The Unexpected Nanny

2- The Decision

"Twenty... thousand... dollars?" Sadie hesitantly said, slowly in shock. "Seriously?"

"Would you want more than that?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well no... $20,000 is already a lot. But the question is, why me?" she asked confused. She covered her mouth tightly, thinking about what he just asked her.

"I've been looking for a nanny for months, and the girls have not liked any of the women that we have interviewed. It looks like they have taking a liking to you in the short time that we've been here tonight, and after watching you with them, I can see why." he says, trying to smile.

She looked over at the girls, and smiled when they both looked at her with big smiles, she looked back at Antonio. "Hmmm..." she hummed, thinking.

"You're really pretty." Isabella said to Sadie, wiggling her body around in the booth.

"Awe, thank you so much. You know, both of you girls are really pretty yourselves." Sadie said, looking at both girls, and softly sliding her finger on Isabella's cheek.

Antonio pulled a business card out of his wallet, and handed it over to Sadie. She took the card and looked at it. "Think about it, my cell phone number is written on the back of the card as well." Antonio says to her, sounding desperate.

"OK, I'll think about it." She smiled while handing him the bill, and walked away.

He opened his bill, and noticed that the bill was comped, owing nothing. He didn't feel right about that, leaving her a hundred-dollar bill, and writing a note on the ticket. Thank you for the free meal, you didn't have to do that. It was very thoughtful of you, please think about my offer. ~Antonio~

He closed the bill book, and held onto it. "Come on girls, let's go home." he says to them, while standing up. Sadie was walking by, and Antonio stopped her, handing her the bill book. "Thank you." he said, with a smile.

"You're welcome."

They began to leave and headed to the doors, stopping to grab a balloon for each of the girls, as he promised. He took the girls home, and played dolls with them for a while. The entire time he couldn't stop thinking about Harlow, and how scared she must be, alone in her room, and wishing he was there with her. He then realized that it was after eight at night, and way past the girls bedtime. He gathered the girls and quickly gave them their bath, read them a bedtime story, and put them to bed.

"Mommy will be home in a few days." he says, kissing both the girls on their foreheads. He walked to the door and turned to look at his girls, feeling bad for them. "Goodnight." he says, shutting the light off, and closing the door partially.

He went back downstairs, and decided to call Harlow to see how she was doing. When she didn't answer her cell phone, he called the hospital and spoke to her nurse. The nurse explained to him that she was in a lot of pain, and had given her medication, which helped put her to sleep. The nurse also informed him that she had been hiding all of her symptoms from him for months, how much pain she had been in, and also letting him know about Harlow mentioning that she didn't want him to worry about her, and that she didn't want her girls to see her in pain.

Hearing what the nurse was telling him, and how he really wanted to be there for her, not being able to talk to her and to hear her voice before she fell asleep, he felt hurt. After hanging up with the nurse, he got on his laptop, and searched nationwide for the best doctors that specialized with her condition. At this point, he was willing to spend any amount of money on her, not caring what the cost would be.

He got out a notepad, and started writing down doctor's names, and their phone numbers. He figured he would start calling each one of them in the morning. He stayed up for hours searching the internet, that he ended up falling asleep on the couch, with his laptop still on his lap. The next morning, he awoke to Isabella shaking him "Daddy, wake up."