The Rose He Killed novel Chapter 192

Chapter 172: New Normal-2

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He knew about the incident with Tom. Months ago, I had told him about the nanny who had excellent references but no patience, the one I saw spank my two-year-old on the cameras I’d installed. I was on a flight home from Singapore within two hours, shaking the whole way. Tom had cried himself into a fever, and Maya had stepped in, caring for him until landed. When I saw them at arrivals, I cried in a way I hadn’t in years.

After that, I stopped looking for nannies. Maya rearranged her medical practice to help.

So when Caleb offered to do it together, I understood he was offering to be a second person in the room- someone else to notice, someone else to be responsible.

“Together,” I said.

We made a list of requirements that most would consider excessive, but Caleb didn’t use that word once. We interviewed Nadia together. She didn’t flinch at my pointed questions, giving honest answers.

She has been with us for a week now. I still checked the monitor more than I needed to. Caleb didn’t say a word about it; he just made sure the monitor was always charged.

The business hadn’t collapsed without me, which was both reassuring and slightly anticlimactic. Priya had held the operational side together, calling me twice a week at pre-cleared times that didn’t conflict with feeding or sleeping. My team had stepped up in ways that gave me plenty of data on who to promote when the next structural review came around.

I sat at my desk with Grace asleep in the bassinet a foot away. I worked in the concentrated bursts that parenthood demands: twenty minutes of focus, a check on her, then twenty more. I had always worked best under constraint; this was no different.

Tom arrived home from school at three, and the house shifted gears entirely. He had taken to Grace with a gentle enthusiasm I’d hoped for but hadn’t dared count on. Every afternoon, he’d burst through the door and head directly to her before doing anything else.

“Hi, Grace. I’m back,” Tom said, his voice dropping into that serious, hushed tone he used only for her. He leaned against the side of the crib, his messy black curls falling over his forehead as he watched her tiny chest rise and fall.

Grace let out a soft, melodic coo, her little legs kicking beneath her swaddle.

۴

“Did you miss me at school?” he asked, tilting his head. “I had to do numbers today. They’re okay, but dinosaurs are better. When you get bigger, I’m going to show you my T-Rex. He looks scary because of his teeth, but he’s actually a nice guy. I’ll make sure he doesn’t roar too loud near your ears.”

Grace’s eyes seemed to focus on his face, and she let out a tiny, bubbly sound of agreement.

“She can’t understand you yet,” I told him, for approximately the fifteenth time.

“She’s listening,” he said, for the fifteenth time.

I had stopped arguing with it. Caleb and I moved around each other in the house with the ease of long practice, which was still sometimes surprising to me-not that it existed, but how completely it had

Chapter 122-Mew Normal 2

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become ordinary. He knew when I needed the room and I knew when he needed the quiet.

We had both learned from each other. One evening he appeared in the doorway of my office with Grace in the carrier, both of them looking at me with the same eyes.

“Dinner’s ready,” he said.

“Five minutes.”

“You said that a few minutes ago.”

“I’m nearly done.”

He leaned against the doorframe. “Tom helped in setting the table,” he said. “He gave Grace her own placemat.”

I looked up from the screen. “She’s a few weeks old.”

“I know, he said she should feel included.” A pause. “He put a dinosaur on it.”

I closed the laptop. “Fine, I’m done.”

Tom had indeed assisted in setting the table.

“She has her own seat,” Tom announced, as we sat down.

“She’s in the bassinet,” I said.

“I know. But when she’s bigger she’ll sit there.” He pointed at the placemat with complete authority. “I

saved it.”

“Good thinking,” Caleb said, serving pasta.

Tom looked at Grace in the bassinet beside the table and began his lecture. “Today we learned about the deep ocean,” he said. “There are fish that make their own light where the sun can’t reach.”

“Tom,” I said. “Eat.”

“I’m telling Grace about the fish.”

“After you eat.”

He picked up his fork, eyes still fixed on her. “They’re called anglerfish. They’re scary, but they live far down. You don’t need to worry about them.”

Caleb met my eyes across the table as I looked smug.

“She seems reassured,” Caleb said, straight-faced.

“She is,” Tom confirmed, finally taking a bite.

Caleb gave me a real, unhurried smile and stepped back to let me through.

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