Page 49 of Contracted and Claimed By The Boss

She shoved her chair into the table, stalked to the door. ‘I hate you!’

He closed his eyes, despair a fog that was seeping into his cells. He was two for two, then, in both the most important conversations of his day. Just bloody brilliant.

‘I knew she wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye,’ Amanda shouted victoriously, ten minutes later, stalking back into the kitchen and slamming a piece of paper down in front of him.

Max was standing exactly where he had been when Amanda left the room.

It took him a moment to focus his attention on the page.

Dearest Amanda,

Darling girl, it breaks my heart to leave you; I’m so sorry.

I came to Wattle Bay thinking I was just accepting another job, that you would just be another child, but you’re not. You are so special, Amanda, and you are so very special to me. I have adored spending time with you, and I’ll always be grateful for how you opened up to me. You are so brave.

I’m sorry to leave you. Please know that while I won’t physically be here, my heart remains in this magical, amazing place. I might be on the other side of the world, but you will be in my thoughts always.

Any time you want to speak to me, you can call.

With all my love,

Paige X

She’d included a phone number at the bottom of the letter.

There were also a couple of smudge marks to the ink. Tears?

Max found it hard to breathe. And then it occurred to him that if she’d left a note for Amanda, maybe, just maybe, she’d left a similar message for Max? Something to explain...to tell him... ‘Where did you get this?’

‘She left it on my desk.’

He stalked out of the kitchen without another word, down the corridor to his study, into his office, where he wrenched open the door, looked around and then slumped his shoulders.

There was no note for him, but what would such a letter say, in any event?

They’d spoken all the words, out in the forest, and those words had been brutal and eviscerating. From him.

‘You’re just as selfish as her mother.’

Was it any wonder Paige hadn’t left a lovely little goodbye note in here for Max?

He groaned, pressed his palm to his forehead and tried to settle the feeling that he’d set the world spinning in completely the wrong direction.

Amanda had left the note on the bench and gone back to her room so when Max returned to the kitchen, he lifted it and reread it, more slowly this time. Certain sentences required him to read them a few times over.

It breaks my heart to leave you.

She’d promised her heart wouldn’t break. That her heart didn’t get involved when she was on a job. Did she mean what she’d written to Amanda? Or was she just trying to soften the blow to a vulnerable kid?

You are so brave.

He couldn’t say why, but those words lodged in his brain, making something shift, something change, so he found it hard to think of that sentence without feeling a thousand and one things for Paige.

Please know that while I won’t physically be here, my heart remains in this magical, amazing place.

He read that sentence many times.

Was that true?

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