Chapter 2

　　1 week later

　　JULIANA'S POV

　　About a week had passed since that man dropped by at the café I worked at and he had continued coming in ever day since.

　　However, a couple days ago, I was locking up when I saw my father approach the café, probably trying to make me come back home, afraid that I would go to the police about the endless abuse he inflicted on me and Estella.

　　I ran before he had the chance to talk to me and handed in my letter of resignation the next day, so my father would stop trying to contact me.

　　However, I was now jobless and had resulted to babysitting. A man had emailed me via the website I had set up, asking me to babysit his nephew for him. He had offered me a shït load of money so I obviously agreed.

　　I got out of the taxi with Estella in my arms. A couple hours ago, a man contacted me on my website asking me to babysit his nephew. He offered me the amount that I would normally make in a month so of course, I agreed.

　　'Holy shit' I thought as I laid my eyes on house. This guy was rich. I never knew these types of houses actually existed in real life. It was huge and it even had a pool at the front.

　　"Swimming" I heard Estella mumble as she reached out to the pool. I smiled

　　"Not today, baby" I said, watching her pout in return

　　I reached the front door and rang the doorbell, excited to see what the inside of the house looked like.

　　The door was angrily whipped open to reveal the last person I had expected.

　　"You're 15 minutes la-" the man began, only for his eyes to soften and jaw to unclench as he made eye contact with me.

　　"It's you again" I said shocked

　　"What are you doing here?" He frowned as he saw me.

　　"I- you asked me to babysit."

　　"You're not Julie." He said, confused.

　　"My full name is Juliana, some people like to call me Julie." I shrugged.

　　"I prefer Juliana" he said, his eyes never leaving mine.

　　"How did you know my name wasn't Julie, anyways?"

　　"Uh.. you just don't look like a Julie." He said. I didn't miss the light blush that was forming in his cheeks and I nodded.

　　"I went to the café and you weren't there so I asked and they said you stopped working there" he continued.

　　"You asked for me?" I blushed and he cleared his throat.

　　"Yeh because I liked the way you made my coffee" he said and looked away.

　　"Oh. It just wasn't paying enough so I decided to leave" I lied.

　　I felt Estella tug on my hair and I forgot that I hadn't even properly introduced her to the man yet.

　　"This is my sister as you probably already know, I hope you don't mind me bringing her, I had nowhere else to take her"

　　"No of course not, it's fine" he replied.

　　"I'm Tyberias and this is Luca" he said and turned around only to find, what looked like a 5 year old boy, biting a chair leg.

　　"That shït was expensive." I heard him mutter as he rushed over to stop him and picked him up.

　　Estella has been surprisingly quiet since we arrived. I looked down to see her staring at Tyberias with a shy smile and a deep blush on her face. I smiled knowing she probably has a crush on him. Honestly, who could blame her?

　　"I'll leave you to it, I've got some work that I need to do" he said, putting Luca down only for him to run onto the couch and start jumping up and down.

　　"I'll come down in a couple hours to serve diner"

　　"Your staying? Normally when you hire a babysitter, it's because you're going out and have no one to look after the kid."

　　"Let just say Luca isn't like normal kids, he's... different, and I don't exactly have the best patience when it comes to him." He said and turned to see Luca now chewing in a $100 bill from Tyberias' wallet.

　　"Noted" I nodded and Tyberias walked off without another word.

　　"You're so pretty" Luca said as I sat down next to him; an adorable smile was forming in his lips. I giggle at his cuteness.

　　TYBERIAS' POV

　　"You're so pretty" I heard the little shit say. Juliana's not pretty, she's beyond pretty. She's beautiful, gorgeous, stunning. I heard her giggle at Luca's cheesy comment. Hmm interesting. I might need to take a couple pages out of his book.

　　A couple hours later

　　I left my office to find Juliana, Estella and Luca colouring in. Well it was more like Juliana and Estella colouring in with Luca watching Juliana like the fucking pervert he is.

　　"I'll go plate the dinner" I said grabbing their attention. My gaze hardening on Luca as I silently sent him a warning to stop staring at Juliana like she was a fucking object but he clearly didn't get the memo and turned back to play with her long hair.

　　I pulled out 4 plates and put a generous slice on Juliana and Estella's plates, wanting to do everything I could to impress her.

　　Luca was already seated at the dining table when I noticed Juliana and Estella still in the living room.

　　"Come eat" I said getting their attention

　　"You made food for us as well?" She asked her eyes wide as if she had never experienced this from anyone before.

　　"Of course I did. I couldn't let you both go hungry" I played it off smoothly. She gave me a shy smile which made me instantly smile and turn away, feeling my face heat up for the second time of the night. I wanted to punch the air in happiness. I've noticed that Juliana doesn't smile often so when I do make her smile, I feel like a fucking superhero.

　　What the fuck is wrong with me? I need to get a grip.

　　"Food!" I heard Estella cheer. This made me frown, it almost sounded like she hadn't had a good meal in ages.

　　When we began eating I almost choked when I heard a moan from Juliana.

　　"This is so good" I heard her say. That simple noise gave me a semi. What the fuck is going on

　　^-^ ^-^ ^-^

　　We all ate dinner and it was time for Juliana and Estella to leave. My mood instantly dropped and I don't know why

　　"Thank you Mr Tybewius for the food" said Estella. I smiled. Why couldn't Luca be more like her?

　　"It's no problem Estella," I replied, seeing her blush and hide her face in Juliana's neck.

　　I turned to Juliana, my palms instantly getting sweaty.

　　"Thank you for everything Tyberias" she said

　　"I should be thank you, I don't know how I would've dealt with Luca if you hadn't came" I said and she chuckled.

　　"He's not that bad, maybe he just didn't like you" she joked and I smiled, knowing full and well that Luca practically hates me.

　　"Uhh so I was w-wondering" I began. Why the fuck did I just stutter.

　　"Can I maybe... get you number" I asked while holding my breath

　　I saw her tuck a curl behind her ear

　　"You know... just in case I need you to babysit again"

　　"Are you sure that's the only reason?" She boldly asks, a smile forming on her lips and I nodded.

　　"Okay then" she smiled, as if she knew that wasn't the actual reason.

　　I gave her my phone and she bag am typing her number in.

　　"Do you need a ride home?" I asked, secretly hoping she would say yes because for some reason I wanted to spent more time with her.

　　But when I saw her eyes widen and smile instantly disappear, I knew something was wrong.

　　JULIANA'S POV

　　"Do you need a ride home" He asked

　　Cráp. I couldn't let him see where we were living at the moment

　　"Um no it's fine, I'll just call a taxi. I don't want to bother you any further

　　"I insist" he said. He doesn't give up doesn't he?

　　"Okay, sure" I gave him a tight lipped smile

　　He nodded, picked up Luca and showed us to his car.

　　Woah. He had a Ferrari?

　　He put Luca in the back seat and opened the passenger door for me. I thanked him and placed Estella on my lap, her eager hands reaching out to play with the buttons.

　　"Where to?" He asked, getting into the drivers seat.

　　"I'll show you the directions, it's not too far from here"

　　The engine roared to life and I began showing him directions until we pulled up into a nice random apartment complex.

　　"Thanks for the ride" I said getting out the car. Before he could get another word out, I rushed towards the building waiting for him to leave. When I got inside, only then did I hear him drive off.

　　I sighed in relief. That was a close one.

　　I called an Uber and waited outside and we arrived to the motel quickly.

　　*-* *-*

　　A couple hours had passed and the generous amount that Tyberias had given me would be more than enough to buy us another month here. But I did notice that he gave me more than our agreed amount which was unusual.

　　I was about to give Estella a shower when I heard a knock on the door.

　　Shit. Maybe it was Tyberias. What if he saw me leave the building and followed me here. This is so embarrassing.

　　I slowly opened the door and began explaining myself.

　　"Look I'm sorry I lied but-". My words came to a halt as I saw who was stood at the door.

　　"Mom?" I asked as my eyes laid in the woman I front of me dressed in her military uniform.

　　Estella slid in between my legs to see who was at the door

　　"Mommy!" Screamed Estella while crying and hugs her like her life depended on it.

　　"My baby. I missed you so much" she cried as she lifts Estella up and spins her in circles.

　　She puts her down and hugs me tightly. I cry into her shoulder.

　　"When did you get back. How did you know we were here. Have you spoken to dad? Are you okay? You've lost weight why haven't you been eating properly" The questions flew out of my mouth

　　"One question at a time" she smiled.

　　"I just got back from Afghanistan and spent a couple days over with my family in Barbados before returning here. I went to your father's house when he told me you ran away and took Estella with you. Why would you do that? I always thought you and your father got along. So then I told him I knew where you would be and would bring you both back."

　　My eyes widened. We were not going back. I knew what would happen if my father saw me again.

　　"I'm not going back there, mom"

　　"Why? What happened?" She said concernedly

　　"Estella go wait in the bathroom for your shower, I'll be there in a bit" I said and she got up and ran to the bathroom.

　　"Mom, nothing's right and I don't know what to do anymore." I said and broke down in tears as my mother wrapped her arms around mine.

　　"Since I was young, dad's been hitting me but always threatened me not to tell you. He would always remember to hit me somewhere not visible that would be covered by clothes so no one would notice. That's why I would always beg you not to leave me with him when you wanted to go out with your friends." I said but stopped as I began choking on my tears.

　　"It got so much worse when you left for the military. He would always take out his anger on me. And I thought I would be able to take the abuse but I caught him doing the same thing to Estella and I panicked. I couldn't let her go through what I went through." I hiccuped and my heart clenched when I saw my mother's eyes also tearing up.

　　"I'm so sorry. It's my fault. I wish I never left. I'm such a bad mother, how could I have not realised." She cried as she squeezed me tighter.

　　"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry" she repeated to me as she rocked me back and forth until our tears had dried up on our faces.

　　"Don't worry we're not going back. I've saved up enough money to buy us three a nice apartment" said my mother, wiping any tears left on my face. I nodded slowly

　　"How did you find us anyways" I asked

　　"I know you don't have any close friends that would be willing to let you stay at theirs and that you were tight on money so I knew you'd go to a motel. So I drove around the nearest motels and asked if you had checked in. I was going to lose hope until I finally found you here. We should only need to stay here for a couple for days before I finalise some paperwork's first our new apartment" my mom said.

　　"We're going to be okay" she added

　　*-* *-* *-*

　　Between moving into an apartment with my mother and catching up with her, I had been very busy.

　　I ran my hand through my hair as I looked for Estella, who insisted we played hide and seek.

　　I saw a little shadow move under the bed and just when I was about to catch her my phone buzzed. This was fairly unusual seeing as I didn't have many friends.

　　I gasped, maybe it was Tyberias.

　　I ran to the nightstand like an excited little girl who's crush texted her for the first time and opened my messages.

　　You've used 80% of your data

　　I sighed disappointedly.

　　All of a sudden I received another message, a smile finding itself on my face as I opened it up

　　The Domino's 50% off pizza deal! Spend $30 or more and get 50% off! Just use code SAVEBIG2.

　　I was so naive, why did I think he would text me anyway.

　　I jumped on the bed into a lying position, frustratedly. I frowned when I heard screeching from below. I quickly jumped off and checked to see if Estella was okay. I totally forgot she was there. I looked underneath and found her giggling quietly.

　　•-• •-• •-•

　　The next day I was baking when I heard my phone buzz.

　　I knew better than to get my hopes up again so I decided not to check it. I frowned when I heard it buzz again.

　　Let me take you out tonight

　　Tyberias?

　　I knew better than to assume again.

　　Yes, it's Tyberias, were you expecting a message from anyone else?

　　Nope, only a strangely demanding guy who took a week to finally message me

　　I should probably apologise for that, however, it's not in my nature to do so

　　Not in you nature? I guess I'm going to change that

　　But how can you change it if you don't let me take you out

　　Touché but I need to check my schedule first, I'm a busy girl

　　My schedule literally consisted of playing with Estella. Damn, I should really start looking for a proper job soon.

　　Lucky for you, I can slot you in at 6

　　Perfect. I'll pick you up then. Same place as last time?

　　No actually we're not living there anymore. We moved in with our mom . Pick me up at 13 Green Close

　　Okay, see you at 6. And dress nice, beautiful.