Beauty and the Billionaire

Chapter 7

It was about some minutes past seven when Mrs Kimberly arrived that night. She met Claire and Amy downstairs in the large lobby where Amy watched a cartoon.

Mrs Kimberly smiled as she approached Claire. "Nice work," she said, impressed. "The housekeeper tells me you handled Amy well."

Claire stood up and greeted her employer. "A good evening to you ma'am," she said.

"Granny!" Amy said, leaping off the couch and rushing to hug her grandmother.

Mrs Kimberly hugged her and smoothened her hair. Claire had properly cleaned Amy up after their trip to the park and had gotten rid of the sand in her hair. She looked proud of her cover-up.

Mrs Kimberly shook a paper bag in her hand for Amy to see. "I bought you the chocolate as promised."

Amy looked very happy. She stretched her hand for the bag. Mrs Kimberly gave her a stern look. "What do I usually say?"

"No sweets before dinner, granny," Amy said, cowered.

"That's my girl," Mrs Kimberly said. She headed for the grand stairs. She stopped midway and turned to Claire. "I'll see you at dinner. Give me a moment to change. Since your closing time is eight, you should have dinner with us, Allison."

Claire, Claire thought exasperatedly.

"Yes ma'am," she said.

Mrs Kimberly headed upstairs.

About ten minutes later, Claire and Amy were seated at dinner with Mrs Kimberly. Claire sat across from the woman and Amy sat just next to her grandmother. There were two other diners too. Jayden was back from work and he joined the family for dinner.

Another girl, a few years younger than Claire was with them too. From the conversation at the table, Claire could tell that she was Jayden's younger sister. She did not look like Amy though, so Claire safely concluded that she wasn't Amy's mother.

She had brown hair like Jayden but it was blonde-streaked. She had a bored expression on her face as Mrs Kimberly talked about her last semester results and Claire figured that she was still in college.

"Yes mom, yes mom," she mumbled as Mrs Kimberly told her she must study hard and graduate with even better results that year, else Mrs Kimberly wouldn't let her take the reins of any of her firms.

Jayden pressed on his phone as he ate, paying no attention to anyone at the table.

Claire watched him for a bit. He had changed into a white T-shirt and black sweatpants. His brown hair was tousled unlike how it was earlier that morning- less messy, gleaming with gel and combed- and yet he was still irresistible. Claire chided herself for that thought.

Jayden's thick brows furrowed as he focused a serious gaze on what he was doing on his phone. He typed with one hand as he held his fork in his other hand.

Mrs Kimberly looked like that action grated on her nerves, but couldn't help it; she must have spoken about it severally and she had finally gotten to the stage of acceptance.

She turned to Amy and watched her. Amy who had been eating dispassionately quickly took a mouth-ful then and munched on it so seriously. It was obvious she had no interest in dinner and was only waiting to get at the chocolate her grandmother had promised her after dinner.

Claire turned to Jayden again and averted her gaze from him at once. He had caught her staring at him. He sent her an annoyed look.

Claire sent him a dirty look in return.

"So Amy, I hope you did not put your dear babysitter through too much stress today?" Mrs Kimberly said. "Did you behave?"

"Yes, Granny," Amy said. In her high-pitched baby voice with her big blue eyes looking so sincere, anyone would have been convinced that she was the most innocent child out there, Claire thought.

She cleared her throat slightly and took a sip of water. Mrs Kimberly briefly looked at her and then turned back to her food.

"Nanny took me to the park," Amy announced then and Claire nearly choked on the water in her mouth.

All eyes turned to Claire. Claire noticed the razor-sharp glare from Mrs Kimberly. "You did what?" She asked.

"I- I- Em, Mrs Kimberly," Claire started, realizing that she was not coherent.

"You what?" Mrs Kimberly snapped. "I made it clear that you were not to take her to the park in the rules I gave you. Why would you disobey me?"

"It was quite hot- you know it's quite hot and all because it's summer. Amy wanted some ice cream and I took her to the park to get her ice cream," Claire said.

"There are buckets and buckets of ice cream in the kitchen's fridge," Mrs Kimberly said. "If you don't have information about something all you have to do is ask. What you did was senseless and daft."

"Daft," Amy repeated, rolling the word in her lips.

Mrs Kimberly turned to Amy, realizing then that Amy was there. She gave her a packet sitting by the foot of her chair and sent her upstairs.

"After you're done, get some sleep. I will come to check on you," Mrs Kimberly said.

"Yes Granny," Amy said. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, my dear."

Claire gave Amy a dirty look as she made her way to the lobby to go to the grand staircase.

All was quiet in the dining room soon after. Claire watched Mrs Kimberly's angry look. She turned from the woman to her food. When she looked up again, she caught Jayden's gaze on her. He had a smirk on his face. He was enjoying her suck at her job.

Claire ignored him.

"In the future, be mindful of what you say in her presence, " Mrs Kimberly said quietly. "She is in her formative years, you don't want her saying rude and impolite things whose meanings she does not know. You don't swear, do you?"

"No ma'am," Claire said. She did swear.

Mrs Kimberly let out a huge sigh.

"I don't want this nonsense to repeat itself," she said. "Follow all the rules I laid down. If you break one more rule, I won't think twice about ending your contract."

Claire nodded quickly.

Mrs Kimberly gave another sigh after a while. "We have to be very careful with her this period. It is not easy for her. She is a socially maladjusted child." Her voice thinned at that part. " The home she'd been born in was quite turbulent. I don't want her suffering long-term as a result of it. She has all she wants. Enough to distract her. You do not need to take her to parks."

Claire did not say anything even though she had a lot she wanted to say. She felt alienating Amy from her age groups wasn't a way of helping the little girl deal with her social problems. But she stayed quiet. She was still quite enthusiastic about keeping this job