Anna stuck her head out of the swimming pool gasping for air as she wiped the water off her face as fast as she could. That was the longest she had ever stayed. She really hoped she had drowned. Maybe that was going to make her feel less of a complete fool.

Gosh, She felt so stupid.

She let out a weak exhale as clips of what happened earlier at the company clouded her memory. She had no idea why she had been thinking about it lately, about how Patricia just barged into the room and the look on his face when he saw her. Why was she feeling that way? Why did she even care what happened? They had had sex, what was the big deal about it? Why did her feelings have to change because of it? Why did she care?

She could feel a figure hovering over her, blocking the sun from penetrating into her skin. Just what she didn't need, a second party.

Angelo.

She opened her eyes slowly, narrowing her gaze in his expensive Italian leather shoes. She rolled her eyes when she took in a deep breath and smelt his amazing cologne.

"Here."
Angelo offered her a towel. She looked at it then at him. He was acting completely normal, like nothing had happened, not like he had any reason to not act normal anyway but she was irritated. She had to get out of the pool now. Anna held onto the rails climbing out of the pool completely naked. It was a sight Angelo was never going to get used to seeing but at that point, he wasn't surprised. He knew swimming naked was one thing she would never have traded for the world. He exhaled when she started to walk towards him.

She snatched the towel from him.

"I should have worn a swim suit if I had known I was going to be having a guest."
More like an intruder.

Anna wrapped the towel around her. She walked to one of the tables slowly and grabbed another towel. She wrapped it round her head. The irony of Angelo being a guest in his own home. No one actually went near the pool when Anna was having her alone time. The pool was where she went to think and relax and everyone knew that. He knew that.

"But it's nothing you've not seen already so,"
Silence
That was so awkward. Everything was. Angelo shook his head, dismissing the urge to leave a comment. He knew they had other things to talk about. Other important things like what happened the other night. It still bothered him that she was trying to ignore him the entire day.

"We need to talk."

"About what?" Anna asked pretending like she had no idea.

"About last night." Angelo saw the need to remind her even when he could tell she was intentionally acting dumb and ignorant. She was intentionally trying to sweep the topic under the rug. Anna stared at him for a while with a huge frown in her face. Did she really want to talk about the amazing sex they had had the night before? The sex she could barely remember but could still feel how her legs throbbed so much and have trances if memory clips from it too in her head? She could still hear her voice and her moans calling out his name and it embarrassed her. Even more reason why she didn't want to have that conversation with him or anyone. She was just going to forget about it, forget that it ever happened. That was what was best for everyone. For them both.

"There's nothing to talk about." She turned to the table, pretending like she was sorting out the towels.

"Come on Anna, we both know you've been avoiding me since last night-"

"And why would I do that?" She asked him. "It's not like we had anything to talk about before last night. We were never really close."
Angelo exhaled. She was right. Before the night that had passed, they never really saw eye to eye, but last night had happened and even though they didn't plan for it to happen, it did, and it made everything super awkward. It was only good they talked it out but it was really obvious Anna had no intentions of talking about it.

Angelo walked to the table and grabbed her arm. He whirled her around to face him.

She glared at him and then lowered her gaze to his hand on her arm. What was he doing?

"Anna," He started

"If this is about what happened the other night, you should seriously let it go. It was a mistake, a moment of weakness both for me and for you. It should have never happened. We really don't have to make a big deal out of it. Nothing has to change. You're still you and I'm still me and we are just together because of the company. There's nothing to it." She made sure her words were slow so it could sink in. It did.

Angelo nodded his head. That wasn't anything close to what he was going to say.

" A mistake?" He asked her. "It was a mistake?"

" Yes."

"Wow." He nodded his head. He had no idea how hard hearted to the core the woman in front of him was or had he just grown too soft?

"Look, I don't know what you want me to say, if you want me to take all the blame for what happened last night then I will, I'm sorry I made a move on you first. I should not have roped you into my mess. We were both drunk and vulnerable and I took advantage of the situation because I was frustrated. But what's done is done. Stop being such a cry baby and just get over it."

Angelo scoffed.
He wasn't supposed to feel the way he felt, he wasn't supposed to feel so hurt by what she said but he did. Why did he? She was right if he really thought about it. Why did it bother him that she wanted to move on from it?

"Anna-"

"It was just sex Angelo." She wasn't even going to let him speak. We are two grown adults that had sex that we both can't even remember. Instead of spending your time worrying about how I feel, you should be more worried about your girlfriend, or should I now say mistress."

Anna poured herself a glass of champagne

Angelo pouted, furrowing his brows.

"Who?" He had no idea what she was talking about. "Patricia?" Anna took a sip from her glass.
She faked a smile. Was that what all of this was about? Patricia? She was being so cold and angry with him because of Patricia? Upset that she had stopped by the company?

"Anna, I had no idea she was coming back to the country. She just showed up-"

Anna rolled her eyes, dropping her champagne flute on the table with a large thud and raising her gaze to him frustratedly.

"Why are you bothering to explain to me Angelo?" She asked him with a smirk on her face. "It's fine. I really don't care."

Of course she didn't

"You both could do whatever you want, it's none of my business." Anna had to hide it. She had to erase all possible feelings of guilt and jealousy from her mind. The man in front of her was just a tool, her play thing. A means to help her achieve her plans. There was no way she was into him, she wasn't going to give him the benefit of making her think or feel that way. She knew she had to dismiss every thought of it.

"Right ."
Angelo said, he understood perfectly. Anna was a cold hearted woman that didn't care about anything except herself. How could he even forget that? He was done. He didn't have to explain anything he did to her or anyone. Why did he have to care? She was right. They weren't friends or in love. They were just were business partners. He turned around and took a few steps to walk away. It was useless trying to start up a conversation with Anna.

"You're getting really obvious Angelo." He froze and then slowly turned back to her. She scoffed closing the champagne bottle. "You can't survive in this cold world if you're so soft and easily swayed, don't forget your priorities. Get yourself together or you'll end up doing something you're going to regret."

Angelo frowned. For some reason he could understand what it was she was trying to say. He swallowed hard.

She raised her glass, turned slowly and sashayed away from the pool, he watched her walk to the house, without looking back. Anna was right. There was something really different about him.

What was wrong with him?

*************************************************

The door bell rang as soon as Angelo walked into the tiny classroom. He scanned the room like he was looking for someone, giving soft pats on the heads of the kids that ran to him and then past him.

There she was.

A tiny smile appeared on his face when he noticed the older lady that bent over to look into one of the children's book.

"Nanny." He called her with his smile spreading. It caused the lady to stand straight and look in his direction.
Just as Angelo remembered the woman in her late fifties, she had barely changed a bit since the last time he saw her shortly at Andre's burial. A wide smile spread on her face. She wasn't surprised to see him.
It was more like she had been expecting him.

Angelo sat on bench and looked right into the lake. He turned to the woman beside him, they both exchanged smiles.

"You've changed a lot Angelo."
She told him. "Fifteen years did you well. Now you even smile"
He chuckled.

"Come on Nanny I always smiled."

"Not from what I remember. You have always been a grumpy sad child."

"Oh really?" he laughed. "I've missed you too Nanny. I was really shocked when Dad told me you had resigned shortly after I left."

She inhaled sharply.

"I had to."
She smiled. "You all were so growing up so fast. I figured there were other kids that need my attention so that's why I started to work here."

For a woman who had no kids of her own, who had spent half of her life working as a nanny for a lot of rich families, Trusk being the last, she was so devoted to taking care of children. Angelo couldn't blame her for leaving when she felt he and his brothers weren't kids anymore. When she felt they were too grown to be taken care of.

"You know, when I heard what happened to Andre,"
Angelo frowned a bit. She exhaled. "I thought of You. I know what he meant to you, what you two meant to each other-"

"Yeah. I know."

"He never forgot about you Angelo. He always wrote you letters but your mother didn't let them leave the country."

"But then he grew up didn't he? Became a man of his own making, he was old enough to make his own choices with or without mother's permission. What stopped him then?"

She exhaled. She wasn't sure how to answer that.

"You know what," he looked away. "it doesn't really matter Nanny. I stopped expecting anyone or anything from anyone after a while. I got pretty used to being alone, being on my own."

He managed to keep a bright smile on his face.

"Do you still hate them?"
Angelo held his breath. This time, she wasn't talking about his family, she was talking about someone else and he knew exactly who she was referring to.

"I heard you got married to one of them, watched your wedding on the news. I could smell Juliana all over it. " Angelo inhaled and then scoffed. How did she always know everything? He had forgotten that the woman beside him had practically lived all her life working for his family, she knew all of them better than anyone else.

She slowly reached for his hands.

"Why do you look so troubled child?"

"Troubled?" he scoffed. "I'm not troubled."

"Angelo, I might have not been with you from the moment you were born but the few years I was with you, made me know a lot about you, the face you make when something is bothering you, the face you're making right now."

Angelo exhaled weakly. He knew she was right. Something was indeed bothering him.

"So tell me son, why exactly did you come here to find me, why did you really come here? I know it's not to look at the lake."
Angelo chuckled.

"Nah, you're right Nanny, something does bother me." There was no point in stalling anymore anyway, he had come to talk to someone, to find answers about how he felt.

"It's her isn't it?" she had to ask him. "You're in love with her."

Angelo let out a smirk.

"I'm not in love with her Nanny. I just, I think I'm attracted to wanting to help her. I look at her and I can see this really lonely person, reaching out to me, for my help." He turned to look at her, he wanted to see how she felt, to read her expressions. "Does that make any sense?"

"No." She answered.
Angelo rolled his eyes. Of course it didn't. That was why he came here in the first place. He knew how extremely honest the woman beside him was. Honest to a fault.

"Why do you feel you're in the position to help her Angelo?"

"I don't know Nanny. Everything just happened so fast. I just thought she needed someone who could understand all she has been through. We're more similar than I imagined. We're both outcasts, our family sees us as monsters. My family and her froster family and above it all, she has chosen to remain so strong, clouding all her pain and holding all that hurt in, just like me. I just thought I could relate with everything she has been through and I thought if I tried to be there For her, even with what she is, who she is, it'd make me feel better about myself because no one was ever there for me. "

"So you're saying you pity her. "

"No, not pity. I don't pity her. Trust me, she's a tough nut to crack. She's tougher than you can imagine."

"Oh my boy, you're in love and you don't even know it. "

Angelo let out a shaky breath, shifting uncomfortably on the bench. What was that? How on earth did she even arrive at that conclusion? How could he ever be in love with Anna? With an Atian? He had no reason to. They had just been married for a few days, they were barely even friends, love? Love doesn't just work like that.

"I can't Nanny. I can't be in love with her. I don't even know her that well."

" Why? Because she's an Atian" ?

"No, because I'm in love with someone else. Or at least I think I am or was." Now what was he saying? Angelo wasn't even sure about anything anymore. He wasn't sure about his feelings.

She looked at him for a while like she was reading him.

"What are you so scared of Angelo?" she asked him. "Why are you so scared of admitting how you really feel about her?"

Angelo inhaled.

"I mean I know why, but why? You think she's dangerous? Like the Atian that killed your mum? You think she could hurt you too?"

"Come on Nanny, you know I'm not scared of getting hurt."

"You're scared that if you admit how you feel about her, you'd be going against all you ever believed in? Scared your mum would be disappointed? You fell in love with the enemy. With the very same people that killed her?0

Angelo sat straight.

"Fifteen years is such a long time to hold on to a grudge Angelo don't you think? And just because you were hurt by one of them in the past doesn't make them all monsters. You can't judge someone for someone else's mistakes. Your wife is different from the that little Atian that set your house on fire years ago."

He looked at her. She exhaled and then turned to the lake.

"You know, I used to have one of them in my class. Her name was Isabelle, she was seven. She was very talented. So smart you'd have thought she was older than the rest of the kids but she had trouble fitting in because the rest of them didn't like her. The first day she came, seven on my students were withdrawn from my class. They made her feel so terrible for what she was, so ashamed of what she was and then one day, one of the teachers found her body floating in this lake. She drowned herself. A seven year old, a child who didn't even know what love was, or life was. She was just a kid but hated for everything she did. She had no idea what she was and sought acceptance from the rest of the kids. She was lonely and just wanted to be loved but couldn't get it because it who she was. The kids kept telling her to die every single day and  so she killed herself. But before she did, she wrote a letter to all of them and sneaked them into their backpacks. You should have seen them. Every single one of them were filled with so much guilt. You know what she said in all of that letter? That she forgave them. For all they did, for how they treated her. She forgave them. She was willing to let it to because she knew in the end, that there were somethings not worth holding on to. Things like hate and anger, none of that matters when we're dead, none of that matters when they're dead because all we'll be left with with is just regrets and guilt. Regrets that we were too weak to see that they're just as victimized as we are, to see that they are the victims. Not us, them. "

Angelo stared at her. He couldn't believe it.

"Admitting your feelings doesn't make you weak Angelo or foolish , acting like they don't exist, lying to yourself does. Life is too short, shorter than you think and these atians, they get their lives even shorter by the second. One minute they are here and the next, they are gone, shot dead or taken away by the NSS or one of us. Now I'm not trying to convince you or tell you what to feel or how to handle your feelings after all, they are your feelings. I just need you to prepare yourself because life is tough And too short to pretend about how you feel. One minute you're hiding them and the next they're gone."

She squeezed his hands.
Angelo faked a smile. This wasn't exactly what he thought he was going to hear but he heard them anyway and somehow, it spoke to him. Somehow, it all made sense.

"God I've missed you Nanny." he turned back to the lake. He really did.