BROKEN PROMISES
Chapter 2

Abilasha

     It has been two weeks since my initial call about the nanny position and I just got a call back last night. The guy's assistant or secretary called me and we set up a formal meeting for tomorrow. Luckily I had the day off and Ava had school or it would have been hard making it work. Just when I had gotten myself calm and starting to think that this job might actually happen I became nervous. The was a meeting with a potential employer, which meant I had to wear something formal but I only had casual clothes. I mean I had the occasional nice blouse and a pair of slacks but most of my clothing consisted of jeans and tee shirts.

     I ended up settling on this orange sun dress and I just felt frumpy. All my clothes that were appropriate for a time like this were sizes prior to my pregnancy. All were several sizes too small and made my current skinny jeans just look huge. It was huge down point for me and I vowed then to get back in shape. I smoothed out Ava's plaid uniform and made sure her hair was neat before dropping her off at school and heading to my appointment.

     It took me an hour to get to the house, after getting turned around at some point, and I sat in the car shocked as I stared out at the house. It was like something out of Lifestyle's of the Rich and Famous. I had thought that my...Omari's house was huge but this house was twice as big and was beach front property. To be honest, I was a little intimidated as I left my little Saturn and headed to the front door and rang the door bell. Shortly after an older man in a black suit opened the door and asked me who I was here for.

     "Umm...a woman named Miss Nitza Simone called me and told me to meet her here at this time," I said nervously as I tried to flatten my dress.

     He looked as me closely before giving me an encouraging smile. "You must be Miss. Rai. Please come in."

     I walked through the threshold as he moved back and tried not to stare at the lavish decor of the house. The marble covered foyer was illuminated by a large crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling and beautiful portraits hanging along the wall. I felt so out of place here that it was adding to my anxiety. Before I could do or say anything to put my foot in my mouth the butler, or the man I assumed was the butler, led me through the house and into a masculine office. As I walked in I was presented with one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen. Her hair was lying perfectly, her make up was flawless, and she was dressed in a tailored pair of pleated pants and a mint green blouse. Matching sandals covered her feet and a pair of thin frameless glasses sat on her face.

     She smiled when I came in and offered me her left hand. "I'm glad you could make it Miss. Rai."

     "Thank you for the opportunity Miss Simone," I replied.

     "Mrs.," she corrected as she sat down and I instinctively glanced at her left hand and stared in awe at her beautiful canary diamond engagement ring and smooth platinum band.

     "So how did you hear about this job offer?" she asked.

     "A co worker of mine told me about the job," I replied.

     "And why would you want to work as a nanny?" she asked.

     "Well to be honest," I started, "I got married young and just got through with a stressful divorce. I was a stay at home mom and it’s been difficult trying to make a living for me and my child with basically no work experience. When I found out about this job I figured that it wouldn't hurt to at least apply. I have years of experience from raising my own child and seeing as she's only five I'm not out of touch with the inner workings of a younger child."

     The woman nodded and jotted some things down before saying, "Should you get the job your responsibilities would be to help Brianna with her homework, take her on the occasional shopping trip, cooking her meals, and generally watching out for her well being. Although you will have tentative days off they are on call days just in case her father has to go out of town on business. This is a very demanding job and requires you to keep whatever you learn in this house to yourself. This is the reason you get paid so well."

     "There's nothing illegal going on is there?" I asked, not wanting to subject my daughter to anything negative.

     She smiled, "Not at all. It's just that Mr. Wahlberg likes his private life to stay private." She then stood and offered me her hand again and shook mine before saying, "I'll call you."

     I left the house knowing I didn't get the job. I'll call you, don't call me was a line that everyone knew was a polite way of saying you didn't measure up and don't bother us with calling for your application status. I let out a regretful breath before taking the drive back home and setting myself to the task of cleaning Ava's room, thoroughly cleaning the kitchen, and doing the laundry.

     It was Saturday morning and I had just finished serving Ava her plate of buttermilk pancakes when the house phone started to ring. She looked excited at the phone hoping it was her father and I dreaded it. I hated Priscilla. I was woman enough to know my situation wasn't entirely her fault but my heart would agree with reason. I felt that as a woman she shouldn't have pursued a relationship with Omari especially since she knew about me. She knew I was there and knew we had a family yet she totally disrespected that. The only thing that kept me from being overly bitter and revengeful was the fact that I knew karma would set things right and that God would set everything even in ways I couldn't even grasp. I just focused myself on supporting my daughter to try to make sure she missed out on as little as possible.

     I took a deep breath to calm my nerves before answering the phone and frowned when I heard Omari's voice on the other end. I immediately forced any emotion out of my voice and told him I would drop her off in an hour. With that said I hung up the phone and turned my attention to Ava who had sticky syrup all on her face. I grabbed some baby wipes and waited until she was finished to wipe off her face and hands. I quickly helped her into a pair of jeans and a short sleeved t-shirt with a pair of flip flops on. I quickly brushed her silky textured black hair back into a neat low ponytail before grabbing her packed overnight bag and headed to the door. We were half way to Omari's home when my cell phone rang. I slipped the earpiece in my ear at a light and answered the phone with a polite hello.

     "Yes, this is Mrs. Simone looking for Ms. Abilasha Rai," a semi familiar voice said over the line.

     "Speaking," I replied.

     "Mr. Wahlberg and I have gone over your qualifications and felt that you were best for the job. When can you be available to start?" he asked.

     "As soon as possible. I could start moving in today actually," I replied as I parked in front of Omari's home.

     "Great!" Simone said energetically. "You have the address and the butler will show you to your room as well as where your daughter will be placed."

     With that said we ended the call and I grabbed Ava's bag and headed toward the door. I rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer. The door opened shortly with Priscila standing on the other side dressed in a pair of unflattering cropped jeans, a purple based floral top with a mint green jacket over it, and mint green jeweled sandals on her feet. She gave me a cocky look and it took everything I had not to haul off and smack the taste out of her mouth. Instead I just bent down and kissed Ava on the head telling her I'd be back to pick her up Sunday night.

     I stopped by the post office to pick up some boxes and rented a U-Haul before heading home. I looked around my sparsely decorated apartment before heading into my bedroom and started packing away my clothes, excluding about three days of clothes. It took me close to three hours, and several boxes but I finished with that chore and moved on to Ava's clothes and toys. Once that was done I made quick work of loading the seven boxes before returning to my apartment and continued with the chore of packing.

     I honestly didn't have very much furniture, just plastic drawers I'd purchased from Wal-Mart, our beds, a breakfast table and chairs. There was a small TV in the living room, a phone, and lamps. All of the packing was mostly taken up by clothes, shoes, mementos, and Ava's various nick knacks. It was a little after six in the afternoon when I finished unpacking and drove the hour long drive to the Wahlberg estate.

     The butler smiled welcomingly at me and promptly led me through the lavish home. Every square foot was impeccably designed and I couldn't believe that I would be living here. He led me to the west wing and opened the door to a spectacular suite that was bigger than my whole apartment. A mini office was the first thing you saw as you walked through the room and a laptop and lamps stood on the desk while a wall to wall book shelf was located across from the desk. There were three steps that made the transition from the office area to the bedroom where a large King sized bed sat on a mahogany bed frame was dressed in a Moroccan decor and a mahogany wood bed set was lined around the room. There were three doors leading to mysterious rooms and a vanity set was placed by one of them. My suite had a beautiful terrace that over looked the beach. I walked into the first door to reveal a huge walk in closet that had hundreds of mahogany hangers. The second room was a beautiful private bathroom and the third room led to a mini suite that I was informed would be Ava's bedroom.

     It was about the size of both of our bedrooms in the apartment and was decorated in pink and cream colors. The bed was a very feminine pink floral color and I thought she would like the room. Especially since she got her own TV. Once I finished exploring everything I set on the task of unpacking everything.

     It has been almost a month since I moved out of my apartment and moved into the Wahlberg estate with my daughter. Brianna was seven and was an adorable child. Her dark hair complimented her tanned skin and light blue eyes. She was a real sweetie and she and Ava hit it off quickly. I was enjoying my job but I still hadn't gotten over my insomnia. I just couldn't sleep at night. Nothing helped and after wandering around the house from midnight to four in the morning I decided to do something productive with my time and spent those hours exercising in the state of the art gym in the basement.

     I used the bicycle, ran on the treat mill, and lifted weights until I could barely move and then dragged myself in the bed and collapsed. That was my routine every night and it seemed that only when I had worked out to exhaustion could I get three full hours of uninterrupted sleep. It was mid November when I finally met Brianna’s father who was one of the most beautiful men I had ever come across in my life and it was actually him who sat down and talked to me.

     Apparently he was also a bit of an insomniac and had noticed my nightly rituals, which were clearly unhealthy, and decided to take it upon himself to talk to me about it. At first I was on the defense. I mean who did he think he was counseling me on how to address my problem. I wasn't getting strung out on sleeping pills, doing drugs, or drinking myself into an alcohol induced coma so I didn't see the problem. It was through Mark, Brianna’s father, that I realized that I still had issues surrounding my divorce and that I needed an outlet.

     I refused to pay several hundred dollars an hour to have some stranger analyze me. I didn't have money like that just to throw away and I didn't have anyone I trusted enough to tell my deepest darkest secrets to so I resolves and came to the fact that maybe using a journal wouldn't hurt. Just when I was starting to get myself back on track and opening up to people I get a call from Omari saying that he needed Ava to come out on a day that wasn't deigned one of his visitation days because he and Priscila had decided that we was going to be the flower girl at their wedding and that they needed her to be measured for one of the fug-ley dresses Priscila had picked out.

     I think that evening was the evening where Mark stopped being my employer and became my friend. He too had gone through a bad break up with Brianna’s mother and understood what I was going through. Mark was the first real adult friend I'd had in my twenty-six years on this Earth and I think that also helped my job out because I didn't worry about overstepping my boundaries when it came to dealing with and, sometimes, reprimanding Brianna for things she did. All in all my life was looking up and for the first time I was happy in my own skin.