“One of the staff apartments over the carriage house is empty.
Separate entrance.
Security on the property.
You can stay as long as necessary.”
Clara immediately shook her head.
“I can’t accept that.”
“You worked here twelve years.”
“That doesn’t mean you owe me a home.”
“No.
It means I know exactly what kind of employee you are.
And I’m not sending you back into a house where you’re afraid to sleep.”
Clara’s mouth trembled.
Lena watched her mother fight the instinct to refuse help simply because help had always come with a price.
“What does it cost?” Clara asked.
Rhett understood the question beneath the question.
“Nothing.”
Boyd arrived at the gates before Clara could answer.
They knew because security called the house.
Lena’s whole body reacted before her mind did.
Her shoulders tightened.
Her breathing shortened.
Her hands went cold.
Clara rose from the table.
“I have to talk to him.”
“No,” Lena said.
“He’ll get worse if I don’t.”
That sentence changed the room.
Miriam looked at Rhett.
Rhett looked at Clara.
And Clara seemed to hear herself for the first time.
He’ll get worse if I don’t.
That had been the law of their house for years.
Keep Boyd calm.
Keep Boyd happy.
Keep Boyd from drinking too much.
Keep Boyd from shouting.
Keep Boyd from hitting.
As though his choices were a weather system the women were responsible for controlling.
Rhett walked toward the window overlooking the long drive.
“Security will keep him outside.”
Clara looked frightened.
“That will humiliate him.”
Lena stood.
“He humiliated you every time he made you cover your face before work.”
Clara flinched.
Lena immediately softened.
“Mama, please.”
A phone rang.
Decker answered, listened, then looked toward Rhett.
“He’s demanding his wife.”
Clara’s face changed at the word demanding.
Rhett did not.
“She is not property,” he said.
Decker relayed the message.
Seconds later, Boyd could be heard shouting faintly through the phone.
Clara shook.
