The Liar's Wife (Adam Levine Dark Romance)

Chapter 6: Out of Goodbyes

Adam was trying his best to concentrate on the music playing through the headphones, but it was impossible with the nanny standing there, glowering at him. He took the headphones back off after a minute. “OK, make yourself useful then. Come listen to this.”

She hesitated.

“Come on,” he said impatiently, holding the headphones out to her.

She opened her mouth to speak, but thought better of it and walked silently across the room to him instead. She slipped the headphones over her ears and heard a woman’s voice singing.

Now that I've done my time.

I need to move on and I need you to try

‘Cause we're out of goodbyes.

She stood listening for a moment before taking the headphones back off.

“What do you think?” Adam asked her.

She shrugged and looked at him in confusion. “What do you want me to say?”

“Just your honest opinion,” he prompted.

She handed the headphones back to him. “Maudlin,” she said. “And I think the key is too low maybe.”

He raised his eyebrows at her. “You know about music?”

She shrugged again. “What is it anyway?”

“Amber Carrington,” he responded.

She gave him a blank look.

“She’s got a number one on the country charts right now. You never heard of her?”

“That’s a number one?” she said, pointing at the headphones.

“No, that’s just a demo. We’re thinking about it for her new album.”

“I think the lyrics could use some work too,” she said.

“Thanks,” he chuckled. “I wrote it.”

“Sorry,” she said, blushing slightly. “I’m not really the right person to ask.”

“What do you listen to?”

She looked around the room at the shelves lined with old records and compact discs. “Do you have any Handel?” she asked him.

 “Hanson?”

“No Handel. Like The Messiah?”

He screwed up his face, thinking. “Was that before or after Boyz 2 Men?”

She stared at him, her eyes wide. What kind of musician hadn’t heard of Handel’s Messiah?

“Joking,” Adam said, grimacing internally at her utter humorlessness. “Just messing with you.”

“Oh.” He seemed to enjoy messing with people, Jane thought. The music talk had distracted her, but she was reminded now of what she’d been intending to say.

“Sorry,” Adam said with another laugh that seemed to be at her expense. “Anyway, was there something you came in here to say?”

“Where’s Adele’s mother?” she asked him bluntly.

Adam squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed them for a moment with the heels of his hands. This was not a conversation he wanted to have. “Currently unavailable,” he said, putting the headphones back over his ears again to cut it short, but she just stood there looking at him again. She really did not know how to take a hint, he thought. “You can go now, ” he added, without removing the headphones.

Jane put her hands on her hips. She wasn’t going anywhere.

He rolled his eyes in annoyance.  “You do get that I pay you, right? You are what’s called an ‘employee.’ This is what’s called a ‘job.’” He made air quotes with his hands as he spoke.

“Well, I just need a little more information in order to do my ‘job.’” She made the air quotes back at him.

“About her mother? Why do you need to know?”

“I need to know what to tell her if she asks me when her mother’s coming back.”

Adam stared at her dumbfounded for a minute. “When? Well, let’s see. I’m thinking probably… never.”

Jane didn’t even try to conceal the disgust she felt at his answer.

“I’m sorry if you find that unsatisfactory,” Adam continued with a tight smile, “but you’re more than welcome to ask your agency for a new placement if this isn’t going to work out.”

Unsatisfactory? Jane couldn’t believe he was so blasé about the whole thing. Didn’t he know how it felt to have your mother walk away from you? It was his own daughter! Didn’t he care at all? “I just think when you bring a child into the world, you have an obligation to be there for her, wanted or not.”

Adam took off his headphones and stared at them. Did she really just have the nerve to say that? None of the other nannies had ever dared to pry into his personal business before. He needed to shut this conversation down now, before it got any uglier. Without thinking, and without looking up, he said the first words that popped into his head. “She’s dead,” he said in a flat voice. “Adele’s mother is dead.”

Another lie. What was it about this girl that made it so impossible for him to tell the truth?

Jane’s eyes widened in surprise. Her heart stopped for a moment at his words, and she stood frozen in place, watching him. The room was silent but for the ticking of the wall clock and the faint sound of the music coming from the headphones in his hands. She could just make out lyrics that the woman’s voice was singing:

On our way home I realize

There’s some kind of storm brewing in his eyes,

Only veiled by a thin disguise.

The moment lengthened, and finally Adam looked up at her. His eyes had been laughing at her every moment since she’d arrived at this place, but she saw now that it had been an act – that laughter. A mask he wore to cover up what she saw in his eyes now. Anger. Pain. She felt the color rise to her cheeks as a wave of shame washed over her. “Oh God, I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Adele told me—“

“She’s a three year old,” he said, as she watched the fire go out of his eyes, replaced by an icy coldness. “She makes shit up.”

“I’m sorr—“

“Forget it,” he cut her off. “Just go.”

Jane turned and stumbled toward the door.

“And Amy,” she heard him call after her. She stopped and stood with her hand on the doorknob, not daring to correct him, not daring to turn around and face him again.

“Not that it’s any of your business,” he said to her back, so softly she could barely make out the words, “but she was wanted. Adele, I mean. She was very wanted.”