of the main lights were off in the house but the sitter had left the foyer lit. She was sitting in the living room, doing some shit with these long-ass needles. I guess thatâs what the fuck knitting looks like. Boring, I thought. Darla was an older, maybe late-forties white lady with stringy brown hair. Michelle found her through some kind of nanny referral service. She came with this long list of celebrity clients, a resume, a background check, all that shit. The needles clinked together as she dropped them into her little nanny knapsack and walked over to us.
âHello, misses.â She always called us that like we werenât some damn grown-ass women, always talkinâ in her polite little field mouse voice. I bet she had a gazillion cats at home anâ shit, or a million of those little white china baby dolls and she be talkinâ to âem and shit like they real kids. Thatâs what the fuck she looked like in her pink and white âNannies âRâ Usâ uniform that the agency made her wear.
âA visitor came by not long after you left. As instructed I did not approach nor open the door. The children are upstairs in bed. They are very well behaved and beautiful little ones. Feel free to reserve my services anytime.â
I didnât hear a damn thing after the word âvisitor.â Who in the hell came by the house?
You wouldâve thought the two of us were wanted fugitives the way we suddenly looked at each other. Both of us asked the same question in our heads without needing to speak it out loud in front of this person who didnât need to know our business.
âDarla, Iâll see you out. Thank you so, so much for your time this evening.â Michelle took over and walked Darla toward the front door. She locked and bolted the double front doors, set the alarm, and together we went down the hall into the study that we never used. It wasnât a large study, I guessed. I ainât never had a house with a study so I wouldnât know. Michelle picked all the books that lined all the walls, most of which sheâd said she read. Iâd skimmed through a few but they were all, âthink about this, grow rich that,â a ton of shit I couldnât get into. The only one that Iâd actually read was an old voodoo tale that scared the hell out my ass and I ainât touched another one since.
Our entire house minus Chelleâs âsanctuaryâ had hardwood flooring, which I personally hated. Michelleâs reasoning was it would not only add value to the house but itâd be easier to keep clean with the kids. When I told her I didnât like hardwood floors because theyâre cold, Bam, she had them install heaters in the floors. Nothing, not a single thing, in the house was mine or had my touch. Everything was Michelleâs vision or Michelleâs idea or customized to Michelleâs liking or her idea of comfort. Sheâd furnished and picked it all out before we moved from Virginia as a âgift.â She ainât even bother to think that Iâd have liked to at least have some say in what color walls Iâd want to stare at every damn day, or what kind of couch Iâd want my ass on? Hell, I ainât even like the colors or the design on the sheets on the damn bed. Ugh.
We walked up to the oversized mahogany desk in the center. Michelle plopped down in the leather seat in front of the touchscreen HP and I sat in her lap, since it was the only place to sit.
âYou ever even learn how to use that damn camera system?â I was being a smartass on purpose. Since the day it was installed Iâd never figured out how to use it and I sure as hell wasnât sure if she had.
âThe man said itâs twenty-four hours and backed up to a main server, all we have to do is enter the password and we can view the footage.â
I wasnât sure why I never thought of it before. The cameras were all some
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