Chapter 9: Grant Chooses a Side
I drove home from Carol's office and sat in the car in the driveway for ten minutes before going inside.
Grant was working from home.
He was at the desk in the study when I came in, and he looked up when I appeared in the doorway.
"How did it go?" he asked.
I came in and sat down in the chair across from him.
I told him about Patricia Holt.
I told him about the ledger.
I told him about the notation.
He listened without moving.
When I finished, he was quiet for a long time.
"She wanted it," he said finally.
Not a question.
"That's what the record shows."
He put his elbows on the desk and pressed his hands against his face.
"Grant." I waited until he looked at me.
"I need to know where you are.
Not for the case.
For me.
For Maddie.
I need to know if you are going to stand beside your mother or beside us."
He dropped his hands.
His eyes were red at the edges.
"She's my mother, Rachel."
"I know."
"She raised me.
She—" He stopped.
"She's the only parent I had.
My father checked out when I was twelve.
She did everything."
"I know that too."
"And she did something unforgivable." He said it like he was still deciding whether to believe it.
"She sent us to that man on purpose.
She let him—" He couldn't finish the sentence.
"Yes," I said.
He stood up and walked to the window.
The same window he had stood at in his office.
Looking out at something that wasn't there.
"Maddie," he said.
"What about her?"
"She's going to grow up knowing this." He turned around.
"She's going to know that her grandmother arranged for her to exist the way she exists.
That her biological grandfather is a man who—" He shook his head.
"How do we tell her that?"
"We don't tell her everything at once," I said.
"We tell her what she can hold.
When she can hold it.
Together."
"Together," he repeated.
"That depends on you."
He crossed the room and sat down in the chair beside me, not across from me.
He leaned forward with his hands clasped between his knees.
"I'm going to call Stafford," he said.
"Evelyn's attorney.
I'm going to tell him she needs to instruct her client to cooperate fully with the investigation.
No more obstruction.
No more leverage."
"And if she refuses?"
"Then I'll tell him that I'll be providing my own statement to Carol's office." He looked at me.
"I was told the night before our wedding.
That's relevant.
I should have said something years ago.
I didn't.
That's on me."
I looked at him for a moment.
"It is on you," I said.
"I know."
"But I'm not going to hold it over you for the rest of your life." I sat back.
"I just needed you to say it out loud."
He nodded.
"There's one more thing," I said.
"The email she sent to your firm.
To the senior partner."
He closed his eyes briefly.
"I spoke to him this morning."
"What did he say?"
"He said he'd received it.
He said he was sorry I was dealing with a family situation.
And he said that if any of it became a legal matter that touched the firm's reputation, he'd need to know." Grant opened his eyes.
"I told him it was already a legal matter.
I told him my wife had done nothing wrong and that I would be providing documentation to confirm that."
"Did he believe you?"
"I think so." He paused.
"I think he believed me more than he believed her.
She overplayed it.
The email was too polished.
Too prepared.
It read like something that had been sitting in a drawer."
"Because it had been," I said.
He almost smiled.
It didn't quite land.
But it was close.
His phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
"It's her," he said.
We both looked at the phone.
He picked it up and put it on speaker and set it on the desk between us.
"Mom," he said.
"Grant." Evelyn's voice was controlled, but there was something underneath it now.
Something that hadn't been there in the deposition room.
"I need you to come over."
"I'm not coming over, Mom."
A pause.
"I see."
"Patricia Holt came forward," he said.
"Rachel told me about the ledger."
Silence.
"Whatever you were protecting," he said quietly, "it's over."
The line stayed open for another few seconds.
Then Evelyn said, very softly: "I only wanted what was best for this family."
"I know you believed that," Grant said.
May you like
"But you were wrong."
He ended the call.
