Chapter 13 - GRACE BECOMES THE LINE
I had spent my whole life making excuses for Richard.
When I was twelve, he screamed because I embarrassed him at a business dinner.
Mom said he was stressed.
When I was seventeen, he refused to speak to me for a month because I chose a college he disliked.
I told myself he cared too much.
When I married Daniel, Richard called him ambitious in the same tone people used for dishonest.
I told Daniel not to take it personally.
Daniel never argued.
He would simply say, “One day you’ll stop translating cruelty into love.”
I hated that sentence.
Because deep down, I knew he was right.
Now I looked at Grace sleeping beneath a white hospital blanket.
There would be no translating this.
Richard had planned to use my grief to take her.
Margaret stood beside me.
“We’ll stop the guardianship petition before it goes anywhere.”
“I know.”
“You have nothing to worry about.”
“I’m not worried.”
She looked at me.
I was surprised by how true the words felt.
“I’m finished.”
“With what?”
“Protecting him.”
That afternoon, Richard called fourteen times.
I answered the fifteenth.
“Emily.”
His voice sounded tired.
“You have caused enough damage.”
I almost admired the sentence.
He had assaulted me.
Forged my signature.
Tried to take my home.
Tried to control my daughter.
And I had caused damage.
“I know about the guardianship petition.”
Silence.
“You don’t understand that.”
“I understand every word.”
“I was protecting the baby.”
“From me?”
“You’ve been unstable since Daniel died.”
“My daughter was less than twenty-four hours old when you drafted a plan to take her.”
“That document was preliminary.”
I laughed once.
Richard hated being laughed at.
His voice hardened.
“You think that company will survive without me?”
“Yes.”
“You think those lawyers care about you?”
“Yes.”
“You think Daniel planned all this because he trusted you?”
My heart stopped.
“What does that mean?”
Richard paused.
Then he said, “Daniel didn’t trust anyone.”
I heard something in his voice.
Not confidence.
Desperation.
“You’re scared.”
“Of you?”
“No.”
I looked at Grace.
“Of what Daniel left behind.”
Richard said nothing.
May you like
That silence answered me.
I ended the call.
