Chapter 15 - The First Date Again
Nathan arrived seven minutes early.
Grace made him wait outside until exactly seven.
“You’re enjoying this.”
“Yes.”
He wore jeans.
Grace stared.
“You purchased jeans.”
“That is generally how clothing works.”
“No normal person says ‘purchased jeans.’”
Nathan looked down.
“They fit.”
“They do.”
“Good.”
Grace had chosen a small diner near the river.
Nathan had initially reserved a private room in a restaurant where dinner cost more than Grace’s monthly grocery budget.
Grace rejected it.
“This is a date.”
“Not a merger.”
Nathan canceled.
They sat in a booth.
No security visible.
Eli had men outside.
Grace pretended not to know.
Nathan pretended she didn’t know.
They talked.
Not about Charles.
Not Marcus.
Not Lily’s trust.
Movies.
Music.
The lake.
Grace’s nursing classes.
Nathan admitted he hated olives.
Grace accused him of having no taste.
Nathan reminded her she once ate gas-station nachos at two in the morning.
“That was pregnancy.”
“You were not pregnant yet.”
Grace paused.
“You remember.”
“Everything.”
Silence.
Not painful.
Tender.
Grace looked down.
“I thought you forgot me.”
Nathan swallowed.
“I spent years trying.”
“Did it work?”
“No.”
“Me neither.”
When dinner ended, Nathan drove her home himself.
No driver.
Grace noticed.
“Look at you.”
“What?”
“Operating a vehicle.”
“I have a license.”
“Allegedly.”
Nathan laughed.
At her apartment door, they stopped.
Nathan did not assume.
Grace looked at him.
“You’re overthinking.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
She kissed him.
Brief.
Warm.
Real.
Nathan did not chase the second kiss.
Grace smiled.
“Progress.”
“Painful progress.”
“One date.”
“One.”
She closed the door.
Nathan stood in the hallway smiling like an idiot.
Then his phone rang.
Catherine.
He answered.
“Nathan.”
“What happened?”
“Victoria is gone.”
His smile disappeared.
“What?”
“She left a note.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
Not again.
Catherine read it.
I need to do one thing without anyone rescuing me.
Do not follow.
Nathan immediately called Grace.
She opened the apartment door before he knocked.
“What happened?”
“Victoria disappeared.”
Grace’s expression hardened.
“Where would she go?”
Nathan thought.
Then remembered.
Charles was scheduled for sentencing the next morning.
Grace understood at the same moment.
“She’s going to see him.”
Victoria had requested a private meeting with her father at the detention center.
Not illegal.
Not dangerous.
But she had not told Catherine because Catherine would stop her.
Nathan and Grace arrived after the meeting began.
They watched through glass.
Charles sat across from Victoria.
No gun.
No power.
Only an old man in prison clothes.
Victoria spoke.
For twenty minutes Charles barely answered.
Then Victoria placed something on the table.
The white dress.
Not literally.
A photograph of the dress she wore the night she attacked Grace.
She said.
“I kept it.”
Charles frowned.
“Why?”
“Because it was the last night I could pretend I was becoming somebody different from you.”
Charles looked away.
Victoria continued.
“You taught me people were obstacles.”
“You taught me love meant deciding what was best for someone.”
“You taught me loyalty meant hiding what powerful men did.”
“I believed you.”
Charles whispered.
“I loved you.”
Victoria nodded.
“I believe that.”
Nathan looked at Grace.
Grace did too.
Victoria continued.
“That is what scares me.”
Charles’s face changed.
“You loved me and still destroyed my mother’s life.”
“You loved me and used my future children as corporate strategy.”
“You loved Uncle Richard and let him get on a sabotaged plane.”
“You loved Nathan like family and erased his child.”
Charles began crying.
Victoria did not.
She stood.
“I’m not here to forgive you.”
“I’m here to stop waiting for you to become someone I can forgive.”
Then she left.
Outside, she saw Nathan and Grace.
Victoria looked embarrassed.
“You followed me.”
Nathan answered.
“Yes.”
Grace added.
“Boundaries still need work.”
Nathan looked at her.
“You came too.”
“Different.”
Victoria almost smiled.
Then she looked at Grace.
“I’m sorry.”
Grace nodded.
“I know.”
Victoria waited.
Nothing else.
No forgiveness.
No absolution.
She accepted it.
That was growth.
Six weeks later, Charles was sentenced.
Marcus followed months after.
Cole Meridian finished its internal investigation.
Dozens of contracts ended.
Several executives resigned.
Nathan was offered the CEO position again.
He declined.
Instead he became executive chairman.
Three days a week.
Sometimes four.
Grace caught him doing five once.
She sent Lily into his office wearing pajamas with a handwritten sign.
DADDY COME HOME.
Nathan left within sixty seconds.
Adam mocked him for months.
Lily’s fifth birthday approached.
Nathan wanted to rent an entire amusement park.
Grace said.
“No.”
“A small one?”
“No.”
“A section?”
“Nathan.”
“Fine.”
Ten children.
Balloons.
Cake.
One magician.
Nathan negotiated the magician.
Grace allowed it.
On the morning of the birthday, a letter arrived.
No return address.
Nathan opened it.
Inside was a photograph of Lily as a newborn.
Grace had never seen it.
Neither had Nathan.
On the back:
YOUR FATHER TOOK THIS.
R.C.
Nathan stared.
Grace whispered.
“Richard saw her?”
The date was impossible.
Richard had been dead six years before Lily’s birth.
Nathan turned the card.
Another line.
NOT RICHARD.
RACHEL COLE.
May you like
Nathan looked at Grace.
“Who the hell is Rachel Cole?”
