The mate of his nanny

Chapter 92: Love and Marriage

Moana

The children quickly forgot about the emotional moment between Edrick and I by the time they finished their ice cream, and we left the ice cream parlor to make our way back to the orphanage.
By the time we made it back to the orphanage, the sun was already beginning to set. Ella would have her werewolf training in the morning, so we needed to get home in time for dinner and bedtime. As Ella said her goodbyes to her friends in the foyer, Edrick and I stood patiently by the door.

Finally, when Ella had hugged all of her new friends as though she would never see them again, I gave Sophia my last goodbye and we began to head out.
"Wait! Moana! Mr. Morgan!" Clara's little voice called out, causing us to stop in our tracks. "I have a question!"

"What is it, Clara?" I asked, feeling a smirk spread across my face at the little girl's urgent demeanor.

"Um... Well, actually..." She turned to face her friends. They all whispered for a moment before Joshua reached out and spun Clara back around to face us. Her face was red from embarrassment. "We want to know... When are you and Mr. Morgan getting married?"

I froze, as did Edrick beside me.
"Clara, let's not ask such personal questions," Sophia said, shooting me an apologetic glance as she walked up to Clara.

"Oh... Sorry, Moana and Mr. Morgan," Clara said.

"It's okay," I replied, crouching down and planting a kiss on the little girl's cheek. I felt bad for not being able to explain anything more, but it wasn't entirely my call. Edrick's silence told me that he wasn't ready to talk to outsiders about our situation just yet, and I wanted to respect that.

"I'll see you guys later, okay?"

"Okay."

With that, Edrick, Ella and I returned to the car where the driver was waiting. Edrick opened the door for Ella and myself, and while I buckled Ella into her car seat, Edrick got in on the other side.
The ride home was quiet. Ella seemed too sleepy from her exciting day to say much, and instead swung her legs happily in her seat as she played with the wooden puzzle that I kept in my purse to keep her busy during car rides.

Meanwhile, Edrick stared quietly out the window without so much as turning even once to look back at me. I could tell that Clara's question took him just as off guard as it did to me, and I knew that it made us equally uncomfortable. It was a confusing and awkward subject to broach, and what made it even worse was that the children at the orphanage - and Sophia - didn't even know about the pregnancy yet. How would we be able to explain something like that when my belly eventually grew to the point where there was no hiding it?

When we got back to the penthouse, Edrick retreated to his study and shut the door. I sighed as I heard the door click shut, but kept my chin up for Ella and helped Selina and the maids prepare dinner. Ella was thankfully just too preoccupied with her exciting day to notice her father's sullenness after the question that Clara asked, but I couldn't stop thinking about it as we ate dinner and I gave Ella her bath.

Would I even want to marry a man who was sleeping with other women during my pregnancy? I felt almost betrayed; even though we weren't technically together, I felt as though I was doing my due diligence and being faithful for both Ella's and the baby's sake despite the fact that I was just as lonely as Edrick was. Meanwhile, he was having one night stands with other women. Just because I caught him this time, too, didn't necessarily mean that there hadn't been other times.

Even just thinking about it made my blood boil, however, so I tried not tolet it get to me as I got Ella ready for bed.
Finally, I finished Ella's bath and dried her off, then got her into her pajamas and combed out her long hair. It had become a bit of a ritual at this point for us to sit in front of her mirror at night while I brushed her hair one hundred times and braided it, and just like any other night, we did just that.

I expected Ella to chatter on about her exciting day, but she didn't. Much to my surprise, she was mostly quiet while I brushed and braided her hair. I figured that she was just tired, but it wasn't until I tucked her into bed for the night that she finally spoke.
"Um... Moana?" she said, just as I was about to shut off the light.

I stopped, turning to look at her. She was tucked into her blanket up to her chin, with her favorite stuffed animal - the little handmade stuffed duck that I'd purchased for her at the farmers' market all those weeks ago - nestled into the crook of her neck. "Yes, love?" I asked.

"Um... Do you think that you and my daddy really will get married one day?" she asked.

I was taken aback by her question, but I supposed that I knew it would come out eventually. Between mine and Edrick's shocked silence in response to Clara's question earlier and the way that Sophia pulled her away, it was bound to have struck Ella. Not only that, but the way that her father went silent and disappeared into his study for the remainder of the night was also bound to make her uncomfortable.

It was only now that I realized that she was probably mulling over the subject as well, and that was why she was so quiet all evening.
Ella kept looking up at me curiously with her big doe eyes, and I finally let out a sigh and sat down on the edge of her bed. I reached out and brushed a loose strand of hair out of her eyes before I spoke.

"Sometimes things just don't work out that way," I said gently.

"Well... Why not?" she asked. "In all of my fairytales and princess movies, the boy and the girl always fall in love and get married and live happily ever after."

I paused, biting my lip. "Real life just isn't always like your fairytales or princess movies," I finally said after some contemplation. "But that's okay. I promise that we'll all still have our happily ever after... It'll just be a little bit different."

Ella didn't answer for a minute. I watched as she scrunched up her nose, chewing and digesting what I had just told her. Of course it broke my heart a little bit to have to tell a little girl that happily ever after wasn't always like fairytales or princess movies; sometimes, instead of a prince, the boy was a cold CEO who couldn't commit because of social status. And sometimes, instead of a princess, the girl was a human nanny who got herself into a rather sticky situation.

But that didn't mean that we couldn't have our own happy ending in one way or another.