Chapter 13: Offer
Julian’s lawyer drafted a revised employment agreement with clearer hours, higher pay, guaranteed leave, and a clause that protected the afternoon structure even if household staffing changed. Clara read it at the kitchen table while the boys watched cartoons in the next room.
“This looks like you’re building a permanent post,” she said.
“I am.”
“And if I say no?”
May you like
“Then we keep the current arrangement and I don’t punish you for the boundary.”
She signed the agreement. Not because it trapped her—because it finally named the work she was already doing and paid for it without pretending it was only floors and meals. When she set the pen down, Leo appeared in the doorway and asked if they could play the song with the hard chord. Clara said yes. Julian listened from the hall and felt the estate shift another degree away from the silent showroom he had once mistaken for a life.
