Chapter 66: Opening up to possibilities

There was a possibility that things could be even worse than a messy public divorce if he had stayed with Tola. She would probably be a classic Margarita wife right now, waking up at noon every single day just to drink her life away on his dime while their home burned down around them.

But that was not his reality. As Clancy turned off the ignition, a wave of gratitude washed over him. For once in his highly calculated, tightly controlled life, he was incredibly grateful that he had gotten the wrong sister. Now, he just had to convince the right sister to give him another chance.

Clancy walked into the house and was welcomed by an unusual silence. "Hello, is anyone home?" He said as he made slow steps toward the kitchen. "Good day, Mr Clancy," Sarah, the children’s nanny said.

"Hello, Sarah. Where are the kids? And are the boys not back from school yet?" He asked her. "They are back, sir. Diana went for her check up at the hospital and went to sleep shortly after. And the boys equally fell asleep almost immediately after their shower. They had Physical health today in school, so they played a lot" she said.

Sarah had said it so casually that he assumed it was a normal occurrence but it was the first time he had met them asleep at that time. "And Selen?" He asked her. Sarah told him that she was not back from work yet. So he offered to wait for the kids to wake up and went to the sitting room.

"Okay, sir. Would you like anything while you wait?" she asked politely. But Clancy simply shook his head, no. "I will be here just in case you change your mind," she said politely.

Clancy nodded his head slowly and retreated back to the sitting room where he began working on his phone. The truth was that he was never fully free, he just had some things that could wait.

So as he waited to see the kids, he tried to catch up on work. About an hour later, the doors to the house opened and he could hear Selen’s voice from where he was.

Selen was speaking to Sarah, who was getting her caught up on what had happened since she left home. "And Mr Clancy is here, he is waiting for the kids to wake up" she said. Selen looked at her wrist watch and said, "are they all still asleep?" She asked Sarah.

"Yes ma’am" she said. "Those injections must have knocked Diana out. And the boys had their monthly P. E today right? They must be tired from all the running around" she said and Sarah nodded in agreement.

After Sarah walked away with one of Selen’s bags that she had helped with, Selen noticed Clancy quietly standing at the corner of the hallway. He was leaning on his left side to the wall, with both hands in his pockets.

He had opened the first two buttons of his dress shirt and it was not loosely tucked into his dress pants. His hair had fallen in front of his face, just above his eyebrows, giving him an edgy and sexy look.

"Hi," he said in his deep baritone that echoed in the halls. "Hi," Selen said and looked away after her obviously long stare at him. She pretended to rummage through her bag for a while and then walk away from the spot she was standing in.

Clancy had the same idea as he then walked toward her. "The kids are still asleep" he said, stating the known fact. He internally slapped himself for the sentence. "The kids are still asleep? Really? That was the first sentence that left your lips?" He queried himself.

Selen was already headed toward the staircase when Clancy called for her attention, "Selen," he called out. She turned around at the foot of the stairs and looked at him. "Yeah?" She said, "Um, I was hoping we could talk?" He asked her.

Selen deliberated on it and thought to give it a shot. Maybe it was how he was looking that evening that discombobulated her thoughts or she was just slowly softening toward him without realising it, but she led them to her home office.

It was the first time Clancy had gone this far in her home. Every time he visited, he respected her privacy and only went where the kids went, which was almost never up the stairs.

Clancy looked around the hallway as she walked them down to the end of the hall. He did not know if it was the art that hung around or the colour scheme of the walls, or if it was the contrast between the colours of the paints and the colours on the artworks, but he liked it. And he saw it as a vision for some of the vacation villas he owned.

"I like the interior. You may have to share the contact of your interior decorator with me" he said to her, trying to sound casual.

"That was not sarcasm, was it?" Selen asked him as she unlocked the door to the office. "What? No. I love it. As a matter of fact, I am already thinking about which of my villas would suit this vibe and a whole number of them are coming to mind" he explained honestly.

He noticed the expression on Selen’s face and then it clicked. "Hold on, did you- are you the designer?" He asked her. She was surprised that he had figured it out so soon. "Wow, you are incredibly talented," he said, genuinely.

"Well, it is one thing to create art, and it is another to present it in a way that you want it to be seen. One art can mean life, death or even rebirth depending on how it is placed. And if I am going to be a better artist, I need to know how to present my art because no one can read my mind. So only I can place it in a way that I like" she said.