Page 184 of Love Unwritten
“But—” Nico’s shoulders slump with defeat.
Ellie drops my hand so she can kneel beside his chair. “I’m not leaving you, though.”
“Yes, you are.” A few tears fall onto his lap.
“No. I will always be a part of your life.”
“But you’re leaving.” Before I have a chance to reassure him, Nico leaves the kitchen in a rush.
Ellie turns to me with tears in her eyes. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“You can.”
A sob in the distance, followed by a door slamming, shatters whatever control Ellie had over her tears, and one slips down her face.
My own heart feels split in two as Nico and Ellie pull it in opposite directions. While I wish she could stay with us forever—both because Nico loves her and I…need her—she deserves to choose herself and her future. We will always be here, but an opportunity like Cole’s won’t last forever, and that is what I tell myself as I rise to my feet and hold my hand out for Ellie to grab.
“He will understand.”
She shakes her head. “No, he won’t.”
“He will once he figures out that I won’t make the same mistake as last time when I fired you.” I played a part in Nico’s mistrust when I fired Ellie after his accident, and it is up to me to rectify it.
Tears spill down Ellie’s cheeks as we follow the sound of Nico’s cries toward the source.
I knock against the guest bathroom door located near the elevators. “Nicolas?”
His cries pause as he blows his nose. “What?”
“Can we talk to you? Please?”
“I don’t want to.”
Ellie bristles beside me.
“I know you’re upset right now, but Ellie isn’t leaving—”
“Yes, she is!”
“Nico.” Ellie tests the doorknob and opens the door a crack. “Can I please come in?”
“Why? You’re just going to lie like Mommy!”
While his words feel like a shotgun shell to the chest, I can’t imagine how Ellie must feel hearing Nico compare her to Hillary.
She gives my hand a squeeze, and I return the gesture with one of my own, as if to say we can handle this. Together.
“I’ve never lied to you, and I never will.” Ellie steels her spine and opens the door.
My son sits on the tiled floor with his legs tucked against his chest and his forehead pressed into his knees.
Ellie kneels beside him while I stand in the doorway, frozen in place, while she circles her arms around Nico and crushes him against her chest. “I’m sorry your mom has made promises she couldn’t keep”—an issue I plan on correcting as soon as possible—“but I’m not her. I’ve never broken one since I started working for your dad, even when it meant losing my job because of the secret I kept, and I don’t plan on breaking any to come because your trust is important to me.”
His forehead brushes against his knees when he shakes his head. “I don’t want you to leave me.”
“I’m not. I may be going to work for someone else, but I will always be a part of your life, whether I’m your nanny or not.”
Nico looks up with red, tear-stained cheeks and bloodshot eyes. “You will?”