The Wife He Called A Nanny

n the parent group chat. I was three thousand miles away with m

ublicly disowned me, telling

woman who tormented our son-and

is woman lock our sick seven-year-old in a dark closet

ey thought I was just a broke

ho I was before I

He doesn't know the new Vice President w

pte

e Fo

herself as my son' s mother in t

slept. The antiseptic smell was thick in my throat. My phone buzzed on the bedside table, a persistent, irritat

buzz. An

screen was a wall of notifications from "Ms. Davis's First Grade Pare

s was d

e chat was flooded with welcomi

d. It was from the new member

of me. I pressed play, ho

gosh, thank you all for the warm welcome! I'm Kori, Ben Mcdaniel's mom. So excite

orld

name is Be

am his

n the group. And now, this Kori Whitfield. Her profile picture was a cartoon kitten wi

sage again. "Ben

hat made no sense. For a dizzying second, I questioned my own identity

vy rhythm against my ribs. I immediat

up on the

ith your mom?" he asked. His voic

evel, a trick I' d mastered over ten ye

iny, fractional silenc

he repeated, stalling

ent group chat. She introd

faint rustling in the background, like he was

issive laugh. "That. It's probably just a mistak

so insulting, it was l

r Ben Mcdaniel in

t it. It's nothing. How's your mom?" He tried to change the subjec

d smoothed over his insecurities, celebrated his minor successes as if they were monumenta

me froze over. The warmth I' d held

my voice clipped and

before he

hostly image on the dark screen. The plan was to s

was now

he entire flight, I didn't sleep. I just stared out the window at the dark expanse of cl

wn. I didn't go home. I took a ca

still crawled into my bed after a nightmare. The thought of anyone t

ng shadows across the playground. A portly security guard at th

m? School doesn't sta

her," I said, my voice steady despite the

reat. He picked up his phone. "Ms. Whitfield? There's a woma

led back into a messy ponytail and a smattering of freckles across her nose. She wore a hand-knitted cardig

I knew. A woman's intuition is a p

anished completely. Her skin, already pale, turned a ghostly white. Her han

s the same cloying voice from the group chat, but now it was strip

his was the woman who had so brazenly declared herself my so

. "I believe you were looking for me. You seem to have a lot to say in

came out. Her eyes darted a

you're talking about,"

vantage, looking down at her. "You introduced yourself as Kori Whitfield. Ben Mcdaniel's mother. I'm

completely. Tears welled in her eyes

?" I repeated, my t

id you've been unstable lately. That you're not coping well with your mother's illness. He was worried you were neglecting Ben, and he wanted to

himself had instilled in me over the years. It painted him as a concerned hu

heer audacity of it

cold and sharp, landed on the small, glit

ds. Elegant

ew. I knew exactly

lass. "Those earrings," I said. "They' re beautif