Page 48 of Angels Are Falling

“She has experience raising children from this circle. We don’t. We’re not doing Bella any favors if the other kids don’t eat lunch with her because they’re not used to someone like her.”

The picture he painted was hard to refute. Mean girls didn’t just pop up in high school. They existed in first grade, too. But still… “Bella’s just an excitable kid. She doesn’t mean any harm. Mrs. Bea might know how to get kids to fit in, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of crushing Bella’s spirit.”

“Bella’s spirit will be crushed either way when she doesn’t get invited to any birthday parties because the parents don’t like her… liveliness.”

That shut me up. Nothing could break a little girl’s heart more than being excluded.

Stefan cleared his throat as we reconvened with Mrs. Bea. He asked Bella to hand over the fez as it didn’t go with her school uniform and informed her there would be consequences for disobeying the nanny’s instructions. With a heavy heart, Bella handed over her beloved hat to Mrs. Bea, who then led her to the wall for her time-out. The last thing I saw before Bella turned her little face toward the wall was her disheartened eyes.

My heart twisted in my chest. Out of the three kids, I had the softest spot for Bella. The boys leaned on each other throughout their grief after their parents passed away. The twins also had more memories with them because they were older. As the youngest, Bella often felt like the odd one out. She acted out because her biological parents had been ripped away too soon, and try as we might, Stefan and I weren’t good enough substitutes. She wanted her mom. On top of that, Mrs. Bea took away her prized hat—the closest thing Bella had to a security blanket.

“Mrs. Bea’s approach will be good for Bella,” Stefan reminded me, noticing my distraught face.

I wanted to argue that Mrs. Bea lacked human sentiments, but Stefan had made logical points. What if the other girls excluded Bella because they found her unruly? I didn’t want to be the reason she was bullied at school.

“She has years of experience and knows things we don’t,” he added. “Isn’t that why we hired her?”

But I never hired Mrs. Bea, I wanted to shout. She had worked for influential families, which was good enough for Stefan. He hired her based on her prestigious résumé. Whether the children responded to her parenting style didn’t matter to him.

I didn’t bother pointing that out. I realized there was no point in mentioning last night with Kai, either. Stefan was too far gone, entirely under the spell of his new glamorous life. I could see it in every choice he made and heard it in the justifications for his decisions. Money had seduced him to the dark side, and I worried he would never return to the light.

I started clearing out the table while Stefan returned to his new friends. The sound of their chatter collided with the thudding in my heart as our previous lives slipped through my fingers.

The twins ambushed us just as I was wrapping up. Jamie grabbed Stefan’s hand while August took mine.

“You aren’t dressed yet,” August grumbled, taking in Stefan’s haggard clothes from last night. The all-nighter had done a number on his handsome face. “Stefan! We don’t want to be late on the first day of school.”

Stefan tried to let them down gently. “Guys, I’m exhausted. Mrs. Bea can take you today. I’ll take you guys to school next week. What do you say?”

They glanced at Mrs. Bea, who had pulled up a chair beside the wall to oversee Bella’s punishment. They exchanged a horrified look and turned to face Stefan. “No, we want you to take us.”

Did we need more proof that the kids didn’t like their new nanny?

“It’s their first day of boarding school,” I tried to advocate for their cause. “They’ve never lived away from home.”

“The school’s less than thirty minutes away, and we can visit them as much as we want throughout the week. That’s barely considered boarding school.” Stefan ran his fingers through his hair. “Guys, if you let Mrs. Bea take you to school today, I’ll take you to Coastline Kingdom this weekend.”

Coastline Kingdom was the biggest amusement park near us. It was a great bribe, so I was shocked when the boys turned it down.

“No. No. No,” they protested. “We want you to take us.”

“Come on, Stefan,” I chimed in. “We should drop them off on the first day of school. It’ll be five days before they’re home again. I’d like to meet their teachers and their dorm mom.”

Stefan stumbled slightly, then leaned over to whisper, “To be honest, I’m still a little drunk. I’m in no shape to meet their teachers.”

Just what you wanted to hear from the future father of your children at eight thirty in the morning.

I opened my mouth but closed it when Kai waltzed through the double doors. Despite the roomful of people, his heavy gaze fell on me. Unapologetic and steadfast like always. My stomach clenched. He had a way of staring at me in an indescribable manner that made me feel sucker punched.

Luckily, other people in the room were vying for his attention.

“Kai!” Ruby was the first to greet him, though Will, Matt, and Marcus were on their feet, too. He knew how to make an entrance. The guys stood beside Ruby—a real-life rock star—yet seemed more interested in Kai. They introduced themselves, determined to leave an impression on the elusive man who had taken this town by storm.

They weren’t his only fans.

“Kai!” Bella broke free from Mrs. Bea’s wall of punishment and ran to him. Ever since our dinner at The Gilded Lamp, she had become obsessed with her precious Kai and talked about him nonstop. Kai picked her up for a hug.

Mrs. Bea was also on the move, marching indignantly to Kai. She spoke to him in a hushed voice, presumably complaining about Bella not completing her punishment and about sending the “right message” to a seven-year-old.