Chapter 13
Emma nearly quit after the investigation ended.
Vincent found her resignation letter on his desk.
He read it twice.
Then went to the staff kitchen where she was making Leo a peanut-butter sandwich.
“You’re leaving.”
Emma looked at the letter in his hand.
“I haven’t decided completely.”
“That looks decided.”
“It’s a draft.”
Leo was sitting at the breakfast table.
Vincent lowered his voice.
“Office.”
Emma followed him.
Once the door closed, he asked:
“Why?”
She looked tired.
“Because I don’t know how to be his housekeeper anymore.”
“You’re not just his housekeeper.”
“That’s part of the problem.”
Vincent frowned.
Emma continued.
“I stayed because I thought if I left, Celeste would have him alone.”
“I know.”
“Then everything happened.”
She looked toward the hallway.
“Now Leo watches where I am every night.”
Vincent knew.
If Emma left a room after dinner, Leo sometimes followed.
If another staff member helped with pajamas, Leo asked whether Emma was coming back.
Emma loved him.
That did not mean the attachment was healthy if it became fear of separation.
“I’m twenty-four,” she said.
Vincent waited.
“I’ve been working here since I was nineteen.”
“What do you want?”
Emma laughed softly.
“I don’t know.”
That answer surprised him.
She had spent years being useful enough that no one asked.
She had once wanted to study early-childhood education.
Then her mother became ill.
She took estate work because it paid well and offered stable hours.
Her mother recovered.
Emma simply never left.
Vincent’s first instinct was to double her salary.
He stopped himself.
Money was another way powerful people sometimes turned gratitude into ownership.
“What do you need?”
“Time.”
He nodded.
“Take it.”
Emma looked suspicious.
“No argument?”
“I can argue if it helps.”
She smiled for the first time in days.
“No.”
Vincent continued.
“Leo needs professionals too.”
The child psychologist had already recommended reducing dependence on any single caregiver.
Vincent would become more involved at bedtime himself.
A second consistent caregiver would be introduced slowly.
Emma could remain if she wanted.
Leave if she wanted.
Study if she wanted.
Her choice.
That became part of Vincent’s own reckoning.
Celeste and Brandon had treated Emma as disposable because she was staff.
Vincent had treated her as permanent for almost the opposite reason.
May you like
Both assumptions reduced her to a role.
He was finished doing that.
