Grace Comes Home
Chapter 06 - Grace Comes Home
Grace Whitmore arrived from New York on the last flight of the evening.
At twenty-two, she had Emma’s eyes and Victor’s habit of hiding uncertainty behind a straight back.
She entered Caroline’s office with a suitcase in one hand and anger in the other.
“You could have told me things were this bad.”
Emma looked up from the documents spread across the table.
“I tried.”
“No. You told me you were tired. You said Victor was difficult. That is not the same as saying your marriage was falling apart.”
Emma wanted to defend herself, but Grace was right.
She had protected her daughter from so much that she had accidentally protected Victor too.
Grace set down her suitcase.
“He paid my tuition last semester.”
“The company paid it. He signed the transfer.”
“He said it came from him.”
Emma nodded slowly.
That lie was small compared with twelve million dollars, but it hurt more.
Victor had purchased Grace’s gratitude with Emma’s money.
Grace looked at the forged emails.
“I don’t know what to believe.”
“Believe the hospital records when they arrive.”
“And Lila?”
Emma turned the hotel photograph face down.
“I believe she helped him.”
Grace’s jaw tightened.
A memory seemed to move across her face.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Grace.”
Grace walked to the window.
“Last Christmas, I came downstairs around two in the morning. Lila was leaving Victor’s study. She said he was helping her with a contract.”
Emma waited.
“I believed her.”
“So did I.”
The admission softened something between them.
Caroline entered and told them the plan. Police would monitor the midnight meeting from a distance. Emma would wear a recording device. Grace would remain at the office.
“I’m coming,” Grace said.
“No.”
“Mom—”
“No. Victor has already used you against me. I will not give him another chance.”
Grace looked ready to argue, then reached into her coat pocket.
“I found this in my email archives on the flight.”
It was a message Victor had sent her six months earlier.
The attachment was a psychiatric evaluation of Emma.
Grace had never opened it.
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The report claimed Emma suffered from delusions and memory loss.
It was signed by a doctor Emma had never met.
