Chapter 6: The Conversation She Had Been Waiting Five Years to Have
Ethan was in his home office when Grace got back.
She could see the light under the door.
She knocked once and opened it without waiting.
He was on the phone.
He held up one finger.
She sat down across from his desk and waited.
He wrapped up the call in under a minute.
He looked tired in a way that had nothing to do with lost sleep.
"My attorney called," he said.
"The Henderson family has a lawyer.
They're saying their initial conversations with Lauren — with whoever she was — misrepresented their position on the sale price by nearly four hundred thousand dollars."
"I know," Grace said.
He stared at her.
"How do you know?"
She set the folder on his desk.
He opened it slowly.
He read in silence.
She watched his face move through the information — the name change, Richard Crane, the Virginia court filing, the photograph.
When he got to the end, he closed the folder and set it flat on the desk.
"Laura Crane," he said.
"Yes."
"Her father went to federal prison."
"For eight years.
He got out six years ago.
She had already changed her name by then."
Ethan looked at the ceiling.
A long exhale.
"I brought her into my company."
"Yes."
"Into my house."
"Yes."
"And I sl@pped my pregnant wife because she dared to question it."
The word *pregnant* landed in the room like something dropped from a height.
Ethan's eyes came down from the ceiling.
Grace reached into her pocket and set the cream-colored box on his desk.
She didn't open it.
He looked at the box.
Then at her.
He reached out and lifted the lid.
The ultrasound photograph was small.
Black and white.
A shape that was unmistakably, impossibly real.
He didn't speak for a long time.
"Seventeen weeks," Grace said.
"I was going to tell you last night.
That was the gift."
His hand was shaking slightly when he touched the edge of the photograph.
"Grace." His voice was barely there.
"I didn't know."
"No.
You didn't."
"I would never have—"
"Ethan." She leaned forward.
"I need you to hear me.
Not as your wife right now.
Just as a person telling you the truth." She waited until he looked at her.
"You sl@pped me.
In front of a woman who was using you.
On our anniversary.
While I was carrying your child." She kept her voice level.
"That is what happened.
I need you to know that I know exactly what happened.
And I need you to know it too — clearly, without excuses — before anything else between us can move."
His jaw worked.
His eyes were wet.
"I know," he said.
"I know what I did."
"Do you know why you did it?"
A long silence.
"Because she made me feel like you were the problem," he said finally.
"She spent eighteen months making me feel like you were the obstacle.
Like everything I'd built, I'd built alone, and you were just—" He stopped.
"She was very good at it."
"She was trained by an expert," Grace said.
He almost laughed.
It came out broken.
"What happens now?" he said.
"Now you call the Hendersons yourself.
No attorney first.
You call them, you tell them what you've learned, and you offer to make it right."
"That could cost the company—"
"I know what it could cost," Grace said.
"I also know what it costs to let it go to litigation.
And I know what it costs to be the kind of man who cleans up his own mess." She paused.
"You have a chance to be that man.
I don't know if you'll take it."
He looked at the ultrasound photograph still in his hand.
"And us?" he said.
"That's a longer conversation," Grace said.
"And it doesn't happen tonight." She stood up.
"But I'm still here.
I haven't left.
That means something.
I need you to treat it like it means something."
She walked to the door.
"Grace."
She turned.
"The jewelry," he said.
"Your grandmother's jewelry.
Daniel told me last night." He swallowed.
"I didn't know."
"I know you didn't."
"I should have."
She looked at him for a moment.
"Yes.
You should have." She opened the door.
"Call the Hendersons, Ethan.
Tonight."
She pulled the door closed behind her.
In the hallway, she stood with her back against the wall and pressed both hands flat against her stomach.
The flutter again.
Steady now.
Almost rhythmic.
She closed her eyes and breathed.
May you like
From inside the office, she heard Ethan pick up the phone.
She didn't move until she heard him start to speak.
