Chapter 6: Outside, Just the Two of Us
He was sitting on a low stone wall at the edge of the venue's garden, his jacket folded across his knees, looking at nothing in particular.
I sat down beside him.
Neither of us said anything for a while.
A car moved slowly through the parking lot.
Somewhere inside the building, someone had started playing music — one of the reception songs, low and slightly surreal against the evening air.
"I found the letter ten days ago," Grant said.
I looked at him.
"I've been carrying it around since then.
Trying to decide what to do." He turned the folded jacket over in his hands.
"I kept thinking I was missing something.
That there had to be an explanation I hadn't thought of."
"Was there?"
"No." He said it simply.
"I called Diane last week.
She confirmed it.
And then she told me about the second message." He paused.
"I still almost didn't say anything today."
"What changed your mind?"
He was quiet for a moment.
"You," he said.
"When you asked me if I was actually happy.
The way you looked at me." He shook his head.
"I've been so focused on not causing a scene that I forgot to ask myself that question."
"Grant."
"I know.
I know." He exhaled.
"I'm not angry at you.
I'm angry at myself for waiting this long."
"You didn't wait too long."
"I waited until the wedding."
"You stopped it at the wedding," I said.
"That's not the same thing."
He looked at me sideways.
A small, tired version of the smile I'd known his whole life.
"You always do that," he said.
"Do what?"
"Find the version of the story where I didn't completely fail."
"That's because it's usually the true version."
He looked back at the parking lot.
A couple was leaving — guests who'd decided the evening was over.
They walked close together, not talking.
"What happens now?" he asked.
"Now you call your attorney.
First thing tomorrow."
He nodded slowly.
"The trust," I said.
"You need to make sure it's protected."
"I know."
"And Grant — Diane said Dennis knew about it before you'd been dating three months.
That means he may have taken steps.
Spoken to people.
You need someone looking at this carefully."
He turned to look at me fully.
"You think he did something?"
"I think he's the kind of man who researches things," I said.
"And I think you should know exactly what he researched."
Grant was quiet for a moment.
"I'll call Martin tonight," he said.
Martin was his attorney.
They'd been friends since college.
"Good."
He looked down at his jacket.
He smoothed one lapel with his thumb, a small, absent gesture.
"She said it was both," he said quietly.
"That she loved me and it was a plan.
Both."
I didn't answer right away.
"Do you believe her?" I asked finally.
He thought about it for a long time.
"I think she convinced herself," he said.
"I think she found a man she could work with and decided that was close enough to love." He paused.
"I don't think she's a monster.
I just think she made a calculation and dressed it up as a feeling."
"And her father?"
"Her father knew exactly what he was doing."
We sat there a little longer.
The music from inside had changed to something slower.
Then Grant's phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
Martin.
He looked at me.
"I texted him from inside," he said.
"Before I came out here."
"Answer it," I said.
He answered it.
I watched his face as he listened.
The tiredness was still there.
But underneath it, something else was beginning — something careful and deliberate, the way Grant always looked when he'd made up his mind.
After a minute he said, "How soon can you be here?"
A pause.
"Okay.
I'll be in the lobby."
He hung up.
"He's twenty minutes away," Grant said.
"He was already in the car."
"Good man," I said.
Grant stood up.
He put his jacket on.
He straightened it.
Then he stopped.
"Mom.
There's something else Martin said.
Before he hung up." He turned to look at me.
"He said Dennis called him.
Six months ago.
Asking questions about the trust structure."
The garden went very quiet.
"He called your attorney," I said.
"He called my attorney," Grant said.
"Pretending to be a potential client.
Martin didn't make the connection until just now."
I stood up slowly.
"Grant.
That's not just research."
May you like
"No," he said.
"It isn't."
