Page 82 of The Billionaire’s Nanny

Grace didn't let go of it.

"If I took that out of here tonight, you'd have given me everything you own that you love," Lucy said. "And it wouldn’t change that I’d still be getting in a car and leaving at the end of this. So it stays. You can be mad at me."

Grace read the cover of it like she hadn't seen it before. Then she put it back under the pillow, adjusted the pillow up over the top of it, and sat down again on the floor where she had been.

"Okay," she said, polite and level and completely empty.

Lucy had heard that voice on the morning she left. It had been the worst thing in that entire day. It was worse now, because she knew what Grace had to do to herself to get it that monotone.

"You're allowed to be mad at me," Lucy said.

"I'm not mad at you."

"All right."

"Are you going now?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

"I'm going down to say goodbye to your aunt before I go." Lucy stood up. "Get your homework folder finished."

At the door, she looked around. Grace was down on the floor with the folder open across her knees and the pad next to it.

Carrington was in the kitchen with a glass of red wine in her hand. She had her hair down.

"How did she find you? Bettina, I mean," Carrington said.

"She called Ashworth and asked. They gave her my address once she said she works here." Lucy said it matter-of-factly, not feeling the need to hide anything Bettina had already told her. "She told me she was worried that she would be let go for it. She said she'd worked that out before she got in the car."

"Yes. That sounds like Bettina."

"Don't let her go for it."

"I wasn't going to let her go."

"Then tell her that tonight. She's sitting out in the driveway waiting to be fired."

"She'll hear it from me before she goes home tonight." Carrington put the glass down on the island.

Lucy hadn't unbuttoned her coat. Carrington stayed where she was, with the island between them. Four steps would have covered it. Lucy counted them from the door but stayed rooted in the same spot.

"She thinks she did it," Lucy said. "The caseworker asked Grace who puts her to bed at night and she gave the true answer, which is both of us, and two days later I was gone. She's been up there putting those two things together ever since. She blames herself."

Carrington said nothing.

"She asked me outright if she caused this. I told her no. I told her the lady asked us both a question, that you and I gave different answers, and that I was let go over it." Lucy had both hands on the door frame now. "I didn't tell her what the question was. That part is yours to address, if you want to. But I refused to tell her nobody asked anything, and I won't apologize for that. She's seven and she's been carrying this weight all on her own. No child deserves that."

"No," Carrington said. "You shouldn't apologize."

"She talked to me tonight."

Carrington didn't move at all. She looked at the floor then back up at Lucy. "Out loud?"

"Yes."

"What did she say?"