“Keeping the incident out of the press was incredible,” Lady Fluke said. “And allowing me to keep my dignity has helped me sleep at night. Well, I must say again, thank you from the bottom of my heart, and you will forever have my gratitude, and I will always be in your debt.” She bowed her head to me, and I leaned back in my chair like the freaking queen of England just walked into the room and kissed my feet.
“Thanks,” I said stupidly, not even sure how to reply. That was all I’d wanted these last few months, and I felt the last vestiges of anger and resentment over the whole incident slowly fade away.
“As a token of my gratitude, I want to offer you a job,” Lady Fluke said. “I suppose it’s more of a continuation of your current job. I want you to run my American offices for as long as you’re interested. I’ll pay you what you want.”
I looked at Bret, who nodded his head and looked like he wanted to laugh. I felt that stupid giddy excitement bubble up from inside me. “What about him?” I asked suddenly. “What about Bret?”
“Well,” she said slowly, “he was contracting with us, and his contract is up. So I suppose he’s free to return to his old business as he sees fit.”
“I think it’s time for me to walk away,” he said, tilting his head to look at me. “I’m leaving the company in good hands.”
I blinked back the tears. “Okay then,” I said. “I’ll take it over.”
“Wonderful,” Lady Fluke said. “Consider yourself hired, again. You are the head of American operations, or whatever equally grand title you want, and I’ll pay you—oh, hell, twice what I was paying you before.” She stood up briskly and gathered her things. “I’ll have the papers drawn up. Now I’m off to do my embarrassing and horrible duty to make sure my bastard ex-husband remains locked up, and hopefully dies in some rotten hole. Ta-ta, darlings.” She put her laptop under her arm, gripped her designer bag, and swept out of the room like a storm.
I sat there in stunned silent and Bret only gazed at me with a smirk and his arms behind his head. “Well?” he asked. “Happy?”
“She just doubled my salary,” I said, dazed. “I was making half a million a year before.”
“I guess you’re a millionaire now,” he said. “Congrats. Was that everything you hoped and more?”
“Absolutely yes.”
He pulled me over to him and kissed me. I lingered close to his lips and stared into his eyes. He saved me back there with Jakub, back in that park in the darkness, at one of the lowest points in my life. He stepped up when things looked hard and deadly, and he did what he had to do. I couldn’t say what would’ve happened if he hadn’t been there, and I owed him so much.
“I love you,” he said gently, and touched my cheek. “I know we’ve been through a lot. And I want you to know that I’ll never leave you again.”
“I love you too,” I said, choking back my tears.
They fell down anyway, and he smiled sadly, wiping them away. He kissed me and hugged me, in the office of our factory, and I knew we had a future. We both escaped, and found something better, even if it took us a long time to come back together, we made it happen, and I’d never let that go again.
23
Jude
Two Years Later
Lisa poked her head into my office. Her long blonde hair fell down around her shoulders and she gave me an exasperated look. “What are you doing here?” she asked. “You’re supposed to be gone by now.”
I glanced at the clock: five thirty, hardly late. “The first test bath is almost done,” I said, knee jostling nervously. “I want to hear the results.”
“Go home,” she said, standing in the doorway. “I’m serious. I’ll call your cell when the factory gets in touch.”
“They’ll call soon,” I said, fidgeting a little. Today was the first batch of the newest Fluke biscuit, and it was a recipe I helped to create and was ushering into the world. Lady Fluke so rarely allowed the Fluke Company to try something new, but she gave me a lot of latitude and leeway to run the American side of the business however I wanted, and I hoped this new flavor would win a whole new segment of the population. It was soft, with nutmeg and cinnamon, and the test kitchen samples tasted amazing.
Now we had to see if the factory could make something half as good in mass quantities.
“Jude,” Lisa said, hands on her hips. She gave me her angry face, which meant she wasn’t really angry, but wanted me to do whatever she said. Lisa was my second-in-command, and most of my decisions went through her, one way or the other. “You’re, like, about to pop. You’re due in a week. Get the hell out of here, go enjoy whatever time you have left before the baby comes, and stop thinking about cookies.”