Blaine tried to focus on his work, but he kept going back to that one file, that one woman. He knew he shouldn't obsess about it, but he realized the sooner he solved what was bothering him about her, the sooner he could forget about it and focus on the task at hand.
He pulled up the picture again of the young woman with spiky black hair, dark eyes, and a pixie face. He held his palm over parts of the screen to isolate her features. Was it the hair or was it her face? He decided it was definitely the face. He pulled up some other pictures with different hairstyles and colors and started mixing and matching them with Lauren's face.
When he tried a long, blonde style, he knew he had it.
He swiveled in his chair to go find Lawrence, but the man was already behind him, frozen in place where he had been walking across the room.
"Didn't I see her at your son's birthday party?"
"That's my nanny, Jolene Parker. What are you doing with her picture?"
"That's not just Jolene," Blaine said as he removed the blonde hair to reveal the original picture of Lauren, the former receptionist. "I came across her picture in the files, and I knew she looked familiar somehow."
Blaine turned around to look at Lawrence, who stared speechlessly at the monitor, all color drained from his face.
"What's wrong?"
Without answering, Lawrence reached for the closest phone and dialed the number for the police.
* * * * *
"Alright, last stop. Everybody out," Vanessa announced cheerfully as she parked in her driveway. With her own children, plus Lawrence's, she had a car full. "Don't forget your bookbags."
"There's somebody at our house," Artie remarked.
Vanessa paused from ushering the children to the house and looked up to see a woman on the Arrendales' porch, peering in through the front windows.
"Ms. Parker's back!" Lorna announced happily once the woman turned, allowing them a glimpse of her face.
Lorna waved to the woman as she skipped down the sidewalk towards home. Her brothers and the Varners followed after her.
"Where were you this morning, Ms. Parker?" Lorna asked as she met the nanny by the front steps. "Daddy said you were supposed to be back in time to take us to school this morning."
Ms. Parker bent down and smiled at the young girl, who looked so much like her father, and smiled as she gently stroked her hair. "I was, but something unexpectedly came up. I'm sorry. I promise it won't happen ever again."
She looked up at the other faces staring at her. "But I'm here now. Why don't we go inside and carry on with our day?"
"Maybe you should just go home for the rest of the day and call Mr. Arrendale after he gets home to let him know what happened," Vanessa suggested. "He asked me to pick up the kids after school, and he's already expecting them to be at my house."
"Does that mean Lawrence is mad at me?" she pouted. "The last thing in the world I would want is to let him down.
"I don't know. I think it's better if you spoke to Mr. Arrendale about that yourself."
Vanessa was about to usher the group back to her house when Lorna protested.
"Are you sure we can't stay with her? Ms. Parker promised she'd bake cookies with me when she got back."
The nanny clapped her hands together. "That would be so fun!"
"Ms. Parker promised to do some things for me, too," Lance added with a sly grin. He looked at the nanny, hoping for a reaction, but he was disappointed and confused when she just smiled at him.
"I've been watching the children for the last few months, haven't I? Unless Lawrence was unhappy with my work, why would he object to me watching them now, as I was originally supposed to?"
Vanessa couldn't refute her logic, but she still felt unconvinced. "I just feel like he should know if there is a change of plans with the children."
"Oh, well, then we'll call him and let him know as soon as we get inside." She started backing toward the front door. She fished out a set of keys from her bag. "Can one of you kids help me with the alarm? I've been gone so long, I think I forgot the code."
* * * * *
"Yes, that's her," Lawrence confirmed to the police officer as he looked through the two-way mirror into an interrogation room where Jolene, or Lauren, was seated at a table across from a man in a suit.
"You said the woman worked as your nanny, going by the name Jolene Parker, but you believe she is a former work associate of yours named Lauren DeVille?" the detective asked as he read the notes on the clipboard in front of him.
"Yes."
"How long has she worked for you as your nanny?"
"About four months."
"And you never noticed a resemblance before now?"
"No. It has been over fifteen years since I last saw Lauren. I haven't thought of her in years. It only came to my attention when one of my colleagues was updating old personnel files and noticed the resemblance in her photograph on file. Did she admit who she really is? Did she say why she has come back now after all these years?"
"She hasn't said anything to us yet. She refused to speak without a lawyer present. She's talking with him now. Hopefully, we'll have some answers soon. We just wanted you to confirm we brought in the right person. In the meantime, you can go home, and we will let you know when we have more information."
As Lawrence drove home, he felt wracked with guilt. He had suspected something was odd about the nanny for a while, but he had never expected anything like this. The fact that this woman, who had stalked him and harassed his old girlfriend while they were dating, had been responsible for the care of his children for the last few months made him absolutely sick. What had been her plan all this time? What kind of harm might she have done to his children? He and Shayna had tried to be so thorough with their background checks, and it still wasn't enough.
His mind was still racing when he walked up to Vanessa's front door. All he wanted to do was hug his children and see for himself that they were safe.
"Are the children ready to go?" Lawrence asked after they exchanged greetings at the front door.
"They're already at your house. Didn't Ms. Parker call and tell you?"
"No," he frowned, confused, as a feeling of panic rose within his chest. "When was that?"
"When we came home from school, she was waiting outside the house. The kids wanted to stay home, and she insisted on watching them. She promised she would call and let you know."
"Did the police pick her up from the house?"
"No!" Vanessa's eyes grew wide with surprise. "I was uneasy about leaving them without your permission, so I have been keeping an eye on the house. No one else has been there. The police?" she repeated, alarmed. "What's going on?"
Instead of answering, Lawrence turned and ran back home, leaving his car behind in the Varner's driveway.
Lawrence burst through the front door, not sure what to expect. At first, the house was quiet, which worried him, but then he heard voices and laughter coming from the kitchen. He rushed into the kitchen to find Lance leaning against the table with a confused expression and Lorna at the counter, animatedly talking to the nanny as she stirred a bowl of cookie dough.
His heart was racing, and he was stunned speechless. How could she be here when he had just seen her at the police station only ten minutes ago?
When she looked up at him, the sight of him made her drop the bowl on the counter. She wiped away the flour that had splattered on her top and brushed back her hair without taking her eyes off him. She took a step toward him and said in an excited voice, "Lawrence! You're here!"
Lawrence couldn't wrap his mind around what he was seeing. This didn't make any sense. He didn't know what to say, but he knew with the children here, he would have to be very careful about what he did next. "Where's Artie?"
The nanny frowned. "Oh, him. Upstairs, I guess," she said with an unbothered shrug.
"The two of you, go upstairs with your brother."
"But the cookies," Lorna protested.
"You can finish them later. Right now, I want you to go upstairs until I tell you to come down. I need to speak with Ms. Parker."
"Please don't be mad at me about this morning. I wanted so much to be here, but it couldn't be helped," the nanny said as soon as the children were on their way upstairs. She batted her eyelashes at him. "Can you forgive me?"
She reached toward him, desperate to touch him, to caress his face, but he grabbed her wrist tightly before she could reach him.
"Who are you?" he hissed.
"Why, your nanny, of course. Paige."
"Paige?" he asked, confused.
"Or I guess I should say, "Ms. Parker, Mr. Arrendale." She laughed, causing him to grip her wrist harder.
"I want the truth. Now," he demanded through gritted teeth.
Seeing him like this left her a bit flustered. For so long, she had only seen glimpses of him from a distance or in her mind as fleeting memories, but he was even more handsome up close and in person. Seeing him angry like this oddly added to his allure. She put her hand on his as he grabbed her wrist. "I'll be whoever you want me to be."
Her carefree tone threw Lawrence off guard. The caress of her hand made him recoil, and he released her wrist and backed away. He wanted to be away from this woman, wanted her out of his house. He had to find a way to call the police. The direct approach and intimidation weren't working, so he decided his only option was to play along.
"Well, then, why don't you clear this away and start on dinner for the children? I need to check in with the office. I'll be right back."
He watched her for a moment as she seemed to be content with that response. As she started cleaning up the cookie ingredients, he backed out of the kitchen and hurried to his home office to make a phone call.
He dialed the police station and waited for someone to answer. "This is Lawrence Arrendale. I need to speak with Detective-"
He didn't get to finish his sentence before everything went black, and he fell to the floor.
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