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“Reese… I’m putting in my resignation. It’s not a joke or a… a roleplay. I wrote down some good suggestions for future nannies and arranged with a babysitter you’ve used to fill in until you make a choice. I know how you feel about more people knowing about Violet, so I didn’t want to bring in someone you didn’t already have vetted.”
My head feels like it’s full of helium. “Olivia, what the fuck are you talking about? Resign?”
Her cheeks are flushed scarlet and her fingertips are trembling even though her hands are clasped together.
She’s not fucking joking.
“Reese,” she pleads, “please just respect this. I’ve explained everything in the?—”
I take the envelope, crumple it up in one fist, and hurl it to the floor.
“I don’t want to read some fucking letter, Olivia. I want to know what the fuck is going on. Did something happen? Did I do something?—”
“No!” She looks startled at the thought. She shakes her head profusely. “No, you did nothing wrong, Reese. This is completely about me.”
I don’t know what to say. I can only stare at her, trying to find a reason why the woman who’d proclaimed that she was mine is suddenly trying to leave me.
“Then what is it that’s on you?” I ask. “You’re standing there all dressed up, cutting me off like this is just another day in the office. I’m not just your fucking boss, Liv. I mean something. I mean something to you, Olivia. This—” I gesture between us. “—means something. Or did it not to you? What about my daughter? What about Violet?”
Olivia sniffles. Mentioning Violet seems to break her, and I get that—I’d break, too, if I thought I was about to shatter my daughter’s heart. I know she’s just a baby, but Olivia has Violet’s heart through and through.
She stares down at her feet as she starts talking in a rapid monotone. “At the end of the week, Paula is going to forward you an email from the wife of the family that previously employed me. In it, she’s going to say how the woman claims I seduced her husband and slept with him while I was employed there. She’s going to give her recommendation that I be fired. So I’m getting in front of it and removing myself from the situation before it blows up any further.”
My ears burn. The words swirl in my head. My brain selectively picks out the words that sound the strangest. Husband. Seduce. Slept with him.
I can’t for the life of me imagine that being Olivia. Not the Olivia that spent so much time fighting me.
Or was that all part of the gimmick? Did she seduce me, too?
“And is it true, huh? Did you seduce him?”
There’s more malice in my tone than I intended. But the idea that Olivia would do something like that boils my blood. The thought of some married man having his hands on her… I hate it. I hate it so much I can’t even put it into words.
She shakes her head. “No, of course not. I never did anything like that. I never had sex with him. He tried… a lot. He harassed me for years, and one day, his wife came in on him trying again. That’s when I was terminated.”
“I don’t understand. What the fuck does that have to do with us?—”
“Because instead of just emailing you, she put me on blast to the entire agency. To the whole damn world!” Her voice cracks as she finally looks up at me again to reveal that her cheeks are wet with tears. “Which means that when this hits the fan—and it will, because it’s already blown the fuck up on my end—you know who’s gonna end up attached to it? You. You and Violet. And I don’t want that. I’d rather have a clean break. I’d rather not hurt you.”
“You leaving is going to do just that. It hurts me. It hurts Violet.”
“I know,” she sniffles. “I’m sorry.”
“So what is the real story here? You didn’t fuck him but figured why not with me? Was that it?”
It’s the first time during this whole exchange that her eyes flash. That telltale sign that there’s still some fire left in her.
“You were never a throwaway hookup, Reese. Never. But that’s why I need to leave before all this blows up on you and Violet. You’re not just some man with an angry wife. This shit turns into scandals that hit the front pages.”
I can’t even tell her that she’s wrong, because she’s not. She’s perfectly right, and I hate it. How many big-time athletes have gotten the heat for fucking their nannies? For having secret families? For trying to hide truths that can only be hidden for so long?
Plenty. And so maybe I’m about to become the next.
But you know what occurs to me out of nowhere?
I don’t care.
I bound over my desk in one smooth leap and gather Olivia in my arms. She stiffens in surprise, but I refuse to let her go. “I said you were mine. You said you were mine.” I tilt her head to look up at me. “You’re not going anywhere.”
