Chapter 7 - Thirty-One Weeks
The ambulance reached Lenox Hill in eleven minutes.
To Ethan, it felt like eleven years.
Grace lay on the stretcher gripping a paramedic’s hand.
Not his.
He sat beside her anyway.
“I’m here.”
She closed her eyes.
“Don’t make promises.”
“I’m not.”
He swallowed.
“I’m telling you where I am.”
At the hospital, doctors moved fast.
Contractions.
Bleeding.
Fetal monitoring.
Possible placental complication.
Ethan stood outside the treatment room with Grace’s blood on his shirt.
Declan arrived twenty minutes later.
So did Rebecca.
Nobody discussed business.
At 3:18 p.m., an obstetrician emerged.
“The baby is stable.”
Ethan exhaled.
“And Grace?”
“Stable. We’ve slowed the contractions. We want to keep the baby where he is as long as possible.”
“He?”
The doctor smiled faintly.
“Your wife says you know.”
Ethan did.
A son.
He and Grace had chosen no name because Ethan kept postponing the conversation.
After Harbor Atlantic.
After the quarter.
After the investor meeting.
Later.
Everything important had become later.
Until later nearly disappeared.
“Can I see her?”
“If she wants you there.”
That sentence humbled him more than any boardroom defeat.
Grace did allow him inside.
She lay beneath white blankets, exhausted.
Ethan sat several feet away.
For a long time, neither spoke.
Finally Grace said, “You loved her?”
He knew who she meant.
“No.”
“Did you tell her you did?”
“No.”
“Would it hurt less if you had?”
He looked at the floor.
“I don’t know.”
Grace turned toward the window.
“Why?”
There was no clever answer.
So Ethan gave her the ugly one.
“Because I was selfish.”
She looked at him.
“I kept telling myself I deserved somewhere that didn’t ask anything of me.”
Grace’s eyes filled.
“I asked you to come to doctor appointments.”
“I know.”
“I asked you to have dinner with me.”
“I know.”
“I asked you to choose a crib.”
“I know.”
Her voice cracked.
“And that felt like too much?”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“It felt like proof I was becoming responsible for things I was terrified I could lose.”
Grace stared at him.
“My father spent his entire life treating fear like weakness. When you got pregnant, I started thinking about him. About becoming him.”
“So you betrayed me to avoid becoming your father?”
Ethan looked at her.
“When you say it aloud, you hear how pathetic it is.”
“Yes.”
“I hear it.”
Grace wiped a tear away.
“I don’t know if I can forgive you.”
“I know.”
“I don’t know if I want to.”
“I know.”
“And if you make this about winning me back, I will hate you.”
Ethan nodded.
“Then I won’t.”
For once, he meant it.
His phone rang.
Declan.
Ethan stepped into the hall.
“What happened?”
“We found Marianne.”
“Where?”
“Martin’s Manhattan apartment.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“Together?”
“Not anymore. Martin disappeared.”
“Marianne?”
“Talking.”
“To police?”
“To federal investigators. Rebecca contacted them after Vanessa produced the recording.”
Ethan leaned against the wall.
“What did she say?”
Declan paused.
“Eleanor’s crash wasn’t supposed to kill her.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“Explain.”
“Martin paid someone to sabotage her car enough to frighten her into abandoning the investigation. The damage was worse than intended.”
“Convenient.”
“I agree.”
“And Marianne?”
“She knew about the intimidation plan. Claims she didn’t know about the car.”
Ethan looked through the window at Grace.
“Does Grace know?”
“Not yet.”
“Let me tell her.”
There was a pause.
Then Declan said, “Okay.”
Ethan frowned.
“You don’t like me.”
“No.”
“Why help me?”
“Because Grace loves you.”
Ethan went still.
Declan continued.
“That doesn’t mean she’ll stay with you. Those are different things.”
“You’re interested in her.”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
The honesty surprised Ethan.
“But she’s married, pregnant, and rebuilding her life. So what I want is irrelevant.”
Ethan almost laughed.
“You really are irritating.”
“I’ve been told.”
The call ended.
Ethan returned to Grace.
He told her everything.
She cried without making a sound.
He did not touch her until she reached for his hand.
Then he held it.
Nothing more.
That evening, federal agents arrested Marianne Mercer.
Martin remained missing.
By morning, the story exploded publicly.
CALLoway MARITIME CHAIRMAN SOUGHT IN FRAUD INVESTIGATION.
MERCER HEIRESS LINKED TO BILLION-DOLLAR CORPORATE BATTLE.
Ethan’s affair leaked too.
Photographs from the resort appeared online.
Vanessa in red.
Ethan touching her waist.
Grace walking beside Declan.
The internet chose heroes and villains within minutes.
Grace ignored all of it.
At noon, Rebecca entered carrying legal documents.
“The Calloway board has called an emergency meeting.”
Ethan looked at her.
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
“They’ll remove me.”
“Probably.”
Grace looked at the papers.
“What about the Mercer option?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“You can exercise it.”
“And if I do?”
“You become controlling shareholder.”
Ethan stared at his wife.
Grace stared back.
He could see the question in her eyes.
If she took control, she could save the company.
Or destroy him.
Ethan stood.
“You should do it.”
Grace frowned.
“You don’t know what I intend to do.”
“No.”
He walked to the door.
“But the company needs someone who hasn’t spent the last year lying to everyone.”
Then he left.
Grace looked down at the documents.
At the bottom waited her signature.
Again.
But this time, nobody had forged it.
May you like
This choice belonged entirely to her.
And by sunset, she had made it.
