Chương 8
“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
“You should have let me decide.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get to say that now and make it smaller.”
“I am not trying to.”
Her mother’s voice cracked for the first time.
Grace looked away.
Nathan rubbed one hand over his mouth.
“Did Victoria leave anything?”
Mrs. Lin looked at him.
“What?”
“A card.”
“No.”
“Letter?”
“No.”
“Email address?”
“She gave me a phone number.”
Nathan leaned forward.
“Do you still have it?”
Mrs. Lin stared at him as though the question itself were ridiculous.
“It was four years ago.”
Grace knew that tone.
Her mother saved receipts from appliances older than Lily.
Nathan seemed to realize it too.
Mrs. Lin got up.
She went to a drawer beside the refrigerator and pulled it open.
Inside were rubber bands, takeout menus, batteries, coupons, a screwdriver, and at least twenty envelopes.
Grace watched her mother sort through them.
“You kept it?”
“I keep everything.”
“That is deeply true,” Grace said.
Mrs. Lin shot her a tired look.
“Not now.”
Nathan almost smiled and stopped himself.
Mrs. Lin found a small plastic accordion folder.
She opened the section marked TAXES and pulled out an old envelope.
Grace stared.
“Why is it in taxes?”
“Because I knew I would never throw out taxes.”
Nathan looked at Grace.
“That logic is disturbingly sound.”
Grace gave him a look.
He dropped his eyes.
Mrs. Lin opened the envelope and removed a yellowed piece of paper.
She slid it across the table.
A phone number was written in blue ink.
No name.
No company.
Nathan stared at it.
“That’s not Victoria’s cell.”
Grace leaned closer.
“You recognize it?”
“No.”
He took out his phone.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking my old contacts.”
Grace watched him scroll.
After a moment, he stopped.
His face went pale.
“What?”
Nathan turned the screen toward them.
The number matched an entry labeled COLE EXEC RESIDENCE LINE 2.
Grace frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Nathan’s voice was quiet.
“My father’s house.”
Mrs. Lin looked confused.
“She gave me a number at your father’s home?”
“An internal line that forwarded externally.”
Grace looked at him.
“Could Victoria use it?”
“She lived on the property for a while.”
Grace blinked.
“You never told me that.”
“She stayed in the guest apartment when she started working for him.”
“And when was that?”
Nathan’s eyes met hers.
“The same year we broke up.”
Grace sat back.
The room seemed suddenly smaller.
Mrs. Lin looked from Nathan to Grace.
“Did she know you before?”
Nathan shook his head.
“Not personally.”
“Are you sure?”
He did not answer immediately.
Grace noticed.
“Nathan.”
“I met her once before she worked for my father.”
“When?”
“At a charity dinner.”
Grace’s stomach tightened.
“Before or after we met?”
“Before.”
“How long before?”
“Maybe six months.”
Grace studied him.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
Her eyes stayed on him.
Nathan sighed.
“She asked me out.”
Mrs. Lin’s eyebrows rose.
“And?”
“I said no.”
Grace looked toward the living room where Lily’s show continued playing.
A bright cartoon song drifted through the doorway.
“So Victoria knew you before she knew me.”
“Yes.”
“She tried to date you.”
“Yes.”
“You rejected her.”
Nathan’s mouth tightened.
“That makes it sound more dramatic than it was.”
Grace stared at him.
“She hit me with a hockey stick four hours after telling my mother she knew where my sister filed immigration papers.”
Nathan closed his mouth.
“Fair.”
Mrs. Lin sat again.
Grace looked at her mother.
“What else did she say when she came here?”
Mrs. Lin hesitated.
Grace felt the warning immediately.
“Mom.”
“She said something about Nathan being engaged.”
Nathan looked sharply at her.
“What?”
Mrs. Lin continued carefully.
“She said he was going to marry someone his family approved of.”
Nathan shook his head.
“I wasn’t engaged.”
Grace’s fingers curled around the edge of the table.
“Were you seeing someone?”
“No.”
“Were you planning to?”
“No.”
“Did Victoria know that?”
“I don’t know what Victoria believed.”
Grace looked away.
Mrs. Lin spoke softly.
“She showed me a picture.”
Nathan stared at her.
“What picture?”
“A woman standing with you at some event.”
Grace felt a familiar old ache rise.
“What woman?”
Nathan’s face shifted as understanding arrived.
“Claire.”
Grace looked at him.
“Who is Claire?”
“My cousin.”
Mrs. Lin’s mouth fell open.
Grace let out a stunned breath.
“You’re joking.”
“No.”
“The blonde woman?”
“Yes.”
Mrs. Lin closed her eyes.
“I thought she was your fiancée.”
“Victoria told you that?”
“She did not say it directly.”
Nathan looked furious.
“What did she say?”
Mrs. Lin tried to recall.
“She said, ‘Nathan has already chosen the life his family expects.’”
Grace stared at the old phone number.
Nathan leaned back.
“That sounds like her.”
Grace looked at him sharply.
“What does that mean?”
He rubbed his thumb against the edge of his phone.
“She never lies in a way she can be easily accused of lying.”
Grace felt the words settle heavily.
“She lets people finish the sentence for her.”
Nathan nodded.
Mrs. Lin looked sick.
Grace suddenly saw her mother not as the person who had hidden the truth, but as a frightened woman standing in this same kitchen four years earlier, looking at a stranger who seemed to know too much.
The sympathy lasted only a second.
Then anger returned.
“You still should have told me.”
Mrs. Lin nodded.
“I was afraid you would chase him.”
Grace laughed in disbelief.
“Chase him?”
“You loved him.”
Nathan looked down.
Grace’s face burned.
“That was not your decision.”
“No.”
“You decided I was too weak to hear the truth.”
“No.”
“That is exactly what you decided.”
Mrs. Lin’s eyes filled, but she did not cry.
“I decided you were already breaking.”
Grace stood too quickly.
Pain shot through her shoulder.
Nathan rose instinctively.
She held up one hand.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
May you like
Grace paced two steps and turned back.
“You watched me tell Lily her father did not know about her because I did not know how to explain abandonment to a toddler.”
