“You’re my nanny, Megan. My employee. Keeping you here is a betrayal.” Craig’s voice was sharp, cutting through me like a knife as he fired me on the spot. He thought he was protecting his dead wife’s memory, but I knew the terrifying truth: her ghost was driving him insane.
Part 1
“You’re my nanny, Megan.”
“My employee.”
“Keeping you here is a betrayal.”
Craig’s voice was sharp, cutting through me like a knife as he fired me on the spot.
Though he thought he was protecting his dead wife’s memory, I knew the terrifying truth: her ghost was driving him insane.
His gaze bore into mine, unrelenting and cold.
“Is it true?”
His gaze didn’t waver.
The harshness in his tone masked an agonizing vulnerability.
Searching his rugged face, I was desperate for a trace of the man who had hired me.
“I…” my voice faltered.
I couldn’t lie to him, not after everything we had shared.
“Yes, I do.”
Craig’s jaw clenched.
“You’re my nanny, Megan, my employee.”
Those words struck me harder than any physical blow.
My heart shattered.
“I know,” I whispered, trembling.
“I promise you won’t ever hear any more of it.”
Gripping his head as if in physical pain, Craig stood abruptly.
“It isn’t enough,” he growled.
He turned his back to me.
“Keeping you here… it’s a betrayal.”
“Because of Brenda?”
I sought any clarity in his eyes.
Craig flinched as though I had struck him.
“Yes,” he hissed.
“Look, Craig, I know how much you loved her.”
Forcing myself to keep speaking, I held my ground.
“But Brenda… she’s gone.”
You need to let her go.
“Pack your bags now.”
His command sliced through the air.
“Craig, please,” I begged, tears spilling over.
“Let me stay and help with the children.”
I reached out a trembling hand.
“I’m not asking you to love me, just please don’t send me away.”
Storming blindly out of the room, Craig didn’t look back.
“I can’t bear to look at you,” he muttered.
His voice sounded entirely detached, like a stranger occupying his body.
I heaved with silent sobs until my lungs burned.
Sprinting out of the massive estate, I ignored the gravel crunching under my boots.
There was no time to break down right now.
Near the shed, I found Dan stacking firewood.
Dropping a log the moment he spotted my devastated face, he rushed over.
“Uncle Dan,” I gasped.
“Can I borrow your car?”
He blinked, taken aback.
“Megan, what’s going on?”
His gruff voice was thick with paternal worry.
“Nothing,” I forced my gaze down.
“I just need to go to town for a bit.”
Dan stepped closer.
“But Megan,” his expression softened.
“You’ve been crying.”
Instantly, Dan’s weathered expression hardened.
“What did he do?”
His voice dropped an entire octave.
“Did he hurt you?”
My stomach twisted into painful knots.
“No, Uncle Dan, he didn’t hurt me.”
Shaking my head frantically, I tried to reassure him.
Dan let out an exhausted sigh.
“Look, Megan, I know exactly how you feel about him.”
He rubbed the back of his neck.
“Look, the Alpha…”
“I mean, Craig… he can’t be with you.”
Staring at me with profound pity, he delivered the crushing blow.
“He’s never going to be with you, you understand?”
I nodded stiffly.
“I know I’m not good enough,” I murmured.
“What are you talking about?”
Dan threw his hands up.
He shook his head adamantly.
“It has absolutely nothing to do with being good enough, believe me.”
Grunting in frustration, he paced a tight circle.
“It wouldn’t be right for him to mate with you, Megan.”
He kicked at a loose stone.
“And besides, after everything that happened here… the fire…”
Trailing off, he looked deeply conflicted.
“I wish I could help him,” I whispered.
“Oh, honey,” Dan murmured.
“There’s absolutely nothing you can do.”
Grieving takes an agonizing amount of time.
“And you know, between losing his brother and Miss Brenda…”
“His brother is dead too?”
I asked in shock.
Dan nodded grimly.
“We never talk about him.”
He threw a cautious glance back toward the towering estate.
“The children… they lost their mother in that horrible fire.”
“Brian was there?”
I kept my tone perfectly even.
“During the fire?”
Shaking his head heavily, Dan confirmed my worst fears.
“Craig had to get Brian out first.”
“Kelly too,” he choked out.
“By the time he went back inside for Brenda, the roof collapsed.”
He couldn’t save her.
“He had to leave her there, burning in the flames.”
Believing she died not knowing how much she was loved, he blamed himself entirely.
“That’s why he can never get over her death, you understand?”
I nodded, but the words barely registered.
Craig wasn’t just grieving.
Haunted actively by a spirit that refused to let him move on, he was trapped.
I knew that with every fiber of my being.
Determined to fix it no matter the cost, I made my decision.
Driving Dan’s beat-up sedan toward the edge of town, I felt every single mile stretching like an agonizing eternity.
I slammed the car into park the second I reached my destination.
Approaching the scuffed front entrance, I squeezed my eyes shut.
Please make this work.
I silently begged whatever ancient forces were listening to me today.
I pushed open the door of the rundown comic shop, ready to trade the only thing I had left to save the man who just shattered my heart.
