"How's the arm?"

"Better than before." she said with tight lips, Theo heard the sarcasm underneath her tone of voice but ignored it.

His focus was on finding out what potential dangers the woman before him was to his home. He'd taken days thinking and piecing his thoughts but undoubtedly realized that he may not have been the target as most people have believed. What if it was the woman in front of him?

What if she had some dark past that came to haunt her? Who knew what she went back to attend to asides a dead lover? The questions were plenty, Theo wrote them all down in his journal and peeked at them one after the other hoping to find answers.

"Why were you at the club Villiena? To find me, I know of that but for what reason?"

Jema sighed. "To beg for my job back."

"Why?"

"Huh?"

"Why did you suddenly want the job back after you disappeared on us?"

She was ashamed to admit her reckless behavior, a supposed mother figure like her who's sole responsibility was to protect and nurture had abandoned her child in a hurry and without looking back. "It was a reckless act, in spur of the moment. I'm sorry it sounds stupid, I have no valid reason for my actions."

"Then it doesn't sound stupid, you're stupid." He confirmed with a straight face, neither angry nor annoyed just plain impassive.

Jema tumbled over inside when he said those words.

"How did you find me?"

"Huh?"

"How the heck did you find me at the club de Villiena, who are you working for and what do they want with me?!" His voice grew harder and higher. "Don't you dare feign ignorance woman!" He snapped.

"I hitched a ride with your... your driver, Otis. He was only being kind to me in the cold weather that's all."

Theo's heart rested, at least that suspicion was cleared. 
"So why were you a target? What were you and your dead lover involved with back home to be the target of a sniper attack?"

For the umpteenth time Jema cringed at the harshness exuding from the man seated behind the desk, questioning her like she was a suspect. He didn't pass up the chance to put her down with hurtful words or remind her of her dead husband.

She shook her head vehemently, squinting her eyes in sheer disbelief.
"We weren't involved with any kind of bad stuff, I only went home to bury a loved one." Jema was unsure if it was safe for her to speak about Jacob's death and it's cause to a man who didn't give a shit about her.
"I only came back because I failed in my duties, and I regret it every waking day."

Theodore stared at her in suspicion, he knew women a lot to tell when they were faking a cry and he hated that he somehow believed Jema's true intentions.

"What happened to your lover?" The abrupt switch threw Jema off, she wasn't ready to discuss the whole detail with her boss, especially when he thought Jacob was just her lover.

When she applied for the job at the Brick mansion, Jema had intentionally used her maiden name 'Jema Author' instead, a way to deny herself of every involvement with her husband. No one knew she was married and she'd kept it that way until now.

Her lips quivered, hand trembled between her thighs but Jema found no voice to speak.

"I need to know what threat you pose against me and my child if you are to stay here. I could've read you up on the internet but," he scoffed dryly. "Nobody would care to write about you, so now I'm asking nicely what happened to you lover?"

It was one reason Jacob loved her for, she didn't cower in fear when ceaseless insults were thrown at her. She wasn't the cliche harlequin heroine in a toxic submissive relationship with the cruel hero. She knew how to stir the ropes.

"I believe you were the target not me," she started, her voice calm and calculating. "I haven't thought much about any potential enemies I might have made in the past or whatever but you on the other hand are a man in politics, a businessman, you have your home under twenty four hours surveillance and a ton of uniformed men stationed by the gates. They don't let anyone in unless thoroughly screened and approved by you. And I believe you've always know the capacity of your opponents so the reason for such tight security."

The silence was deafening. Anger crossed his face, so did confusion and further resignation.
Theo stood from his office chair abruptly like he forgot something and drew the drawer by his right, retrieving a cigar.

"Please don't do that here." She whispered, but he heard her.

The brown stick tucked between his fingers as he watched her in total confusion. The woman was quite daring, he noted.

"You've made your statement, clear and precise but did you have to go that length with my family?" Jema found the voice to speak. It had been one of the things that bothered her, that the man was so vengeful and cruel. He had given her aged grandparents a scare because of her actions.

"I apologize for my actions and will take whatever punishment you deem fit for me but know that your son means a lot to me, he's the reason I left my hus_"  she caught herself before she could mention the word husband. "My lover's corpse in the morgue back in Hartwood and ran back here for him, I was beside myself with worry and fear. I thought he was in danger." She sighed bitterly knowing her hunch was right.

"I kept having bad dreams about him in a hospital, I didn't think he'd miss me that much... I didn't think at all and I want to make up for it, sincerely." Her eyes darted from a spot on the wall to his fierce eyes. She swallowed hard, Theodore Newman might be a devilish person but his looks were hot like hell.

"You have nothing to lose if I let you go." He muttered.

She vehemently shook her head. "I have everything to lose if you kick me out of your home, I wish you'd consider that poor child who only yearns for the touch of a mother, the awareness of stability in his life not some regimented activity of nurses tending to him, that will be awful!"

"Are you indicating that my decision of hiring several helps for my son is going to have a long term negative impact?"

"I'm not saying that for sure but it could, he needs a steady mother figure_"

"That's were you were supposed to come in!"

"Yes I know and I messed up. And I'm begging that you reconsider my position as his nurse, I promise to never do anything to put him in harms way."

"You do realize you can't be of any help to him like that?" He gestured to her casted hand. "Not in that physical state you're in and definitely not in that mental state of yours."

Jema wanted to argue, beg him to give her some healing time while she assist nurse Lilian but he spoke before she could.

"I'll keep you on probation while you heal, see a damn therapist or something. And goodness me, eat some food, you look like a scarecrow." There it was, another mindless shade thrown at her.

Well, the next few days for Jema were filled with tedious mind numbing tasks like watching with clenched teeth while the doctor cleaned her wound, changed the bandages and gave more instructions on what to do. Then she saw a therapist! She'd insisted on contacting the shrink her gran-gran had referred her to but Madame Evana was adamant.

A cold glare from her reminded Jema of her place in the mansion, a prodigal daughter wanting to be accepted back into the family and so had no choice but to let Madame choose her therapist and their venue.

It was a tussle, glaring daggers at the woman in all her professional glory. Jema didn't care if she saw past her facade or could make things easier for her if she opened up, nobody was going to get into her head and mess with the truth she'd organized about Jacob's death. Nobody would learn and assure her that the loss of their innocent child wasn't all her fault, that if she'd had her partner with her then things would've been different. Those were all lies, Jema knew deep down nights after night, morning after morning that she began to detest the little thing growing inside her, blaming it for his disappearance. If only she didn't take in.

Maybe he found out and ran, or the thought of having a child terrified him, besides he'd never shown keen interest to children. He'd been an only child of a single mother who died way before he could crawl and so grew up quickly and much a loner. They'd found each other and clicked.

She, a loner who'd recently lost her parents and him, a lone soldier looking for a desperate girl in need of saving.

"I have a hunch you do not want your problems laid out on the table but I can assure you Ms. Jema your words are safe with me." The bony faced woman with a remarkably oblong face spoke, her voice smooth and clear. It had such an allure that begged anyone to spill their guts to her.

Jema shook her head, refusing to fall victim. "And risk having my employers think I'm a mad woman?" She scoffed. "Nah, I have nothing to talk about."

"Why would they think that? Are you mad?"

"What? No I'm not, I just... I guess they won't be very understanding about my reality, what I've been through and how in control I am." Her eyes swept through the room, hardly meeting the other woman's gaze.

"Of course,"

"I'm alright, seriously." She assured.

The woman gave a nod of affirmation. "I understand, and I also understand that you didn't have a chance to mourn nor bury your husband right?"

"I had to come back for the baby but, we all mourn differently. He's been missing for a while and I already mourned him in my heart so I guess there's nothing left."

"And the baby?"

Jema smiled, "I love him so much, he means the world to__"

"Ms. Jema, I'm not talking about baby Sam, I'm talking about YOUR baby the one you_"

"Stop!" She pleaded with an arm stretched forward. "Don't do that, please."

"Do what?"

"Try getting into my head, it's not gonna work. I know how you therapists work. You tryna start off cool and friendly then when I let my guard down you burrow you way into my damn head and twist the heck out of my innocent thoughts. You're not gonna do that with me okay?"

"Okay Ms. Jema but that's a pretty poor perspective of us you have there. I'm not a psycho analyzer or a detective. You haven't committed any crimes to be held against you by any words you speak. Mind you, this therapy is your only chance at having your old job back. And I'm quite sure you love your job so much and wouldn't risk it."

"Are you threatening me?"

"Oh no! Never, that would be unprofessional of me."

"But you just insinuated that,"

She sighed and smiled tightly.
"I'm merely pointing out the demerits of not communicating fluently with me, whatsoever piece of information you tell me is what I'm going to use and determine how stable enough you are to to return to your job. So I am only suggesting you trust me."

Jema's jaw hung open, unable to articulate her words. Her mind was a jumbled mess.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry I can't right now." She shook her head and wheezed her clogged nostrils as she stood and ran out of the makeshift office in the ground floor of the mansion. She didn't need to get so far with her escape because she met with an aggressive Madame Evana on her way out.

"Why do you look like you're about to have a panic attack? The master wants to see you in his office," she eyed Jema up and down before urging to speak. "Wash your face before you go."
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