Josephine Resigns

Chapter 12 - Josephine Resigns

Raphael spent the next morning going through his father’s calendars.

Josephine spent it writing a resignation letter.

She wrote three versions.

The first was too emotional.

The second sounded like a legal notice.

The third said exactly what she meant.

Mrs. Roz found her at the kitchen table.

“You’re leaving.”

Josephine folded the letter.

“I’m resigning.”

“That is leaving with grammar.”

Josephine smiled faintly.

“I can’t stay his employee.”

Mrs. Roz sat across from her.

“Because you don’t trust him?”

“No.”

That answer surprised them both.

Josephine looked down.

“Because I do.”

Mrs. Roz understood before Josephine said more.

“Oh.”

“Yes. Oh.”

“You care for him.”

Josephine rubbed her forehead.

“This is humiliating.”

“No, sweetheart. Folding a fitted sheet in front of me is humiliating. This is ordinary.”

Josephine laughed.

Then her face became serious.

“He has been careful with me.”

“That sounds like Raphael.”

“He told me he won’t kiss me while I work for him.”

Mrs. Roz’s eyebrows rose.

“He said that?”

“Yes.”

“Well.”

“What?”

“I’m reassessing several things.”

Josephine covered her face.

“Please stop.”

Mrs. Roz squeezed her wrist.

“Then resign.”

Josephine lowered her hands.

“You think I should?”

“I think if you stay because you need the job, you will always wonder whether affection and gratitude got tangled together.”

“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.”

“And if you leave?”

“I’ll need another job.”

“Yes. Welcome back to ordinary life.”

Josephine smiled.

By noon, the letter sat on Raphael’s desk.

He read it standing up.

Josephine waited.

When he finished, he read it again.

“That’s unnecessary.”

Her spine stiffened.

“It is not.”

“You are on leave.”

“I am resigning.”

“Because of the investigation?”

“Partly.”

“Because you don’t feel safe here?”

“No.”

He looked at her.

Josephine forced herself not to retreat.

“Because I need to know that every choice I make around you is mine.”

Raphael’s expression changed.

She continued.

“I’m grateful for what you did for Wyatt. I’m grateful you believed me when someone tried to frame me. I’m grateful for the hospital and the car and all of it.”

His jaw tightened slightly.

“That sounds like goodbye.”

“It isn’t.”

“Then what is it?”

Josephine’s cheeks warmed.

“A boundary.”

Raphael stared at her for several seconds.

Then he nodded.

“All right.”

It was so simple she almost felt offended.

“That’s it?”

“You expected an argument?”

“Yes.”

“I am learning.”

He signed the acknowledgement page.

“Your final paycheck will include unused leave and two weeks’ notice.”

“I’m not working the two weeks.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

“You cannot pay me for time I’m not working.”

“I can pay you for time you would have worked if my family’s eleven-year conspiracy had not detonated in your life.”

Josephine opened her mouth.

Closed it.

“That is annoyingly specific.”

“I planned ahead.”

He handed her the paper.

Their fingers touched.

Neither moved away.

Raphael looked at her.

“You no longer work for me.”

The room seemed to shrink.

Josephine swallowed.

“Not as of twelve-oh-four.”

He glanced at the clock.

It was twelve-oh-six.

“Good.”

He stepped closer.

Not enough to touch.

“Josephine.”

“Yes?”

“Are you free to say no?”

Her heart thudded.

“Yes.”

“Will saying no change Wyatt’s care, your housing for the next few weeks, your severance, or anything else I have promised?”

“No.”

“Will it change how I treat you?”

She looked at him.

“No.”

He waited.

Josephine realized what he was doing.

Giving her the exit.

Making it visible.

She closed the space herself.

The first kiss was not dramatic.

Raphael touched one hand lightly to her jaw and kissed her as if he had all the time in the world.

Josephine gripped the front of his shirt because apparently her body had abandoned dignity.

When they separated, she whispered, “You ask too many questions.”

“I wanted the answer.”

“You got it.”

“Yes.”

He kissed her again.

A knock came at the door.

They stepped apart.

Gideon entered.

He looked at Raphael.

Then Josephine.

Then the signed resignation on the desk.

“I can come back.”

“No,” Josephine said too quickly.

Gideon’s mouth twitched.

“I found something.”

The warmth disappeared from Raphael’s face.

“What?”

“Vittorio’s old driver logs.”

He placed a notebook on the desk.

“The night Dileia died, Vittorio was not driving Conrad’s Mercedes.”

Raphael frowned.

“Then why was his name on the repair order?”

“Because he authorized payment.”

“For Conrad?”

“No.”

Gideon opened the log.

“The car was signed out at ten forty-seven that night by someone using Vittorio’s authorization code.”

Josephine looked at the initials.

G.M.

She turned slowly.

“Gideon Marsh.”

Gideon nodded.

Raphael’s face became unreadable.

“You drove it.”

“Yes.”

“The second car.”

Gideon looked at him.

“Yes.”

Josephine stepped back.

The man who had spent days guiding them toward Conrad had just placed himself at the crash scene in the damaged vehicle.

Raphael’s voice dropped.

“Why did you tell me you arrived after my father called?”

Gideon said nothing.

“Why did you lie?”

Still nothing.

Raphael took one step forward.

Gideon finally answered.

“Because if I told you where I really was that night, you would have asked who was in the back seat.”

Josephine’s pulse jumped.

Raphael’s eyes sharpened.

“Who?”

Gideon looked at him with twenty-two years of regret in his face.

May you like

THE MAFIA BOSS WAS TOASTING CHAMPAGNE WITH HIS MISTRESS... UNTIL HE FOUN...

t

THE MAFIA BOSS WATCHED HIS MAID STRUGGLE WITH A HEAVY MIRROR... UNTIL HI...

t

THE MAFIA BOSS WAS ABOUT TO BLAME AN INNOCENT MAN... UNTIL HIS MAID SPOK...

t

“Your father.”

**Which meant Vittorio had not simply arrived after Dileia’s crash—he had been following her before it happened.**