Where the Streets Have No Name
Chapter 99
Bella woke up in the middle of the night feeling groggy, disoriented, and hungry.
For a moment or two she wasn't sure where she was. Then it came to her; she was visiting her mother at her new employer's house. She fell asleep before dinner.
The time lag between the two coasts was wreaking havoc on her system. It was past three in the morning in Seattle according to the clock by her bed, but her body still reacted to Massachusetts' time where she would be up and about for the day by now.
She sat up on the bed and took stock of her surroundings. She was still in her travel clothes but was wrapped in a blanket.
Mom.
She considered trying to go back to sleep, but her stomach growled in protest. She hadn't eaten anything in a long time. She decided to risk venturing upstairs to forage for food.
She splashed her face with water and changed out of her soiled clothes. Then tiptoed her way up the stairs to find the kitchen.
The house seemed bigger in the darkness, and she was glad her mother took the time to give her the tour earlier. She found the leftovers in the fridge without much trouble, and even managed to heat it up without making too much noise.
She ate quickly, put away the dishes in the dishwasher, and was about to tiptoe back to the basement, when she heard the faint noise of a baby's cry.
It was coming from upstairs.
Ella.
She reckoned her mother to be around.
She could give her a hand with Ella perhaps? After all, she was wide awake now, whereas her mother probably was deathly tired. She helped Renee with the daycare center before it was shut down. Looking after small children wasn't new to her.
She climbed up to the second floor toward the room her mother had pointed out as Ella's nursery.
She could hear movements from inside. Her mother was up already, it seemed.
The door was left ajar.
Bella was about to enter the room when she was struck still on her spot by a male voice.
That was not her mother.
She wondered why it didn't occur to her until now that Ella's father was just as likely to be tending to his baby as Renee.
Bella realized that she shouldn't be up here.
It would be entirely too awkward to meet her mother's employer for the first time at this ungodly hour in the living quarters reserved for the family.
She needed to trace back her steps as quietly as possible before her presence was given away.
However, before she could make a move, she heard a familiar lullaby coming from the nursery.
Ella's father was singing to his daughter. Something Renee used to sing to her when she was little.
Bella couldn't help but smile. She had many sweet memories tied to that tune. Had her mother taught him the song?
With caution and stealth, she peeked inside the room, making sure her body was hidden behind the door.
Should she have known that the sight that would meet her would alter her life irrevocably, perhaps she would have opted to step away from indulging her curiosity.
But the world was still just as round, and seeing too far down the road was just as beyond the grasp of mere mortals as it always had been.
Thank you Lulabelle98, HeidiJoVT, and Dinx.
*The last line is a tie in with the ending of chapter 25.