Chapter 1
[Monthly salary: 150,000 dollars. Room and board included. Take care of a four-year-old kid.]
I stared at my phone, wondering if my eyes were playing tricks on me.
I double-checked it. Then triple-checked. Still the same.
One hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Not 1,500 grand, not 15,000 grand, but 150,000 dollars.
I was squatting in a corner of the hospital hallway, with only 100 dollars left in my pocket.
Three days ago, my fiancé, Jason Reed, kicked me out of the bridal suite.
He said, "Sophia, I'm marrying your sister. You move out."
My sister, Claire Winters, was actually my step-sister from my dad's second marriage.
She was wearing the wedding dress I picked out, standing in the room I spent six months decorating, and she said to me with a smile, "Thanks for getting everything ready for me, sis."
I didn't cry.
What was the point?
My mom was still in the ICU, and the bills were piling up like water.
And my dad?
He was on Claire's side. He said, "Sophia, if your sister marries into the Reed Family, the money they give will save your mom. You ought to give up."
Gave up.
Give up my fiancé, give up the bridal suite, give up my dignity.
In the end, they didn't spend a single cent on my mom.
So now, I needed the money.
A whole lot of cash.
I called the number from the ad.
*****
A woman picked up, sounding all business.
"Hi, this is Landon Corp Domestic Services. Are you calling about the live-in nanny job, the one with a 150,000-dollar monthly salary?"
"Yes," I said.
"How old are you?" she asked.
"Twenty-four," I answered.
"Education?" she continued.
"Master's in Clinical Medicine from Northbridge University, with a minor in Child Psychology," I said.
There was a pause on the other end.
"Please come to the main entrance of Lakeview Manor at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Someone will be there to meet you."
After hanging up, I looked down at my wrinkled T-shirt and sneakers.
Whatever. I was going to be a nanny, not a runway model.
The next day, I headed to Lakeview Manor.
When I got to the gate, I was totally blown away.
This wasn't just some neighborhood.
This was a whole mountain.
And there was only one house sitting up there.
Actually, calling it a house didn't do it justice. It was a full-on manor.
The butler was a man in his forties, dressed in an immaculate suit, courteous yet aloof.
"Miss Winters, please follow me."
He led me down a tree-lined avenue that stretched for over 650 feet, past private stables, a heated pool, and an indoor botanical garden, finally stopping at the grand foyer.
I did my best to keep my expression neutral.
"Mr. Landon isn't home right now. You can meet the young master first." He told me in an indifferent voice.
The butler took me upstairs to a room on the second floor.
The door opened.
A little boy was sitting on the carpet, with a row of blocks in front of him, all lined up perfectly.
He looked up at me.
His eyes were beautiful, dark and glossy, like two grapes, but there was no emotion in them.
"Leo, this is your new nanny," the butler said.
The little boy didn't even look up. He just kept stacking his blocks in silence.
The butler lowered his voice and told me, "He didn't say a single word until he was three. He uttered his first sentence only last year, and even now, he only exchanges a few words with Mr. Landon on rare occasions.
"As for the nannies before you, the longest anyone lasted was a week."
I asked, "Why did they all quit?"
The butler sighed, "Honestly, he's a tough kid to handle."
I crouched down to his level.
He ignored me.
I didn't say anything either.
I just sat quietly beside him, picked up a block, and placed it next to his castle.
He glanced at it, picked up the block I placed, and threw it aside.
I picked up another block and placed it somewhere else.
He took it away and tossed it aside.
This time, he threw it even farther.
For the third time, I picked up a block.
This time, instead of adding it to his castle, I built a little swing set next to it.
He paused mid-motion. He stared at the swing set for three seconds.
Then, he took a block from his castle and placed it next to the swing set.
The butler stood there, stunned in the doorway.
I smiled.
"That's a really cool castle," I said.
He just stayed quiet.
But this time, he didn't toss my block aside.
The butler led me back downstairs, his face a mix of emotions.
"Miss Winters, you're the first person he hasn't tried to throw something at," he said.
"But he threw the blocks aside," I said in confusion.
"He used to throw vases at the last nannies," he replied.
Alright then.
I guessed that the 150,000 dollars came with its own challenges.