Chapter 8 - Grace’s Secret
Grace did not celebrate when Nathan returned with Catherine’s archive.
She read for two hours.
Then closed the final folder.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Nathan stared.
“What?”
“You have the face you make when you’re preparing to protect me from information.”
“I have a face for that?”
“Yes.”
Nathan sat across from her.
“There’s a payment record tied to your apartment five years ago.”
Grace waited.
“Richard transferred one hundred thousand dollars.”
“I know.”
Nathan froze.
“You know?”
Grace looked down.
“I took it.”
The words struck him harder than he expected.
Not because of the money.
Because she had never told him.
“You said he forced you out.”
“He did.”
“And you took a hundred thousand dollars.”
“Yes.”
Nathan stood.
Grace’s expression hardened.
“There.”
“What?”
“That look.”
“What look?”
“The one that says maybe your father was partly right about me.”
“I did not say that.”
“You didn’t need to.”
Nathan turned away.
Grace stood too.
“I was twenty-four.”
“So was I.”
“I was pregnant.”
“I would have helped you.”
“I know that now.”
“You knew it then.”
“No.”
Nathan turned.
Grace’s voice rose for the first time.
“I knew you loved your father.”
Silence.
“I knew you believed him when he said something was necessary for the family.”
“That isn’t fair.”
“No.”
Grace’s eyes filled.
“It isn’t.”
Nathan stopped.
Grace continued.
“He showed me photographs of my mother’s house.”
Nathan’s anger disappeared.
“What?”
“He knew where she lived.”
Grace swallowed.
“He showed me a file about her debts.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Of course you didn’t.”
She wiped her eyes angrily.
“He said if I left quietly, he would pay me enough to disappear.”
“And if you didn’t?”
“He would tell Child Services I was unstable when Lily was born.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
Grace continued.
“He would make sure my mother lost her home.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about the payment?”
“Because I was ashamed.”
Nathan looked at her.
“I took the money.”
Her voice cracked.
“I took every dollar.”
“And used it for what?”
“A new name.”
“Grace—”
“Rent.”
She continued.
“Medical bills. Lily’s birth. Moving every time one of their investigators found me.”
Nathan’s eyes burned.
“I had nineteen thousand left when she turned three.”
Grace laughed bitterly.
“Your father’s money paid for the life he forced us to live.”
Nathan sat down again.
Grace looked exhausted.
“There is more.”
He waited.
“I came back once.”
Nathan’s face changed.
“When?”
“Lily was six months old.”
Nathan could not speak.
“I came to New York.”
“Why?”
“To tell you.”
His chest hurt.
“What happened?”
“I got as far as the Cole Meridian lobby.”
Nathan stared.
“You were in my building.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“I did.”
Nathan froze.
Grace looked at him.
“Three times.”
“I never got those calls.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because Owen answered the fourth.”
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
Grace continued.
“He told me you knew about Lily.”
Nathan felt cold.
“He said you didn’t want contact.”
“No.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Nathan stood.
“I never knew.”
“I know now.”
“Grace, I swear—”
“I know.”
He stopped.
She had tears running down her face.
“Owen said you were engaged.”
“I wasn’t.”
“He said you were preparing to announce Victoria.”
“That came years later.”
“I know.”
Nathan felt ill.
“What did you do?”
“I left.”
Nathan turned away and pressed both hands against the counter.
There it was.
Another stolen moment.
Lily had been six months old.
Grace had stood in his building.
He had been somewhere upstairs.
Maybe complaining about a quarterly report.
Maybe having lunch.
Maybe living ten elevator floors away from the truth.
“Why didn’t Owen tell me?”
“Ask him.”
Nathan did.
Owen’s answer was worse than silence.
Richard had ordered it.
“Grace is never to reach Nathan directly.”
Owen had followed the order.
Even after Lily was born.
Even after Grace came begging.
Nathan wanted to hate him.
Instead, he understood the deeper horror.
Owen had not thought he was harming a child.
He had thought he was obeying a corporate instruction.
That was how ordinary loyalty became cruelty.
Nathan returned to Grace hours later.
“I’m sorry.”
She nodded.
“No.”
He sat.
“You’re allowed to be angry.”
“I am.”
“At me.”
“Yes.”
Nathan waited.
Grace looked toward Lily’s room.
“But there is something I’m more afraid of than anger.”
“What?”
“That you’ll try to repair five years in five weeks.”
Nathan said nothing.
“You can’t.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Grace looked at him.
“Lily will love you quickly because she is four.”
Nathan’s throat tightened.
“But I won’t.”
He nodded.
“I don’t expect you to.”
“I might.”
Nathan looked up.
Grace’s eyes were wet.
“That’s what scares me.”
Neither moved.
For a long moment, the room held all the things they had once been.
Young.
In love.
Unaware.
Then Lily came running in carrying a blanket.
“Movie.”
Grace wiped her face.
Nathan smiled.
“What movie?”
“The dragon one.”
“There are many dragon movies.”
Lily stared at him with deep disappointment.
Grace laughed.
The sound surprised all three of them.
Nathan looked at her.
For one breath, the past loosened its grip.
Then Daniel called.
“Turn on the news.”
Nathan did.
Victoria stood outside the Ashford estate.
Cameras surrounded her.
She looked pale.
Vulnerable.
Her voice shook perfectly.
“I loved Nathan.”
Nathan stared.
“I was preparing to become his wife when a woman from his past entered our home under a false identity.”
Grace folded her arms.
Victoria continued.
“I regret the physical confrontation.”
Nathan’s jaw hardened.
“But I believed Grace was attempting to harm me.”
A lie.
Then Victoria’s expression changed.
“I also believe Nathan is being manipulated while grieving his father.”
Nathan almost laughed.
And then she delivered the real weapon.
“I am asking Cole Meridian’s board to remove Nathan temporarily as chief executive.”
Grace looked at him.
Victoria continued.
“For his own protection.”
Nathan muted the television.
Daniel said through the phone, “Malcolm called an emergency board session.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
Nathan looked at Catherine’s archive.
They wanted to remove him before he could release it.
Grace whispered, “What happens if they vote you out?”
“I lose access to internal systems.”
“The archive?”
“Still ours.”
“The company evidence?”
Nathan nodded slowly.
“That becomes harder.”
Grace studied him.
“Then don’t wait for them.”
Nathan stared.
“What?”
“Why are you protecting the company long enough for the company to protect them?”
The sentence landed.
Nathan looked at Daniel.
Then at the folders covering the table.
His entire instinct as CEO had been to verify quietly.
Contain damage.
Preserve employees.
Avoid panic.
But containment was the language his father had used.
Protect the institution.
Handle it internally.
Avoid unnecessary exposure.
The same logic had buried Grace.
Nathan made his decision.
“Daniel.”
“Yes?”
“Call every director.”
“For what?”
“Tell them the meeting is canceled.”
“You cannot cancel a meeting Malcolm called under the bylaws.”
“I’m not canceling it as CEO.”
Nathan looked at Grace.
“I’m canceling the reason for it.”
May you like
He opened his laptop.
“Because in thirty minutes, I’m releasing the archive.”
