Chapter 6: The Call Grant Should Have Made Eight Years Ago
He called at seven in the evening.
I almost didn't answer.
"Allison." His voice was flat.
Not angry.
Not pleading.
Just flat, the way a person sounds when they have run out of the energy required to perform an emotion.
"I need to talk to you."
"Your attorney can contact James."
"This isn't about the house."
I waited.
"My father knew," Grant said.
"About Serena.
He knew and he never said a word to me.
Not once.
Not in two years." A long pause.
"Did you know he knew?"
"No.
I found out the same time you did."
"He just — he watched me.
He sat across from me at dinner and he watched me and he never said anything."
"He wrote it down instead."
Another silence.
I could hear Grant breathing.
"I want you to know that I didn't — the divorce wasn't because of Serena.
It was already over between us before that.
I need you to know that."
"Grant." I kept my voice even.
"That's not something I need from you anymore."
"I know.
I just—" He stopped.
"My mother is talking about suing.
Hale told her the letter makes the case difficult but she won't listen.
She's convinced that if she pushes hard enough, something will give."
"Something might," I said.
"But it won't be the letter."
"I'm not going to testify against the will."
I hadn't expected that.
I stayed quiet.
"Hale asked me to.
He wants me to say Dad was confused in his final months.
I'm not going to do it." Grant's voice tightened for the first time.
"He wasn't confused.
He was the clearest person in that house and I was too busy to notice."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because my mother is going to call you.
She's going to try something and I don't know exactly what it is yet, but Hale said something this afternoon about finding additional witnesses.
People who spent time with Dad near the end."
I stood up from the kitchen table and walked to the window.
The street outside was quiet.
A neighbor's porch light was on.
"What kind of witnesses?"
"I don't know.
Hale wouldn't say.
But Allison—" Grant paused.
"There was a nurse.
During Dad's last hospital stay.
She spent a lot of time with him.
I don't know what he might have said to her."
"Or what someone might ask her to say."
Grant went quiet for a moment.
"I'm not part of whatever Hale is planning.
I want you to know that."
"Noted," I said.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"For the courthouse.
For my mother.
For—" He stopped.
"For a lot of things."
I didn't tell him it was all right, because it wasn't, and we both knew it.
I thanked him for the call and ended it.
May you like
I stood at the window for a long time after that.
Then I called James and told him about the nurse.
