Married to my worst nightmare

Chapter 3.

I remain silent and watchful, wishing to see a hint of mercy in the man's eyes, though sadly, Nathaniel Rossi behaves like a terrible heartless man once again.

“I am not interested in what you are proposing, this is your problem” My boss says.

“Please Mr. Rossi, if social services find out they will send my daughter to foster care and I can't allow that, that's why during the interview I said I had a partner and we had plans to get married, but the worker demanded a name and yours was the only one to cross my mind.”

“I'm glad you have me in your thoughts, Miss Evans" he says as I blush. “But I'm sorry, even so, I can't help you” he continues.

“I'm not asking you to marry me or give me a ring, I just need you to keep quiet about the lie for the next six months.”

“Don't you think that's too much?”

“It's for my daughter!” I refute him.

“She is not your daughter yet.”

“I already told you that blood doesn't matter, she's my daughter, I thought you would understand” it may be a low blow, but he of all people should understand that.

He just clenches his jaw and looks at me impassively, analyzing me: “Before I fire you, I need you to explain thoroughly what you told the social worker, do you have work due today?”

“The designs for the window displays for the Desing's contest, I already have the Paris one ready, now I'm focused on the Milan one.”

“When you finish your workday we will go to dinner and you will explain the situation to me fully, understood?”

“I can't, I have to go pick up my daughter from daycare" I tell him.

“I don't see any inconvenience, I will go with you to pick up the girl, and if you prefer we can talk in your apartment.”

At that moment I try to remember how my home was, I live on the fourth level of an apartment lot, my salary is good but housing in a cosmopolitan city like New York is not very affordable, more than a quarter of my salary goes to rent, the rest is divided in general expenses and Mary's needs plus the expenses for legal advice due to the adoption.

“All right Mr. Rossi, now if you will allow me, I will retire” I whisper.

It's a miracle I don't fall off my heels with Nathaniel's intense gaze on me, once I close the door I say goodbye to Miranda, who ignores me outright and walks to my office.

***

“So, is the engagement true?”

It's the tenth time I've heard that question, I'm about to throw someone off the twelfth floor of Publicity Hoffman, but I'm not doing it just because I don't want to raise Mary from jail.

I get off the ladder I'm on, we're recreating the design for the rack in Paris so we can work out the lighting and finishing touches on it, when I hear the question.

“That's not part of your job, Olivia” I know I sounded rude but I'm sick of people meddling in my life.

Olivia is my personal assistant, normally we get along well, but today she has decided to find out if it is true or not about my engagement with Nathaniel. If this were a normal situation I would answer her, but the truth is that the situation is delicate, I never thought to be in such a big trouble, everything depends on the explanation I give to my boss and his decision about helping us or not.

Olivia does not bring up the subject again, instead we discuss the design.

“The best thing would be to install direct white lighting at the bottom to illuminate the product creating our focal point, at the top we should place some decorations with shiny nylon with earth colors to create a striking and romantic atmosphere very Parisian style, what do you say?” I turn around to find Olivia with a weird smile: “What's the matter?”

“Polly, this is amazing, you're going to win again this year for sure!” She encourages me.

Everyone in the company is counting on me to win this contest since I did it last year, that's what helped me get my promotion.

“Do you think so?”

“Sure, you're the best at your job” She says, hearing this kind of praise helps my own view of myself, I grew up being practically disowned by my mother, Mrs. Anna Evans.

My mother's pride has always been my sister Samantha, she is everything I am not, for some reason our relationship was never close, maybe it was because I was always closer to my father even though he didn't support me to see my goals come true either.

A little over a year ago, my brother Jason contacted me, he wanted to know how I was doing. Apparently, my mother forbade my siblings to answer my calls, claiming that it would only be to ask them for favors or money.

My mother's low image of me saddens me greatly, for God's sake, she is my mother! She should love me and trust me unconditionally, but the fact that she doesn't and that my brothers have believed her words hurts me more than a dagger through my stomach.

When I talked to Jason, I explained to him that I was fine and that I have a good job, I didn't tell him where I live or the kind of work I do, he understood that I am working in some disreputable restaurant and I didn't get him out of his mistake because I really don't want my family to know that I made it and today, at my young age, I am one of the best designers internationally.

Your life can really change in less time than you think.

“Tell me, what else do you have in mind?” Olivia asks me.

“At the moment, I need you to take the measurements and deliver them to production. I want it to be made of one-quarter glass, preferably tempered, so in case it breaks, we won't have to send for a new one.”

“I'll take it from here, anything else you need, Polly?” Olivia professionally asks me.

“No, that's all Olivia, thank you very much, you can go now” I tell her as I walk to my desk, my office is not very big but here I have a scale replica of the shelves to make the designs and check the lighting.

“Polly” Olivia calls me once I'm sitting at my desk: “You know you can trust me for anything, besides being your assistant I'm your friend. That's all I wanted to tell you, excuse me.”

Once she leaves my office I stay analyzing her words, I know I can trust her, but the situation is not very normal and I am afraid of anything that could happen.

Already at five in the afternoon, I am arranging my office to leave, but I can't find the documents of the design’s contest, suddenly I see that the folder with the documents has fallen in front of my desk and now they are scattered on the floor.

I rush to pick them up but the dress doesn't help much, and suddenly I'm bent overreaching for the last sheet that was hidden under the desk, with my whole butt in the air when I hear a voice.

“Miss Evans, what a nice welcome” From the shock of recognizing Mr. Rossi's voice, I jump up, the problem is that I forget that I am under the desk and I get the punch of my life.

I don't know whether to die from pain or embarrassment, Nathaniel hurries to lift me up, grabs me by the waist, and sits me on the desk so he can examine the blow I gave myself.

Somehow or other I always end up embarrassing myself in front of this man, I don't understand how I'm going to get him to help me if I can't stop looking like a fool in front of Nathaniel Rossi.