Chương 7
Nathan remained standing near the doorway.
Mrs. Lin handed Grace the ice.
Then she turned to Nathan.
“You should sit.”
“I’m fine.”
“I did not ask.”
Nathan sat.
Grace nearly smiled.
Her mother poured him water without offering anything else.
He accepted it.
For a moment, no one spoke.
The refrigerator clicked.
Lily bit into a cookie and dropped crumbs into her lap.
Mrs. Lin brushed them away automatically.
Nathan watched.
Finally, Grace’s mother looked directly at him.
“You know now.”
Nathan’s hand tightened around the water glass.
“Yes.”
“And?”
Nathan glanced at Grace.
“And I’m trying to understand why I didn’t know before today.”
Mrs. Lin’s expression did not change.
Grace felt warning rise inside her.
“Mom.”
Her mother ignored her.
“You want to know why?”
“Yes.”
“Then perhaps you should begin with the woman you brought into that mansion.”
Grace went still.
Nathan leaned forward.
“What do you know about Victoria?”
Mrs. Lin looked at Grace.
Too late, Grace understood why her mother had been less shocked by Victoria’s name than she should have been.
“Mom.”
Mrs. Lin’s eyes remained on Nathan.
“I know she came here once.”
Grace stared at her.
“What?”
Nathan stood.
“When?”
Mrs. Lin folded her hands on the table.
“Four years ago.”
Grace forgot the pain in her shoulder.
Her mother looked at her then, and for the first time that afternoon, Grace saw guilt.
Not fear.
Not anger.
Guilt.
“She came before Lily was born,” Mrs. Lin said.
“And I never told you.”
Grace stared at her mother until the room seemed to tilt around the kitchen table.
Nathan did not sit back down.
“What did she want?”
Mrs. Lin looked at Grace first.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
Grace’s voice came out flat.
“That is not an answer.”
Her mother’s fingers tightened together.
“She came here when you were seven months pregnant.”
Nathan’s face hardened.
“How did she know where you lived?”
Mrs. Lin looked at him.
“She said she had been trying to reach Grace.”
Grace shook her head.
“She never contacted me.”
“I know that now.”
“No, Mom.”
Grace pressed the ice pack harder against her shoulder.
“You knew then.”
Mrs. Lin’s mouth tightened.
“I knew what she told me.”
Nathan took one slow step toward the table.
“What did she tell you?”
Lily looked from one adult to another, cookie forgotten in her hand.
Grace noticed and lowered her voice.
“Lily, sweetheart, can you take your cookies into the living room?”
Lily’s eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
“Because Grandma and I need to talk.”
“With Daddy?”
The word stopped everyone again.
Nathan looked down.
Mrs. Lin’s expression shifted in a way Grace could not immediately read.
“Yes,” Grace said.
“With Nathan.”
Lily considered the correction and seemed to reject it.
“Daddy Nathan.”
Grace closed her eyes briefly.
“That works.”
Mrs. Lin touched Lily’s hair.
“Take the rabbit too.”
Lily gathered the plastic rabbit and two cookies and walked toward the living room.
At the doorway, she turned.
“Don’t yell.”
“We won’t,” Grace said.
Her mother said nothing.
Nathan waited until Lily disappeared around the corner.
Then he looked at Mrs. Lin.
“What did Victoria say?”
Mrs. Lin sat across from Grace.
“She said Nathan had asked her to come.”
Nathan’s expression darkened.
“I never sent her.”
Mrs. Lin nodded once.
“I believe that now.”
Grace laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
“Grace.”
“No.”
She lowered the ice pack.
“You let me spend four years believing he knew and didn’t care, and now you get to say you believe him?”
Mrs. Lin looked older than she had ten minutes earlier.
“I made a mistake.”
Grace flinched.
“A mistake is buying the wrong cereal.”
“Grace.”
“A mistake is forgetting a dentist appointment.”
Her voice shook.
“You hid something that changed my daughter’s entire life.”
Mrs. Lin absorbed the words without defending herself.
Nathan looked between them.
“What exactly did Victoria tell you?”
Mrs. Lin drew a breath.
“She said Nathan knew about the pregnancy.”
Nathan’s face went still.
“She said he did not want contact.”
Grace stared at the table.
“She said he had already made arrangements with his family attorneys.”
Nathan let out a sharp breath.
“What arrangements?”
“She implied there would be support.”
“Implied?”
“She was careful.”
Mrs. Lin looked ashamed of the memory now.
“She never said there was a signed agreement.”
Nathan’s voice turned cold.
“Because there wasn’t.”
“I understand that.”
“She said what else?”
Mrs. Lin looked toward the living room.
The television was playing softly, some children’s show Lily had found without asking permission.
“She said your family was concerned about scandal.”
Nathan laughed once, without humor.
“My family barely knew Grace existed.”
Grace looked up.
“You told me your father knew.”
“He knew I was seeing someone.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No.”
Nathan’s gaze dropped.
“It isn’t.”
Mrs. Lin continued.
“She said there were people prepared to make things difficult if Grace tried to force contact.”
Nathan’s face changed.
Grace felt something colder than anger move through the room.
“What people?”
“She did not name anyone.”
“Did she threaten you?”
Mrs. Lin hesitated.
Grace saw the answer before she spoke.
“Yes.”
Nathan pulled out a chair and finally sat.
The movement looked less like surrender than someone trying not to break something.
“What did she say?”
Mrs. Lin glanced at Grace.
“She knew where Grace worked.”
Grace’s throat tightened.
“She knew about my job?”
“Yes.”
“She knew about your sister’s immigration paperwork.”
Grace stared.
“What?”
Mrs. Lin’s voice dropped.
“She knew things she should not have known.”
Nathan’s face hardened.
“Victoria had access to corporate background files.”
Grace turned toward him.
“Background files on me?”
He shook his head quickly.
“Not officially.”
“That is not reassuring.”
“I know.”
Mrs. Lin looked at Nathan.
“She said certain employers do not like complications.”
Nathan’s jaw clenched.
“And you believed she could hurt Grace’s job.”
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“I believed she could make Grace’s life harder when she was pregnant, alone, and already frightened.”
Grace pushed the ice pack onto the table.
