Page 185 of Her Reluctant Wife: A Lesbian Age Gap Romance

---

the insurance on it right now. Please, just keep it. You bought

it and it paid for my dad to get all his medical care. For that

reason alone, it deserves to be yours.”

“I wasn’t talking about the necklace.” Yes, she’d brought it,

but Coralyn didn’t need to know that right now.

The shock on her face might have delighted Giana at

another time, and she felt bad about that. Truly bad that she’d

ever taken any satisfaction at all not in hurting other people,

but in being so mean that nothing could hurt her. Everyone

else was just collateral damage in her pursuit to protect herself,

and how fucked up and wrong was that?

“I’ve been terrible,” she whispered. “For a long time.” It

was a long overdue confession.

Coralyn put up a hand. “No, Giana, you don’t have to

apologize. Please. I can’t have this conversation right now. I

have to get ready for work. I can’t be late after all the time off

they gave me. They probably want to fire me as it is.”

“Good.”

“Excuse me?”

“Good. Let them fire you. You seem wasted there anyway.

Come work for me instead.”

“What, in your mailroom where I can be kept in my place

and humiliated continuously?”

“No. Come work in the accounting department. Not as a

favor, but because you’re smart and you’re probably more than

capable. I’ll triple whatever you’re making now. Come work

for me and get out of this crumbling place. Not that it’s a bad

neighborhood, but you could afford something you really

want. You could have the money to take care of yourself and

be independent. I know you’re just getting back on your feet,

---