What Happened in Savannah
Chapter 03 - What Happened in Savannah
Grant came home at 2:13 in the morning.
I was sitting at the kitchen table.
The anniversary flowers were still wrapped in paper by the sink.
I hadn't turned on any lights except the one above the stove.
"How is Hannah?" I asked.
"Stable."
"And Eli?"
"With a nurse. Hannah's sister is driving in from North Carolina."
I nodded.
Grant remained standing.
Neither of us mentioned that I hadn't asked whether he was Eli's father.
Not yet.
I pushed the note across the table.
"Tell me about Savannah."
His face changed again.
"Claire—"
"Tonight you get one chance."
He lowered himself into the chair opposite me.
Nine years earlier, Grant explained, his company had sent him to Savannah for three months.
That much I remembered.
What I didn't know was that Hannah Reed had been assigned to the same project.
We had been separated then.
Not divorced.
Not dating other people.
Just broken.
Grant stared at his hands.
"Hannah and I became close."
"How close?"
He looked at me.
"You already know."
I did.
But I needed him to say it.
"We slept together."
The room stayed strangely quiet.
I had imagined that hearing those words would make me scream.
Instead, I felt tired.
"Once?"
He hesitated.
"Three times."
I laughed.
One cold, humorless sound.
"Thank you for the precision."
"Claire, we were living apart."
"And when we got back together?"
"It ended."
"Did I ask you if there had been someone else?"
Grant lowered his eyes.
That was the part that broke something.
Because I remembered asking.
I remembered standing in this very kitchen, crying, telling Grant that if we were going to rebuild our marriage, I needed the truth.
He had held my face in both hands.
He had said there was no one.
"You lied."
"I was afraid I'd lose you."
"You decided I wasn't entitled to make that decision myself."
He had no answer.
I placed the photograph between us.
"Did Hannah tell you she was pregnant?"
"No."
The answer came immediately.
This time, I almost believed him.
"Then why did Eli's mother have your photograph?"
"I gave it to her."
"Why?"
Grant stared at it.
"That picture was taken on our last night in Savannah."
My stomach tightened.
Grant pointed toward the ring in the photograph.
"She had asked whether I was really going back to you."
He swallowed.
"I showed her my wedding ring."
I couldn't speak.
"I told her I loved you," he continued. "I told her whatever had happened between us was over."
"And she kept the photograph for nine years?"
"I didn't know."
I leaned back.
Grant rubbed both hands over his face.
Then he said something I wasn't expecting.
"There's something else."
Of course there was.
"There always is."
"Six months after I left Savannah, someone called my office asking about Hannah."
"Who?"
"A lawyer."
My heart began pounding again.
"What did he want?"
Grant looked at me.
"He said Hannah had left something for me."
"What?"
"A letter."
I waited.
May you like
Grant's voice fell.
"But I never received it."
