Chương 6
“She already has.”
“Then give me five minutes.”
Elena looked toward the back staircase. “Is Noah awake?”
“He’s dressing.”
“How was the night?”
“That is not your responsibility.”
Her mouth pressed into a thin line. “No, sir.”
He led her to the study and closed the door, then opened it again. The correction did not escape her notice.
“You do not need to resign,” he said.
“I do.”
“Because of what I said to Margaret?”
“Because of what you meant.”
“I did not mean that you harmed him.”
“You meant I was safe to blame.”
He moved behind the desk, then stopped and remained standing in front of it. “Margaret is preparing a legal challenge.”
“To my employment?”
“To my parenting.”
Elena’s expression shifted, concern overcoming caution. “Can she take him?”
“No.”
The answer came too fast.
She looked down at the paper. “Will she try?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then you should speak to an attorney.”
“I have six.”
“That sounds crowded.”
A brief, unwilling laugh escaped him. Elena’s face softened and then closed again.
He held out his hand for the resignation. “Please don’t do this today.”
She kept the paper.
“Noah has already lost one person,” he said.
“That is why I have to be careful.”
“You leaving is not careful.”
“You are asking me to stay because he needs me.”
“Yes.”
“But yesterday you told his grandmother I should not have given him what he needed.”
“I handled that badly.”
“You handled it conveniently.”
Adrian looked toward the window. A groundskeeper dragged a hose across the lawn, paused to untangle it, and disappeared behind a hedge.
“What would make you stay?” he asked.
Elena’s shoulders lowered, as though disappointment were heavier than fear. “That question.”
“What about it?”
“You think everything has a number.”
“I asked what you need.”
“You asked what it costs.”
“That is not what I meant.”
“It is what you know.”
He sat on the edge of the desk. “Then tell me what I don’t know.”
She was silent for long enough that he expected her to leave.
“My mother cleaned houses,” Elena said. “One family called her part of theirs for fourteen years. She knew their children’s allergies, their birthdays, which one lied when he was scared. When she hurt her back, they paid her for one week and replaced her in two. They sent flowers to the hospital with the wrong name on the card.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I am not asking you to be sorry.”
“What are you asking?”
“To be allowed to know the difference between love and employment.”
Adrian glanced at the resignation in her hand.
“I care about Noah,” she continued. “That does not mean I can be responsible for him whenever the responsible person is unavailable. I am not trained enough. I am not protected. If he had fallen from the bed, if he had stopped breathing, if your mother-in-law had found us before you did, I would have been the woman in a uniform who crossed a line. I would have had no explanation anyone needed to believe.”
“I believed you.”
“After you suspected me.”
He could not deny it.
“You stood in the doorway like I had stolen something,” she said. “Then you thanked me because he spoke. Then you blamed me because his grandmother was angry. Which one is true?”
“All of them, perhaps.”
The answer surprised them both.
Adrian pressed his palms together. “I was suspicious. Then ashamed. Then frightened. Margaret knows where to put a knife. You were standing nearest.”
Elena studied him. “That is honest.”
“It doesn’t help.”
“No.”
“What would?”
“Be his father.”
He looked up sharply.
She did not retreat. “Do not turn me into the solution because you feel guilty.”
“I am trying.”
“You stayed one night.”
“I stayed.”
“And now you want credit.”
Anger rose again, cleaner this time because it contained truth. “I am not asking for credit from you.”
“You asked me to remain because Noah has lost enough people. That makes my leaving another injury you can place in my hands.”
“What do you expect me to say? That he won’t miss you?”
“I expect you not to use his grief to employ me.”
The room seemed to narrow around them.
Elena placed the resignation on the desk. “Two weeks. I will help with the transition. I will not sleep in his room again. I will not be alone with him unless Mrs. Kent assigns it and you provide written authorization. And I will tell him I am leaving because I chose another job, not because he did anything wrong.”
“Do you have another job?”
“I have an interview.”
“For what?”
“A preschool assistant position.”
He remembered the catalog in her room and felt the added shame of having entered without asking.
“When?”
“Monday.”
“You don’t have the required certificate.”
“The program hires assistants while they study.”
“I could pay for the program.”
Her eyes hardened.
“As part of severance,” he said.
“No.”
“Professional development.”
“I have not accepted another position from you.”
“It was an offer.”
“It was a purchase.”
She opened the door.
“Elena.”
She stopped.
“I am sorry,” he said.
She looked back at him. “For which part?”
He could not choose quickly enough.
She left.
The call from Noah’s school came an hour later.
He had hidden under a table during morning circle and refused to come out when his teacher discussed families. When another child said dead parents became angels, Noah had shouted that angels could not find new houses. He then tore a drawing into pieces and pushed a classmate who tried to help.
Adrian arrived at the school with his tie crooked and his phone ringing continuously. The receptionist asked him to silence it. He did.
May you like
Noah sat in the counselor’s office beside a tissue box shaped like a whale. He did not look up when Adrian entered. His teacher, Ms. Foster, held several torn pieces of paper on her lap.
The counselor introduced herself as Jamie Chen. She had a steady voice and a sweater printed with small yellow birds.
