Page 56 of Substitute Bride

“I wanted to verify—as any man with half a brain would have done in my situation given how you’ve acted before. I can’t understand what you thought you’d accomplish with this scheme. I’m not going to take you back, no matter what.”

There was more profanity, ending with the fact that she never wanted to see or hear from him again.

“Excellent,” he said crisply. “Then we’re finally agreed. We won’t see or talk to each other again.”

He hung up since there was nothing left for him to do.

He glanced at the clock, realizing this whole farce had taken up nearly an hour of his time—time he could have spent with Rose.

He hurried back up to his room, his heart suddenly racing. He still hadn’t figured out the best, smartest thing for him to do, and he was half-convinced that he’d just fall to his knees when he got to the room and declare his love for her.

He didn’t.

He would have, but she wasn’t actually in his room.

Frowning, he hurried down the hall to Rose’s room. The door was closed, so he knocked on it. There was no answer, so he knocked again.

When he was pounding on it and getting no response, he finally tried the doorknob. It opened.

Her room was always tidy, but it was strangely neat and empty as he looked around. He realized that all her personal stuff seemed to be gone.

Frowning even more, he stepped inside. She obviously wasn’t here. Neither were the books she kept on the side table, the pictures of her family on the desk, the toiletries on the vanity of the bathroom.

He opened the closet door. It was empty.

Rose was gone, every trace of her cleared out like she’d never been here.

His heart was still hammering, but for an entirely different reason now. It felt like his pulse was throbbing in his feet, like the rest of him had entirely emptied out.

He walked over to the neatly made bed and saw a folded piece of paper on the pale blue coverlet.

Picking it up, he stared blindly down at Rose’s loopy handwriting.

It took him a full minute before he could read the words.

Mr. Harwood,

I’m so sorry, but I have to quit. What’s happened between us has made it impossible for me to do my job the way I need to. I can’t apologize enough for walking out like this without notice. Please keep my last paycheck. Give my love to the girls. If it’s okay, maybe I can come by for a few minutes tomorrow to say good-bye to them. I wish you all more than the best.

Rosie

James slumped down to sit on the edge of the bed, staring at the words on the page for a long time.

He’d been right all along. There was no way to cross these kinds of lines and still maintain a working relationship. Once the slots of your life started to get mixed up, the whole world turned into chaos.

The first time he’d kissed Rose, he’d lost her for good.

Every bone and muscle in Rose’s body ached as she knocked on the door of her family home.

It was over. All of it was over. She hated herself for leaving as she did without saying good-bye to the girls, but she wouldn’t have been able to do it when they got back this morning. She would have broken down completely.

James could explain. Then if he was okay with it, she could say good-bye to them later, when she was more in control.

They’d cry. They’d miss her. But they were young, and they’d recover. They’d forget her soon enough and find another nanny or a stepmother.

They would be fine.

Rose wasn’t sure she would be fine, but it was too late to do anything about that.