Chapter 4 - The Price of Leaving
The next morning, Victor offered me fifty thousand dollars to stop being Leo’s nanny.
He waited until Adrian left for an appointment, then asked me into the small sitting room overlooking the garden.
I remained near the open door.
Victor noticed.
“Please sit. I’m not going to bite.”
I sat on the edge of an armchair.
He folded his hands.
“I understand this household can be overwhelming.”
“It’s been an eventful week.”
“Adrian brings difficulty wherever he goes.”
I said nothing.
Victor sighed like a man burdened by family loyalty.
“You’re young. You have a grandmother to consider. A career that should be moving forward.”
“How do you know about my career?”
“It was in your application.”
Of course it was.
Everything he needed to make this sound reasonable had been in my application.
“I’d like to offer you a transition payment,” he said. “Enough to find a proper apartment and return to teaching.”
“How much?”
He named the figure.
I thought about my grandmother’s prescriptions. Her unreliable elevator. The preschool supplies I had bought with my own money before the school closed.
Fifty thousand dollars could change my year.
Victor watched me calculate.
“What would I need to sign?”
“A standard confidentiality agreement. Nothing unusual.”
“May I have an attorney review it?”
His smile thinned.
“Certainly.”
He slid an envelope across the table.
“You should also know that Adrian can become intensely attached to people who are useful to him.”
There it was.
The warning dressed as concern.
“He needs help with Leo,” I said.
“He needs more than that.”
I stood with the envelope.
“I’ll think about it.”
“Quickly, I hope.”
Upstairs, I photographed the documents and sent them to Miriam.
Then I called Adrian.
He answered immediately.
“Is Leo all right?”
“He’s at school. Your uncle wants me gone.”
A pause.
“Did he threaten you?”
“He offered me money.”
“How much?”
I told him.
His silence became frightening.
“Adrian?”
“I’m here.”
“I need you to listen before you do whatever you’re thinking.”
He exhaled slowly.
“All right.”
“If you confront him, he’ll know I told you.”
“I know.”
“And if Elise is alive—”
“I know, June.”
The grief in his voice stopped me.
He spoke again, quieter.
“I’m not going to confront him.”
That afternoon, Miriam arranged an independent attorney for me. I spoke with her privately. We discussed my job, the agreement, and what I had witnessed.
She advised me not to sign.
More importantly, she asked what I wanted.
Nobody in Cain House asked that question without seeming to expect a particular answer.
“I want my grandmother somewhere he can’t casually visit.”
“That can be arranged through people you trust.”
“I want Leo safe.”
“His guardian and the investigators are working on that.”
“And I want to stop feeling stupid for not recognizing him.”
The attorney’s face softened.
“People who manipulate others usually practice.”
That evening, Adrian found me in the kitchen.
I was chopping carrots with more force than necessary.
“Your grandmother is staying with your aunt?”
I nodded.
“She thinks it’s a surprise vacation.”
“Does she?”
“No. She packed her good walking shoes and told me to avoid dramatic men.”
Adrian looked at the knife in my hand.
“Solid advice.”
For one startled second, I laughed.
He leaned against the counter, keeping his injured arm clear.
“Leo and you are leaving tomorrow morning.”
I stopped chopping.
“For where?”
“A residence the investigators know about. Staffed. Secure. Pepper too.”
“And you?”
“I’ll be there when I can.”
“You make that sound like an ordinary work trip.”
“It’s the version Leo needs.”
I set down the knife.
“What version do I get?”
He looked at me for a long time.
“The honest one.”
I waited.
“I think my sister is alive. I think someone I trusted has kept her from her son. And I don’t know how many people have helped him.”
The kitchen felt smaller.
“Why would he keep her alive?”
“Elise discovered money moving through charitable shipments. She had records. Before she disappeared, she told me she needed to show me something.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
His voice roughened.
“I told her to wait until after a meeting.”
I understood then what had been living behind his eyes.
Not just grief.
A conversation he kept having with someone who could no longer answer.
“You didn’t know,” I said.
“I should have listened.”
Both things could be true. I didn’t try to erase one with the other.
In the hallway, a floorboard creaked.
Adrian straightened.
Victor stood outside the kitchen.
He looked at the carrots, then at us.
“Am I interrupting?”
Adrian’s expression closed.
“June was teaching me something.”
Victor smiled.
May you like
“And what was that?”
“How to listen.”
