His Wet Nurse

INSUFFERABLE (15)

"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?"