’s job. So she quickly caught on.
The very next moment, mother and daughter walked over and, without a word, lay down on either side of Ben, sandwiching him in the middle.
Ben: “…”
Emma turned her head, looking at the chubby-cheeked boy with her big eyes, and asked in confusion, “Mom said you’re lying here because the floor is cool. Is that true?”
Ben: “…”
Ben hadn’t noticed that there was a little girl his age standing at the door. She was cute, but her hair was thin, she was so skinny, and her eyes were so big…
“Actually, the floor isn’t that cool at all,” Jolene said deliberately.
“Mom, the floor isn’t cool,” Emma echoed.
Jolene glanced at Ben, who had already stopped wailing, and shook her head. “Well then, let’s go eat. Uncle Giovanni has already made dinner. The food here smells so good—even better than the big bag of food we got from the church on Saturday afternoons.”
Emma’s eyes lit up for a moment—no child could resist the lure of good food, especially one who had never had anything delicious before.
But Emma always remembered that this was where her mom worked, and she had to behave.
Slowly getting up, Emma lifted her little face and glanced toward the open kitchen. Her eyes were full of longing for the food. She swallowed and smacked her lips. “Mom, can we really eat here?”
“Yes, we can. Mom will be working here from now on, and we’ll be staying in the room on the left side of the second floor. Because Mom is a live-in nanny, this job includes room and board—that means we can live here for free, eat here for free, and Mom will even get a salary. And best of all, Emma can go to school and learn with lots and lots of other kids…” Jolene put an arm around Emma and guided her toward the kitchen.
Mother and daughter chatted back and forth, not paying any attention to the little boy who had been lying on the floor crying.
Maybe Ben had been faking it, but now that he’d been distracted, he’d forgotten to cry. Kids were always like that—their attention was easily broken. Now, all of Ben’s curiosity was captured by what Jolene had just said.
What did “room and board” mean? Was it a big deal? Why were they so happy about what was for dinner? And what was so great about going to school? Why did the new nanny talk about such ordinary things as if they were the most amazing events in the world?
His mind was full of questions, but the mother and daughter weren’t paying any attention to him—and besides, they looked dirty.
“Hey, you stink!” Ben walked over and said to Emma when no one was paying him any attention.
Emma’s eyes instantly reddened. She looked timidly at Ben, then at her mother, her voice choked with sobs. “Mom, can Emma go take a bath and change clothes?”
Jolene remembered that the original owner had once said the same thing to Emma. Emma, so young, had imitated her mother and gone to the bathroom to wash herself, only to get all her clothes wet and end up getting scolded.
So Emma was remembering what had happened before.
“I’m sorry. We’ve been staying at the church for the past couple of days and haven’t had a chance to change clothes—we didn’t have any to wear and had nowhere to stay. But I went back today and got our clothes, so we won’t smell anymore.” Jolene explained patiently. Although she didn’t appreciate Ben’s attitude, the truth was that mother and daughter hadn’t changed clothes in days because they simply had none. She nodded. “I’ll take Emma to wash up first.”
With that, Jolene didn’t even glance at Ben. She took Emma to the room on the left side of the second floor and took out the clothes she’d brought, placing them in the carved wooden wardrobe.
Mother and daughter didn’t have many clothes. Jolene had only brought summer outfits. Once she earned her salary, she could buy new clothes. The rest of the winter clothes had been left in the box by the door.
This was Jolene’s first time giving Emma a proper bath. Aside from the quick wash at the mall restroom sink with tap water, and the brief rinses in the church basement shower—mainly because they had no spare clothes—this was the real thing.
The bathroom here was clearly cleaned regularly, with brand-new orange-scented body wash and shampoo on hand.
Lathering the child up with soap, Jolene wondered whether she should scrub her.
The child was so skinny—her ribs were visible, and her little arms and legs were so thin. Since she hadn’t had a proper wash in a long time, she definitely needed a good scrub.
But there were no washcloths or scrub towels here, so Jolene could only use her hands.
Soon, the bathroom echoed with Emma’s strange mix of sounds: “Hee hee hee—ah, that tickles! Mom, stop! Hahaha—that’s so uncomfortable…”
This was Jolene’s first time bathing a child, and it left her drenched in sweat—even more exhausting than washing herself.
But when Jolene finally blow-dried Emma’s hair in the bathroom, a clean, soft, fragrant little Emma emerged.
Since the child rarely went outside, her skin was unusually pale—almost unnaturally so. Besides being thin, having thin and brittle hair, she was practically a little beauty in the making. Her eyes were truly big, with deep-set sockets and very long eyelashes. Her nose was pert, and her mouth was tiny.
Jolene screamed internally: Oh my god—such an adorable daughter, and she’s mine?!
The feeling was incredibly strange, since in her past life she’d only ever raised a Golden Retriever and a tabby cat.
She’d been a total homebody, spending every day at home writing. Apart from going out for essentials, walking the dog, and taking out the trash, she rarely left the house.
She’d often get so caught up in plotting storylines that her sleep schedule went haywire, days and nights reversed. Sometimes she’d wake up in the afternoon.
In this life, not only could she see the daytime sun, but she also went out every day. Even more amazingly, she’d somehow gained a biological daughter!
What a strange world!
Shaking her head, Jolene watched Emma put on her clean little dress herself and told her to go downstairs for dinner first.
Emma shook her head. “Mom, Emma is scared of Ben.”
Jolene thought about it. It was unlikely Emma would go eat with strangers on her own.
“Alright then, wait for Mom in the bedroom. I’ll take a shower and we’ll go downstairs together,” Jolene instructed.
By the time Jolene finally finished her shower, quite a while had passed. The original owner had been especially dirty too—only after a thorough wash did she feel like she’d come back to life.
It was remarkable that Mr. Raymond hadn’t questioned her about not changing clothes for the interview.
The situation was complicated. If he had asked, Jolene wouldn’t have minded putting on a show of being truly penniless.
When mother and daughter finally came downstairs, Mr. Raymond still hadn’t come home.
“Hey, Giovanni!” Jolene greeted the chef.
“Ladies, hello—would you like some pasta?” Giovanni grinned and asked.
Giovanni’s accent had a European flavor. Jolene could even tell he was an Italian immigrant—she’d really leveled up.
“Thank you, Uncle!”
“That sounds delicious—thank you!”
Giovanni quickly served them two plates of spaghetti with meat sauce, sprinkled with cheese.
Not seeing Ben around, Jolene shot Giovanni a questioning look.
Giovanni shrugged and pointed toward the glass door.
Ben was sitting outside alone, staring blankly at the lawn.
“Has he eaten?” Jolene asked quietly.
Giovanni shook his head. “He said he won’t eat until his brother gets home.”
Jolene: “Does Mr. Raymond always come home very late?”
“Yes,” Giovanni shook his head and spread his hands. “Mr. Raymond is actually a bit afraid of Ben, you know. He got custody of Ben on short notice, and he’s so young…”
“So—there were other live-in nannies before me to take care of Ben?” Jolene couldn’t help but pry, curious about how previous nannies had handled him.
“Yes, you’re the third one this month.”
Jolene: “…” The third one this month?
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