Chương 6
“What did you leave?”
“Nothing.”
Nathan gave a short, incredulous breath.
“Grace.”
“I panicked.”
“And the second time?”
“Your number was disconnected.”
“That number was active for almost a year after I moved.”
Grace looked at him.
“No, it wasn’t.”
“Yes, it was.”
She stared.
Nathan glanced into the mirror and saw her expression.
“What number did you call?”
Grace recited it.
Nathan’s eyebrows pulled together.
“That was my old office line.”
Grace went cold.
“You gave me that number.”
“No.”
“You did.”
“I gave you my cell.”
“No, Nathan.”
He shook his head.
“I absolutely gave you my cell.”
Grace’s heartbeat started climbing.
“You wrote it on the back of the train receipt.”
Nathan looked sharply at the road, then back at the mirror.
“What train receipt?”
“The one from Stamford.”
“I wrote my office number on that because my phone had died.”
Grace stared at him.
The memory returned in pieces.
A crowded platform.
Rain darkening the concrete.
Nathan laughing because she had accused him of being incapable of owning a charger.
He had taken a receipt from his coat pocket and scribbled numbers on it.
Grace had kept it in her wallet for months.
“You never updated it.”
“I thought you had my cell.”
“I didn’t.”
“You texted me.”
“Through the work messaging app.”
Nathan’s face changed.
The distinction had seemed trivial at the time.
Now it sat between them like something alive.
“What happened when you called the office?”
Grace’s mouth felt dry.
“The first time, voicemail.”
“The second?”
“A woman answered.”
Nathan’s expression hardened.
“What woman?”
“She said you were unavailable.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“What exactly did she say?”
Grace looked at Lily again.
Nathan noticed.
His voice dropped.
“Tell me later.”
Grace rubbed the edge of Lily’s sleeve between two fingers.
“She said you had gone overseas and asked me not to call again.”
Nathan went silent.
The car continued through a green light.
Grace watched the muscles in his jaw tighten.
“She said what?”
“She said you had left instructions.”
“I left no such instructions.”
Grace said nothing.
Nathan pulled into the right lane and reduced speed.
“What did she sound like?”
“I barely remember.”
“Try.”
“Nathan.”
“Please.”
The word was quiet.
Grace looked at him.
“She sounded young.”
“That doesn’t help.”
“She spoke very carefully.”
“Accent?”
“No.”
“Did she give a name?”
Grace searched the memory.
The answer surfaced slowly.
“I think she said Victoria.”
Nathan missed the turn.
The navigation system immediately recalculated.
For several seconds, the only sound inside the car was the soft artificial voice instructing him to continue straight.
Grace watched his reflection.
“Did you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“Then say something.”
Nathan drove another block before speaking.
“Victoria worked for my father then.”
Grace blinked.
“In what capacity?”
“Executive assistant.”
Grace felt the cold spread deeper.
“She had access to your office phone?”
“Yes.”
“To your travel schedule?”
“Yes.”
“To your calls?”
Nathan’s silence answered.
Grace sat back carefully.
For four years, she had carried a simple version of the past because simple pain was easier to live with.
Nathan had left.
She had tried once.
He had chosen not to answer.
That version had made her angry enough to survive.
Now the edges were coming apart.
“She knew who I was.”
Nathan’s eyes met hers in the mirror.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“You came to the office twice.”
Grace remembered Victoria differently then.
Dark hair pinned back.
Black trousers.
Polite smile.
A woman who had once brought Grace coffee while Nathan finished a meeting.
“She knew we were together.”
“Yes.”
“And when I called pregnant, she told me not to call again.”
“We don’t know that.”
Grace’s anger flashed.
“You just spent an hour demanding facts from me, and now suddenly we don’t know anything?”
“I’m saying we need to be careful.”
“Careful for who?”
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
“For the truth.”
Grace laughed once without humor.
“That sounds expensive.”
He glanced back.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means men like you call caution a virtue when the truth threatens someone inside your house.”
Nathan flinched.
Grace immediately regretted the cruelty and refused to take it back.
He turned onto her mother’s street.
Rows of modest homes replaced the larger properties they had passed earlier.
A boy rode a bicycle in slow circles around a driveway.
Someone watered flowers with a green hose.
Normal life again.
Nathan parked in front of a pale blue two-story house with white shutters.
Before Grace could unbuckle, the front door opened.
Her mother came outside.
She was still wearing an apron.
She saw Grace first.
Then Lily.
Then Nathan.
The watering can in her hand slipped and struck the porch.
Lily woke at the sound.
“Grandma.”
Grace opened the door.
Her mother descended the steps quickly.
“What happened?”
“I’m okay.”
“That is never an answer from you.”
She reached Grace and stopped when she saw the way Grace held her shoulder.
Her eyes sharpened.
“Who did this?”
Grace looked toward Nathan.
Her mother followed her gaze.
For one long second, she stared at him as though an old ghost had parked at her curb.
Nathan got out of the car.
“Mrs. Lin.”
Her mother’s face became unreadable.
“You.”
Nathan nodded.
“Yes.”
Lily climbed out behind Grace.
Her grandmother bent immediately and pulled her close.
“Sweetheart.”
Lily wrapped both arms around her neck.
“Victoria hit Mommy with a hockey stick.”
Grace closed her eyes.
Her mother looked up.
Nathan did not move.
The softness vanished from Mrs. Lin’s face.
“Inside.”
“Mom.”
“Now.”
Grace recognized the tone and obeyed.
Nathan stayed by the car.
Grace looked back.
Her mother noticed.
“He comes too.”
Nathan seemed surprised.
Mrs. Lin gave him a cold look.
“Do not mistake that for hospitality.”
Inside, the house smelled of ginger, laundry detergent, and the shortbread cookies Lily had predicted.
May you like
Grace sat at the kitchen table while her mother wrapped an ice pack in a dish towel.
Lily climbed onto a chair and immediately reached for the cookie tin.
