Chapter 8 - The Man Standing in the Rain|
The rain returned to Westchester on Friday evening, falling hard enough to blur the trees surrounding the Mercer estate.
Grace sat in the passenger seat of Raina's car outside the front gates, watching water run down the windshield.
She had not intended to come back so soon.
But Eleanor Ward had called that afternoon.
She had found a box of foundation records Grace had stored in a locked cabinet years earlier.
The box contained original meeting notes and correspondence from the earliest years of the Mercer Promise Foundation.
Some of those records could help establish who had authority over the missing money.
Raina had arranged for Eleanor to deliver them directly to Grace at the gate.
Grace would not enter the estate.
Not for the documents.
Not for Caleb.
Not for anything.
When she saw the mansion beyond the rain, her chest tightened.
Eleven years.
Eleven Christmas mornings.
Eleven anniversaries.
Eleven years of convincing herself that being loved by a powerful man meant never having to be afraid.
She stared at the windows.
Then she remembered the evening Vanessa stood in that dining room with one hand over her pregnant stomach.
Grace looked away.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Raina asked.
"No."
Raina turned toward her.
Grace managed a sad smile.
"But I need those records."
A security guard opened the gate.
Eleanor emerged carrying a waterproof document case.
Grace stepped out.
Cold rain immediately soaked through her coat.
Eleanor hurried toward her.
"Oh, Mrs. Mercer."
Grace embraced her.
For a moment, neither woman spoke.
Then Eleanor pulled away and examined her face.
"You look tired."
"I am."
"Are you eating?"
Grace almost laughed.
"June Holloway is making sure of it."
"Good."
Eleanor handed her the case.
"Everything you asked for."
"Thank you."
Eleanor's eyes filled.
"I should have done more."
Grace shook her head.
"You did exactly what I asked."
A voice sounded behind them.
"Grace."
She froze.
Caleb stood several yards away beneath the estate's stone entrance.
He wore a black coat over a dark shirt.
He looked thinner than he had five days earlier.
His expression changed when he saw her.
For one moment, he seemed almost relieved.
Then he noticed the way she instinctively moved closer to Raina.
Something inside him visibly broke.
"Can we talk?" he asked.
Raina looked at Grace.
Grace remained silent.
Caleb stepped into the rain.
"I won't ask you to come inside."
She swallowed.
"What do you want, Caleb?"
He stopped a few feet away.
"I wanted to see you."
"You've seen me."
She turned toward the car.
"Grace, please."
The word stopped her.
Please.
Caleb Mercer almost never said it.
She looked back.
He stood in the rain, water running through his dark hair.
"I know about the financial transfers," he said.
"Good."
"And Oliver Shaw."
"Then you know why I left you the envelope."
Caleb nodded.
"I should have listened."
"Yes."
The simplicity of her answer made him wince.
"I didn't understand how much you were trying to tell me."
Grace stared at him.
"I tried for months."
"I know."
"I came to your study with reports."
"I remember."
"I asked you about the clinics."
"Yes."
"I told you someone was frightening Benjamin Alvarez."
Caleb looked down.
"And you told me to stop embarrassing Miles."
His jaw tightened.
"I did."
Grace stepped closer.
"Do you know what hurts the most?"
Caleb slowly raised his eyes.
"It wasn't Vanessa."
The words surprised him.
Grace's voice trembled.
"It wasn't even the announcement that she was carrying your child."
Tears mixed with the rain on her cheeks.
"It was realizing that you could watch me suffer in front of twenty-two people and still expect me to thank you for allowing me to remain your wife."
Caleb closed his eyes.
"Grace—"
"You called it my position."
She shook her head.
"I wasn't your partner anymore. I was a chair you had decided not to move."
His face crumpled.
"I never thought of you that way."
"Then why did you treat me that way?"
He had no answer.
For several seconds, only the rain spoke.
Then Caleb reached toward her.
Grace stepped back.
He immediately lowered his hand.
That small movement seemed to wound him more deeply than anything she had said.
"I love you," he whispered.
Grace's eyes filled again.
"I know you believe that."
"Because it's true."
"Then why was I afraid to disappoint you?"
Caleb stared at her.
She continued.
"Why did every disagreement feel like a punishment was coming?"
"Grace—"
"Why did I have to leave my own home before you finally heard the word no?"
He looked as though she had struck him.
Then he said something she had never expected.
"Because I taught you to be afraid of me."
Grace went silent.
Caleb swallowed.
"I taught everyone to be afraid of me."
He glanced toward the mansion.
"And I confused that fear with respect."
Grace studied him.
She wanted to believe the man standing before her understood.
But she had lived too long among promises made during moments of crisis.
"I'm glad you're beginning to see it," she said.
Caleb looked at her hopefully.
"But seeing it doesn't undo it."
His expression fell.
"I know."
A gust of wind drove rain between them.
Raina quietly opened the passenger door.
Caleb noticed.
He reached inside his coat and removed a sealed envelope.
"I've signed a statement about the foundation transfers and the property records."
Grace looked at it.
"I also gave Daniel permission to provide the investigators with our original company records."
Her eyes widened slightly.
"Even the records that implicate you?"
Caleb hesitated.
Then nodded.
"Even those."
Grace took the envelope.
"Thank you."
He looked at her desperately.
"Does that mean anything?"
"It means you're finally doing what you should have done."
Caleb swallowed.
"And us?"
Grace looked beyond him at the house where she had once imagined raising children.
She thought of the tiny gold key.
The promises.
The woman she had been when she first stepped inside those gates.
Then she answered.
"I don't know who I am without you yet."
His eyes filled with hope.
But Grace continued.
"And I need to find out before I ever decide what place you should have in my life."
She turned toward the car.
Caleb took one involuntary step after her.
"Grace."
She stopped.
He held out his hand.
Not as an order.
Not as a demand.
Just a man reaching toward someone he could no longer command.
She looked at his hand.
Then at his face.
"I'm not coming back tonight."
He nodded slowly.
"I understand."
Grace entered the car.
Raina drove away.
In the side mirror, Grace could still see Caleb standing in the rain, his arm hanging uselessly at his side.
He did not follow.
He did not order anyone to stop the car.
May you like
He simply watched the woman he loved leave.
And for the first time in his life, Caleb Mercer understood that loving someone did not give him the right to keep her.
