Chapter 4: What Grace Never Said
I found Grace in the kitchen.
She had lifted Lily onto the counter and was pressing a damp cloth to the child's face, murmuring something soft and low.
Lily had stopped crying.
She was watching her mother with the absolute trust that only very small children carry.
I stood in the doorway until Grace looked up.
"How bad is your shoulder?" I asked.
"I've had worse."
"That's not an answer."
She held my gaze.
"It's not broken.
I can move it."
I pulled out a chair from the kitchen table and sat down.
"Tell me what happened four years ago.
All of it.
From the beginning."
Grace was quiet for a moment.
She set the cloth down.
She lifted Lily off the counter and placed her gently on the floor with a soft instruction to go find her bear, which Lily did without argument, disappearing around the corner with the focused purpose of a child on a mission.
Then Grace sat down across from me.
"I found out I was pregnant two weeks after the company retreat," she said.
"I came to the house to tell you.
Victoria answered the door." A pause.
"You were traveling.
She invited me in.
She was very calm.
Very kind, actually.
She made tea."
"And?"
"She told me she knew about the retreat.
She told me she and you had been together for over a year and that you were planning to propose.
She showed me the ring." Grace looked at her hands.
"Then she told me that if I contacted you, if I told you anything, she would have me reported to immigration services.
My work visa was up for renewal.
She knew that.
I don't know how, but she knew."
My jaw tightened.
"She threatened your visa."
"She threatened everything.
My job.
My ability to stay in the country.
My mother, who was living with me at the time." Grace's voice stayed level, but her hands pressed flat on the table.
"I was twenty-six years old and I was alone and I had no one to call.
So when she offered me the money, I took it.
And I left."
"Why did you come back?"
"Because my mother passed away eighteen months ago.
And after that I had nothing left to be afraid of losing." She looked up.
"And because Lily started asking about her father.
Every day.
Every single day, Nathan.
And I couldn't keep lying to her."
I looked at the doorway Lily had disappeared through.
"She's four," I said.
"Four and a half.
She's very bright." The corner of Grace's mouth moved.
Not quite a smile.
"She has your eyes.
I used to think that was cruel.
Now I think it was just the truth, and the truth doesn't care how inconvenient it is."
"The document in the safe—"
"Is real.
I had it drawn up through a family law attorney two years ago.
I mailed a copy to this address.
It came back unopened.
I tried twice more." She met my eyes.
"The last copy I hand-delivered, six weeks ago, when Victoria hired me.
I thought if I was inside the house, I could put it somewhere safe.
Somewhere she couldn't intercept it."
"She hired you knowing who you were?"
"She hired me because she knew who I was." Grace's voice didn't waver.
"She wanted me where she could watch me.
And when she found the copy in the safe this morning, she—" She stopped.
Looked at her shoulder.
"She made her decision."
The room was very quiet.
"I need to ask you something," I said.
"And I need you to answer honestly."
"All right."
"Is there any chance — any chance at all — that the document is wrong?
That Lily isn't—"
"No." Grace said it without hesitation.
Without anger.
Just fact.
"There is no chance.
But if you need a test, I understand.
I expected you would."
I nodded slowly.
From the other room came the sound of small feet, and then Lily reappeared in the doorway clutching a worn stuffed bear by one ear.
She looked at her mother.
Then she looked at me.
Then she walked across the kitchen, climbed up onto the chair beside me without asking permission, and leaned against my arm.
She didn't say anything.
She just leaned.
I didn't move.
Grace watched us.
Her eyes filled, but nothing spilled over.
She pressed her lips together and looked at the table.
Outside, I heard Victoria's heels crossing the marble entry floor.
Then the front door opened.
Then it closed.
I looked at Grace.
"She just left."
"She'll be back," Grace said quietly.
"With a lawyer.
Or something worse." She looked up.
"Nathan.
Whatever she said to your board chair this morning — you need to find out exactly what it was.
May you like
Before she shapes the story any further."
My phone was already in my hand.
