Chapter 14 - Chloe’s Last Conversation With Grant
Chloe saw Grant one final time eighteen months after the canceled wedding.
He was engaged to no one.
Neither was she.
There was no romantic reunion waiting beneath accountability.
He had moved to Washington and accepted a senior finance role.
Chloe’s restructured company was finally profitable.
Smaller.
Real.
They met because the last shared wedding-expense dispute had settled.
Chloe asked me afterward:
“Do you want to know what he said?”
“Do you want to tell me?”
“Yes.”
She sat on my couch.
“He forgave me.”
I nodded.
“He still doesn’t trust me.”
“That makes sense.”
She glared.
“Can you pretend to be comforting for five minutes?”
“No.”
She laughed.
Then cried.
Grant told her he no longer believed she would use someone financially the way Judith planned to use him.
He believed she had changed.
But when he imagined marriage, he still remembered standing at the altar realizing three people had already made financial assumptions about his future without asking.
“I told him I understand.”
“That’s good.”
“I actually do.”
Better.
Then Chloe told me Grant had asked about Owen.
“He said that’s the part he still hates himself for.”
I nodded.
“He should.”
She looked at me.
“He asked if Owen ever forgave him.”
“What did you say?”
“That it wasn’t my answer to give.”
I smiled.
There.
My sister had learned.
Then she pulled something from her purse.
The velvet ring box.
Empty.
“What are you doing with that?”
“Grant gave it back months ago. I forgot.”
The actual ring had been sold after the insurance issue resolved.
Its legitimate value went toward paying Chloe’s vendor debts.
No one wanted the diamond.
The empty box remained.
Chloe handed it to me.
“For Owen.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
“He was the only person who told the truth about it.”
I almost said no.
Then thought better.
May you like
“This is his choice too.”
Exactly.
