Chapter 14 - Vivian fires me
The morning after the gala, Vivian terminated my employment.
Not motherhood.
Employment.
That distinction mattered.
She called me into the estate office.
Charles Pembroke present.
Of course.
She said:
“Last night made the current arrangement untenable.”
I stared.
“What did I do?”
“You publicly implied we concealed Noah’s identity from him.”
“You did.”
“You implied I broke a promise.”
“You did.”
“No one told him you were his mother.”
“Then what promise did I break?”
She stopped.
Good question.
She shifted.
“You created an emotional dependency inconsistent with your role in the household.”
My stomach turned.
“My role?”
“As an employee.”
“I am his mother.”
Charles interrupted:
“Elena, nobody disputes biological maternity.”
Biological.
The kind of word lawyers use when they want a fact to sound smaller.
Vivian said I had thirty days to leave staff housing.
I laughed.
“You’re firing me and removing my housing while claiming I’m too financially unstable to take my son.”
Neither of them answered immediately.
That silence became important later.
I said:
“You understand how that looks.”
Charles replied:
“We will ensure reasonable transitional assistance.”
“No.”
Vivian:
“Elena.”
“No more arrangements you explain to me.”
I called Leah from the hallway.
Not from the Ashford phone.
Mine.
I said:
“File it.”
She asked:
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
May you like
Petition to terminate Vivian’s guardianship.
For the first time, I did not ask what Vivian thought would happen.
