The Dark Side - Danielle Steel Page 0,25

instead of making it herself. She gave Jamala a lecture on the chemicals in commercial baby food and the kind of damage it could do, both physically and mentally, to Jaime in the future. In Zoe’s mind, prepared foods, for an infant Jaime’s age, were akin to poison. At the end of the speech, she gave Jamala three weeks’ notice until she could find someone to replace her. Jamala left that night looking dejected, but she could see that it was a battle she couldn’t win. She loved Jaime, but Zoe was impossible to please and sooner or later there would be some new unforgivable offense that would cost her the job. She didn’t argue to keep it this time. She thought Zoe was too hard to work for, and she and Austin exchanged a despairing look when she left that night. He didn’t say anything to Zoe except that he thought she was making a mistake. Jamala was a loving, reliable, experienced, honest, trustworthy woman and Jaime adored her. He thought Zoe would be hard-pressed to find someone as good. She had reviewed their nanny cam videos and all she’d seen were hours of Jamala being loving and responsible with her daughter, but Zoe thought her offenses were serious enough to warrant terminating her, whether Austin agreed or not. He wasn’t going to add stress to their marriage by fighting for the help.

Miraculously, two weeks later, they found a thirty-six-year-old Irish hospital nurse, recently arrived from Dublin with a legal green card. She hadn’t found hospital work yet, and she wanted the more stress-free life of a nanny. She listened to all of Zoe’s theories about feeding, the apnea monitor, baby food, no schedule, and agreed to follow all of it. She wasn’t as warm and kind as Jamala, who’d cried when she kissed Jaime goodbye, but she was reliable and efficient, showed up for work on time, and followed Zoe’s rules to the letter. She didn’t talk to Jaime much, which Austin thought was disappointing, but Zoe thought the rules and Jaime’s safety and health were more important, so she hired Fiona.

Jaime was leery of her at first, and seemed to sense her lack of warmth, but other than that, there was nothing wrong with her, and she did as Zoe told her. So there was peace in the house, which was at least something. Austin had noticed that instead of softening her, or maintaining the gentleness Austin had loved about his wife when he’d met her, motherhood had somehow made her rigid, less flexible, and tougher with him and everyone else. She was unforgiving and merciless about any mistake. Her theories meant everything to her, in order to protect Jaime. She was obsessive about them, and everything that concerned their baby, to the point of being harsh at times, and he noticed how possessive she was of Jaime. Zoe was always tense when her mother-in-law came to visit now, didn’t like any of Constance’s more relaxed ideas and didn’t welcome her suggestions. It was Zoe’s way or no way, and Constance felt the chill between them, and tried not to interfere. Zoe invited her over less and less often, and Constance didn’t complain to Austin. She didn’t want a hostile relationship with her daughter-in-law, for fear of losing her son. She could see that Zoe didn’t want anyone too close to the baby or too loving with her. She wanted Jaime to herself, and the only person she was willing to share her with was Austin, and even with him, under close supervision.

After the visit, Constance mentioned it to George, her husband, who always told her to relax. He reminded her that Zoe was a very bright young woman. She had come to motherhood later than their other daughters-in-law, and had a different personality, and ran a complicated non-profit perfectly. He felt sure she’d relax and get the hang of motherhood eventually. He thought Constance was being oversensitive about it. He always gave Zoe the benefit of the doubt, he liked her. Constance liked her too, but there was something so rigid and intense about her, ever since she’d had the baby. Austin had seen it too, but he and his mother never discussed it. It would have seemed disloyal to him to do that. He loved Zoe, she was a wonderful mother, and if she was a little too zealous about their baby, how could he fault her for that? She was super-mom to