Chapter 2 - The Boy From the Blue HouseThe strange thing was that I hadn't always hated Grant.
Once, I had loved him.
Before him, there had been someone else.
A boy.
A boy I had known before I understood what love meant.
His name was Daniel.
I was nine when I met him.
My father had rented a summer house near Lake Merritt because he wanted to spend a few weeks away from the company.
I hated it.
Until I saw a boy sitting on the dock.
He was eleven.
His clothes were worn.
His shoes had holes.
But he had the brightest eyes I'd ever seen.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Fishing.”
“You don't have a fishing pole.”
He held up a stick.
“I improvised.”
I laughed.
He looked offended.
Then smiled.
“You want to help?”
I sat beside him.
That summer became the happiest summer of my childhood.
Daniel taught me how to skip stones.
I taught him how to play chess.
We shared sandwiches.
We explored the woods.
And every evening, we watched the sunset from the dock.
Before I left, he gave me a tiny blue ribbon.
“So you remember me.”
“I won't forget.”
He smiled.
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Years passed.
My father died.
College happened.
Whitmore Foods grew.
And Daniel disappeared from my life.
At twenty-five, I met Grant.
He was polished.
Confident.
Successful.
Everything my family admired.
He knew how to shake hands with executives.
How to speak at charity dinners.
How to make my mother laugh.
He was the opposite of the boy from the lake.
And maybe that was why I chose him.
I thought adulthood meant leaving childhood behind.
I was wrong.
After my father's funeral, I found an old wooden box in his office.
Inside was a photograph.
Me.
Daniel.
The lake.
And the blue ribbon.
On the back, my father had written:
Some people enter our lives before we're ready to understand why.
I didn't know what he meant.
Until years later.
Until my wedding day.
After the ceremony began, I walked toward the altar.
Grant watched me with a smile.
Two hundred guests stood.
My mother cried.
Natalie smiled.
Paul Wexler sat in the first row with the gray folder I had requested.
Jenna stood near the sound booth.
Uncle Robert watched Grant carefully.
Nobody knew what I had heard.
Nobody except the people I had summoned.
I reached the altar.
Grant took my hand.
His palm was warm.
Mine was cold.
“You okay?” he whispered.
I smiled.
“Perfect.”
The priest began.
But instead of hearing the vows, I remembered Daniel.
The boy who had once told me that promises meant nothing unless you kept them when nobody was watching.
I wondered where he was now.
Then Grant said:
“I do.”
I looked at him.
He smiled.
I replied:
“I do.”
But inside, I added:
Not to the man you have become.
After the ceremony, the guests moved toward the reception hall.
Grant leaned toward me.
“We did it.”
I looked at him.
“Yes.”
“You're my wife.”
I touched the little blue bear hidden in my bouquet.
“And you're about to hear your child's heartbeat.”
His face brightened.
“What?”
“You'll see.”
I smiled.
For the first time, I saw fear flicker behind his eyes.
He didn't know what I had planned.
May you like
Neither did Natalie.
And neither of them knew that my father's attorney had already begun reviewing every document they wanted me to sign.
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