A few nights later, Ally is sitting on the sofa, breastfeeding Amberleigh to rainforest sounds playing on the Amazon echo and Cecilia comes over and says,
"Ay, una angelita muy linda."
"Yes, she is."
"Ally, I was just brewing chamomile tea if you'd like some."
"Gracias, Cecilia. I would love some."
"De nada."
Ally sits in the nursery with Amberleigh and gives her a kiss on the cheek, giving her her pacifier and whispering,
"Mommy loves you, Amberleigh. Mommy loves you more than anything. Mommy will never let anything happen to you."
The baby's eyelids droop and she falls asleep, and Ally turns on the white noise machine and turns off the light. She goes down to still see Austin at his computer and asks him,
"Austin, aren't you tired?"
"I am, but I keep getting these weird emails from Mastercard. Look, I'm being charged for a Gucci bag, a rolex, and a Tesla."
"Did you open another card on our account?"
"No, Ally. I didn't. Someone's setting us up. The IRS are going to have our asses."
Meanwhile, Melissa is at her and Chuck's apartment and is watching child pornography videos with him and she says,
"So the family I'm working for has this cleaning lady, she sticks her nose into everything. Such a busybody."
Chuck says,
"Well, I got you some gifts to cheer you up, darling."
He hands her the Gucci bag and the keys to the Tesla.
"Aww, Chuck. You're so sweet. Thank you."
The two of them passionately kiss and Margo says,
"On the brightside, the family is loaded and the baby is cute."
She shows him pictures of the baby and Chuck says,
"What a little cabbage. She'll make a very nice addition to the collection."
He looks at the binder that contains child pornography and chuckles in a quiet yet evil way.
At the Dawson-Moon residence, Austin's best friend, Dez Wade, is shown setting up a camera.
"So, you found a bunch of charges on your credit card, and you got a new nanny?"
"Yeah. The nanny seemed nice at first, but Cecilia told me that she was noticing strange things about her, and I think it's a good idea to set up a nanny cam so Ally or I can keep an eye on the baby while we're at work."
Dez works in IT at Florida State University and is head of IT. He has been good with technology for years. As a hobby, he is a YouTube vlogger. He is engaged to Ally's friend Carrie, as well.
Dez says,
"That's actually a good idea."
Austin hears Amberleigh crying on the baby monitor and says,
"I'll be right back, Dez. I gotta get her."
Dez says,
"That's cool. Do what you have to do, Austin."
Austin is about to step out of the den when he finds Cecilia holding Amberleigh on her hip.
"She's OK. She's awake now."
Amberleigh makes spit bubbles and Cecilia hands her off to Austin and Austin asks,
"Cecilia, have you had your break yet?"
"I took one a while ago. I just was cleaning the kitchen and then I heard the baby."
"Why don't you take your break?"
"OK."
Austin says to Amberleigh,
"Hi, Amberleigh. Hi. Hi. Say hi to Dez, he's your friend."
He hands the baby off to Dez and he says to her,
"Hi, Amberleigh. Hi. It's your Uncle Dez."
Dez tells him,
"She's not even crying."
Austin says,
"Come on, Dez, Amberleigh loves you."
The baby grabs at the buttons on Dez's henley t-shirt and smiles at him.
"God, you're so cute."
He hands the baby back to Austin and Cecilia asks,
"Dez, what is that you're putting up?"
Dez says,
"A nanny cam."
"Ay, bueno. Austin and Ally hired a nanny for Amberleigh, and something doesn't seem right about her. My home country is crawling with people like her."
"What do you mean?"
"In my country, there are scam artists, murderers, gangs, thieves, rapists, any criminal you can think of. When I saw the nanny with Amberleigh, she immediately gave me vibes of those kinds of people. Pero, afortunadamente, most people there are kind and we love music, arepas, and we're all about familia."
"Wow. Maybe you should be on a crime show someday."
She chuckles.
"Ay, Dez, eres muy divertido."
Austin comes out shaking a bottle on his arm and he sits down beside Cecilia to feed Amberleigh her bottle.
"Thanks, Dez, for helping me install cameras in the house."
"It's cool, buddy."
"Why don't I Grubhub us some Indian food after I finish feeding the baby."
"That sounds great. Look at her guzzling that milk."
"Cecilia, you want some, too?"
"I would love some. Gracias, Austin."
When Melissa comes in after a few days, Ally says to her,
"Melissa, there's something I want to show you."
Ally says,
"This here is a nanny cam."
Melissa asks,
"Do you not trust me?"
"We trust you, we just want to make sure Amberleigh is always safe. We don't want you to be intimidated. We have one in the kitchen, in our room, in Amberleigh's room, and in the den."
Melissa says,
"OK, then. I promise, you and Austin have nothing to worry about."
Ally thinks to herself, I'm not too sure about that but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. She says,
"One of us will be home in a few hours. Good luck."
After Ally leaves the house, Melissa sits on the sofa in the living room and turns on a porn on the TV, proceeding to vape. Cecilia comes in, holding a duster and proceeding to dust the table.
"Excuse me, Melissa, but what are you doing?"
Melissa vapes and asks,
"What the hell does it look like I'm doing?"
"You're watching pornografía and vaping in the house when you're supposed to be keeping an eye on the baby. That is fucked up, I don't know how else to describe it."
"Really, Mother Theresa? Like you haven't smoked a day in your life."
"No, no, no, absolumente, no. Smoking is absolutely disgusting and it's inconsiderate of the people who don't touch those cigarettes. Also, Amberleigh will be up any minute and it's not a good idea to smoke in front of the baby."
Speak of the devil, Amberleigh wakes up from her nap and they hear her crying and fussing on the monitor and Margo takes another hit off of her vape pen and then goes into the nursery and says,
"Hi, Amberleigh,"
while she takes her out of the crib and tries to bounce her and whispers,
"Shhh. Shhh. Shhh."
Amberleigh's fussing subsides and Margo realizes that the baby's diaper is wet and a little heavy and lays her on the changing table and changes her diaper, and snaps a selfie of her with the baby and a picture of the baby's genitals and butt. Going to go right into the collection, she thinks to herself deviously, as she picks Amberleigh up. The baby starts to cry and fuss again and Margo asks her,
"What do you want now? What's your damage, baby?"
She carries her down to the kitchen where Cecilia is sweeping the floor and Melissa tells her,
"I'll let you decide, do you wanna hold her while I get her something to eat, or do you want to feed her? Because you obviously think the worst of me."
Cecilia puts the broom to the side and gently takes the baby.
"I'll hold her. Melissa, I want you to do well with what Austin and Ally hired you to do. Some of your actions are out of line, and I just want the baby to be safe."
Cecilia holds Amberleigh on her hip and whispers,
"Shh, shh, shhh. You're OK, gordita. You're OK."
Amberleigh starts to calm down when Cecilia gives her the charm to her cross necklace. Melissa tries to sound pleasant but ends up sounding forced when she says,
"Amberleigh, I got your food."
Cecilia puts her in the high chair and puts a bib on her and Melissa tries to feed Amberleigh some Gerber baby food but all the baby does is put it all over her face and tries to take the spoon and the nanny becomes frustrated with her and gives up. Eventually, Melissa sticks her into the bathtub and lights a marijuana cigarette and texts Chuck a picture of Amberleigh in the bath.
The baby starts screaming and getting frustrated again, Margo asks her,
"What's your issue now?"
Margo is so stoned that she doesn't realize that the water is turned way too hot and so she turns it off and tries to cover it up using Ally's makeup wipes in the bathroom.
Later, that night, Austin puts a clean diaper on the baby and he gives her kisses and raspberries on her chest and belly and immediately sees the scald and the rash on the baby's skin. He calls out,
"Ally! Can you come here?"
Ally comes in, in her slinky Victoria's Secret pajamas.
"Austin! Is everything OK?"
"I hope so. I found this red scald on Amberleigh's chest and she has what looks to be a rash."
"Do you think something bit her, or maybe we're putting something on her that is irritating her skin?"
"I don't know how she got it. We don't usually put lotions or creams on her."
Austin hands Amberleigh to Ally and takes pictures of her chest and stomach.
"We should probably take her to the ER, we don't know how bad it is."
At the ER, Amberleigh is laying on the table and the doctor says to them,
"Although I can't determine what may have caused the baby's rash, I can say that it looks like a scald, like she could have been exposed to hot water. I'll fill out a prescription for an ointment specifically for infants, you can also put petroleum jelly or aloe vera on her, just avoid putting ice, ice cold water, or anything greasy like butter on it."
"Thank you, doctor."
Amberleigh, yawning, starts to cry and fuss and while Austin goes to the pharmacy to get her prescription and pay for the treatment, Ally takes her outside and shows her the sky.
"Look, baby, it's the stars and the moon up there. I'm sorry about the circumstances, but I hope this makes it better. Mommy's always here for you."
Later, Austin and Ally are in their bedroom, taking the pillows off their bed, and Ally says,
"I'm starting to put two and two together and I'm starting to get a strange feeling about Melissa."
"Ally, what makes you think that Melissa could be playing a role in Amberleigh's skin rash?"
"Apart from Cecilia, she was the only one who was alone with the baby. I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and say that she probably meant no harm, or maybe it was an accident, but something lately has been feeling off with her."
"Dez helped me pick out and set up the nanny cam. Have you checked it yet, Ally?"
"Not yet. I got tied up with work and the baby and bringing her to the emergency room"
"We can go over it, and we can ask Cecilia if she noticed anything suspicious. You didn't hear it from me, but Cecilia apparently doesn't trust her, either. She said she doesn't always keep eyes on the baby and sometimes shows attitude when she confronts her."
"In the bathroom earlier, I noticed what looked to be a piece of marijuana. I haven't smoked marijuana since before you were pregnant with Amberleigh, and Cecilia doesn't smoke marijuana."
Ally says,
"That could be a red flag. We need to have a conversation with Melissa about respecting boundaries, and if she doesn't, we might have to monitor her. If push comes to shove, we'll have to fire her."
Austin says,
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, Ally."
Austin and Ally are onto Melissa/Margo. I wonder what will happen next *Sips tea*.
If you like the story, feel free to favorite, follow, and review! Love you my readers!
