Chapter 11 - Grace Finally Tells Daniel What She Wants
Grace agreed to meet Daniel in her attorney’s conference room.
She did not come alone.
Daniel did not expect her to.
The bruise on her face was gone.
That somehow made the memory worse.
Daniel began.
“I’m sorry.”
Grace lifted one hand.
“I know.”
He stopped.
“You wrote it.”
“Yes.”
“You paid the medical bills.”
“Yes.”
“You started counseling.”
“Yes.”
Grace looked directly at him.
“None of that is why I came.”
Daniel waited.
“I want my employment record corrected.”
He frowned.
“You were fired for harming your mother.”
“Which I didn’t do.”
Daniel immediately understood.
“Yes.”
“I worked for your family nine years. I’m not letting the last sentence attached to my name be that I pushed a disabled woman down the stairs.”
Daniel felt shame rise again.
“It won’t be.”
Grace continued.
“I want a written statement saying you fired me based on false information and that I had actually prevented Margaret from falling.”
“You’ll have it.”
“I want my unused vacation paid.”
“Yes.”
“And I want you to stop asking whether I’ll come back.”
Daniel nodded.
“I won’t ask again.”
Grace studied him.
“You really thought I did it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Daniel could have blamed Vanessa.
Instead he said:
“Because I saw Mom shaking and I needed someone to blame before I understood anything.”
Grace nodded.
“That sounds true.”
He swallowed.
“It’s not good enough.”
“No.”
Daniel looked at her.
“I’m sorry I made you afraid in a house where you were protecting people I should have protected myself.”
Grace’s face changed slightly.
Not forgiveness.
Recognition.
“That one,” she said quietly, “is closer.”
Daniel understood.
After the meeting Grace agreed to continue cooperating with investigators.
She also agreed to visit Margaret once.
Not as an employee.
As Grace.
Margaret cried when she saw her.
Grace knelt beside the wheelchair.
Margaret typed:
S O R R Y.
Grace shook her head.
“You did nothing wrong.”
Margaret pointed toward Daniel.
Grace laughed unexpectedly.
“Oh, him?”
Daniel stood awkwardly near the doorway.
Margaret typed:
H E L E A R N.
Grace looked at Daniel.
“We’ll see.”
For the first time, he smiled.
Lisa ran into the room and wrapped both arms around Grace’s waist.
Grace held her.
Daniel looked away.
That reunion belonged to them.
Not him.
Later Grace prepared to leave.
Daniel opened the door.
She paused.
“Vanessa wasn’t horrible every day.”
Daniel looked at her.
“I know.”
“She could be kind.”
“I know.”
“She bought Margaret that cardigan she loves.”
Daniel glanced back.
“And she spent three nights in the hospital with Lisa after her surgery.”
“Yes.”
Grace sighed.
“That’s why I kept wondering if I was making too much of the bad things.”
Daniel understood exactly.
Good memories had become evidence against their own perceptions.
Grace looked at him.
“Don’t let Lisa grow up thinking somebody has to be cruel all the time before she’s allowed to say they hurt her.”
May you like
Then she left.
Daniel carried that sentence back into the house.
