Chapter 11
Nell tried to resign.
I refused the first time.
Not as boss.
As father.
Then I corrected myself.
“You can resign.”
She stared.
“I don’t want you to stay because Clara needs you.”
Important.
“What do you want?”
Nell looked surprised.
Nobody asks staff that enough.
She wanted to stay.
But not as invisible furniture.
Clear schedule.
Real days off.
Authority to report directly if anyone interfered with Clara’s care.
Reasonable.
Granted.
Then something else changed.
Clara began following me more.
Not Nell.
Me.
At first I felt relieved.
Then embarrassed by the relief.
Nell noticed.
“She doesn’t have to choose.”
Elise—no, Evelyn—had probably known that too.
I smiled.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Annoying woman.
Correct.
I had almost turned Clara’s attachment back into hierarchy from the opposite direction.
Safe child loves multiple people.
May you like
That is not parental failure.
It is evidence her world is large enough.
