Page 67 of The Billionaire’s Nanny

"She's right that something's wrong. That's the part you keep dancing around. Nobody in this house has told that little girl anything at all. She's been working it out by herself for weeks, and because she’s only seven, she’s coming to the wrong conclusions about things."

"And in three hours, that woman sits down with Grace and asks her the same question she asked the two of us. We already gave her two different answers. What do you think Grace will say?"

"You gave her one that wasn't true. I gave her the one that was."

It was ten past twelve.

"Can I ask you something?" Lucy said. "You can tell me no."

Carrington waited and looked at her.

"There was a date on page nine of that contract you tore up. The day we stopped hiding it. You had it worked out down to the week." Lucy didn't sound angry. She didn't sound like much of anything. "What's the date now?"

Carrington set her palm flat on the edge of the desk and left it there. "That depends on the file."

"Okay," Lucy said. And then, after a moment, "What did you want me to say to her?"

"No. I wanted you to say no. To match my answer."

"Then you should have asked me to."

"Asked you?" Carrington came around the corner of the desk. "I didn't ask you because asking you to lie to a caseworker is the one thing in all of this I could never have defended. I wanted, needed, you to understand that without being asked."

"I did understand it."

"Then what the hell happened this morning?"

"I understood it then, too." The towel was folded down to a square now. Lucy stopped folding it and held it against her stomach. "I've done this before. The version where something is true in one instance but untrue in another. I lived like that for four years, and I'm not doing it again.”

"I am not a previous employer, Ms. Harper."

She watched to see what the name did to Lucy's face. Nothing at all; the same as the last time.

"You're going to call Melinda’s office this afternoon, before she gets to that school." Carrington kept her voice level. "You're going to tell her you misunderstood the question and correct it. People amend statements all the time. Diane can be on the phone with you while you do it."

Lucy took her time before she answered. "No."

"It's one phone call and then it's over."

"It won’t be over, though."

"Then do it for Grace if you won't do it for me." Carrington heard her own voice drop while she said it. It always did that when something mattered. It went quiet and reasonable and she could never get it back up where she wanted it.

"Don't." Lucy shook her head once. "Don't put Grace in the middle of this."

Carrington had nothing to say to that.

"The social worker asked me what I am in this house," Lucy said. "There's only one honest answer to that question. I gave it to her, and I'm not calling her up this afternoon to take it back."

"You are Grace's nanny. That’s all."

Lucy didn't flinch. Carrington waited for Lucy to say something, but Lucy just stood there and said nothing at all.

She was frightened. She'd been frightened all morning, and all she'd done about it was talk. Talking had never helped her regain control of anything. She sat down at the desk and opened the second drawer, pulling out her checkbook. She filled it out, making it out to Lucy for three hundred and ninety thousand dollars. She dated and signed it before recapping the pen. She looked at the check. Her handwriting didn’t waver once.

"Two years of salary, paid in full," she said. "You're released from the position as of this afternoon. There's a housing allowance built into it and the retirement piece is funded through both years. If you'd rather have it structured, Diane can put it in a letter this afternoon."

Carrington tore it out along the perforation. It came away without catching anywhere.