SEVERANCE CLAUSE

Chapter 12: "The Document"

POV: Maya

She read it three times. By the fourth, she understood that he had made it all up.

Maya woke before Julian. The morning light was brighter now, slipping through the cracks between the boarded windows. His arm was still around her, his breathing was deep and slow and was still asleep.

She reached for her phone on the nightstand.

Her hand touched something else. A folder which has leather and is thick. The kind of folder Julian used for documents he didn't want folded.

She pulled it toward her.

The words "Decompression and Transition Protocol" were printed on the tab.

Her stomach went cold.

She sat up slowly ,Julian didn't move. She slid out of bed, her bare feet silent on the stone floor. She walked to the window, where the light was brightest, and she opened the folder.

The clause.

The one he had shown her in her office and said was standard. The one he said was on page forty-seven, section fourteen, subsection C.

She read it once.

She read it twice.

She read it three times.

By the fourth time, she understood.

This document was not in her contract.

She knew every page of her employment agreement. She had read it three times before she started at Sterling. She had highlighted every clause that mattered which was severance, non-disclosure, non-compete and arbitration.

This document was not in her contract.

She looked at the date on the footer. Printed four days before he showed it to her which was four days after she submitted her resignation.

He had made it up.

He had fabricated a legal document to keep her close.

Maya's hands started shaking. She put the folder down on the windowsill,pressed her palms against the cool stone and breathed In, Out, In, Out.

"You're up early."

Julian's voice from the bed is still Sleepy but soft. Nothing like the controlled, clipped voice from the office.

She didn't turn around.

"Maya?"

She turned.

He was sitting up in bed. The white sheet had fallen to his waist with messy hair. His eyes were still half closed and chest was bare.The compass rose tattoo was visible on his ribs.

He looked at her face. Then he looked at the folder on the windowsill.

His expression didn't change but something in his eyes went dark.

"What is that?" he asked.

"You know what it is."

"Maya—"

"The clause, Julian. The one you said was standard and was on page forty-seven."

She picked up the folder. She walked toward the bed ,stopped at the foot of it with the folder in her hands, her bare legs cold in the morning air.

"Page forty-seven of my contract is about intellectual property," she said. "Section fourteen is about vacation time. Subsection C says I'm entitled to three weeks per year."

Julian didn't speak.

"There is no severance clause in my contract," Maya said. "There never was ,you made this up."

He didn't answer immediately.

That half-second was her answer.

"You made it up," she said again ,louder this time. "You fabricated a legal document and lied to me."

"I didn't lie."

"You said it was standard."

"It is standard. For senior personnel."

"I'm not senior personnel. I'm an assistant. Your assistant, ohhh sorry, was your assistant."

Julian got out of bed wearing only his grey sweatpants with his feet and chest bare . The compass rose seemed to pulse on his ribs.

"I needed you to stay," he said.

"So you lied."

"I needed more time."

"Time for what?"

He walked toward her,she stepped back then he stopped.

"Time to figure out what this is," he said. "Time to figure out why I couldn't let you go. Time to—"

"To trap me on an island?"

"It wasn't like that."

"It was exactly like that."

Maya held up the document. Her hand was shaking.

"You printed this four days after I resigned," she said. "Four days you had your legal team draft a fake contract, flew me to your private island and waited for a hurricane to trap us here."

"The hurricane wasn't—"

"You didn't know about the hurricane. I believe that but everything else? The clause, the island and the month of 'transition support.' That was all a lie."

Julian's jaw tightened with his jaw fixed on her face

"I was trying to keep you," he said.

"By lying to me."

"I didn't know how else to—"

"To what? Keep me? Control me? Own me?"

"No."

"Then what?"

He didn't answer.

Maya laughed. It came out sharp and broken.

"I spent three years wanting you," she said. "Three years telling myself it was just a job, pretending I didn't notice the way you looked at me in the elevator."

"Maya—"

"And then you gave me a fake document and I believed you because I wanted to believe you and needed one more month with you so badly that I ignored every instinct I had."

She threw the folder onto the bed.

"I'm done," she said.

Julian reached for her but she stepped back again.

"Don't," she said.

"Maya, please—"

"Don't touch me. Don't come near me. Don't say my name like that."

She walked to the nightstand ,picked up her phone , scrolled through her contacts and called Harrison Voss. The managing partner at Aldridge & Associates who had offered her a job three weeks ago.

The job she had put on hold because Julian asked her for one more month.

"Maya, what are you doing?"

She hit call.

"Maya, put the phone down."

Harrison answered on the second ring. "Maya? Is everything okay?"

"Mr. Voss," she said. Her voice was steady but her hands were not. "Is the position still available?"

"Maya—" Julian's voice was desperate.

"It's available," Harrison said. "We've been waiting for your answer."

"Then I accept. When do you need me to start?"

"Two weeks. Can you manage that?"

"Yes."

"Maya—" Julian again.

"I'll see you in two weeks, Mr. Voss. Thank you."

She hung up.

Julian was standing in the middle of the room. His eyes were wide and hands were shaking.

"You accepted the position," he said.

"I start in two weeks."

"You're leaving."

"I'm leaving."

"Our arrangement—"

"There is no arrangement, Julian. There never was, everything was just a lie and I was the woman stupid enough to believe it."

She walked to the closet, pulled out her suitcase and started packing. Her linen dresses , sandals , the white t-shirt she had worn last night—his t-shirt, she realized, not hers—she left on the floor.

"Maya, please just let me explain."

"You already explained you lied, fabricated a document and manipulated me."

"I love you."

She stopped packing.

Her back was to him. Her hands were on the edge of the suitcase breathing so fast.

"What did you say?"

"I love you. I've loved you for three years. I didn't know how to tell you or even keep you. So I did the only thing I knew how to do."

"You lied."

"I panicked."

"That's worse."

She turned around. Her eyes were wet. Her face was streaked with tears, she didn't remember crying.

"You had three years to tell me the truth," she said. "Three years of elevator rides,coffee at 6:08 and almost touching but never and now you say it? Now? When I'm packing?"

"I'm saying it because it's true."

"It doesn't matter if it's true. I can't trust you."

She zipped the suitcase ,pulled it off the bed and walked toward the door.

"Maya—"

"Our arrangement is finished."

She walked out of the bedroom.

She walked down the hallway. Past the great room ,the kitchen , the terrace where they had almost kissed in the rain.

She did not look back.

She heard him behind her. His footsteps on the stone floor.

"Maya, stop."

She didn't stop.

"Maya, please."

She reached the front door and opened it. The morning air was warm,wet and smelled like salt.

The boat was already at the dock. The rescue boat the one Rosa had said would come when the storm passed.

"Maya, don't do this."

She walked down the path to the dock with her suitcase which bumped over the stones and her bare feet were getting cut but she didn't care.

"Maya!"

She reached the dock. She turned around.

Julian was standing at the top of the path with his face crumbling.

She had never seen Julian Croft's face crumble before.

"Please," he said. "Just give me a chance to—"

"No."

She turned around. She walked onto the boat and didn't look back.

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END OF CHAPTER 12