Grace Comes Home
Chapter 06 - Grace Comes Home
Grace did not go home.
She had no home to go to.
The small apartment she rented above a florist had been cleared after her arrest. Her landlord, frightened by cameras and police tape, packed her belongings into trash bags and left them in a storage room behind the shop.
Her church had saved what it could.
Her life fit into six bags.
Julian insisted she stay at the Vale guesthouse.
Grace refused before he finished the sentence.
“I will not sleep under the same roof as that woman’s lies.”
“She’s not there.”
“She was everywhere.”
Izzy stood beside Grace, holding her hand.
“Then come where I am.”
That was harder.
The court had placed Izzy temporarily with Julian under supervision until the guardianship issue could be reviewed. Vivian’s petition to retain control had been suspended. The child advocate approved Grace as a support person, but not as custodian.
Rules again.
Grace hated rules that arrived after danger.
Julian rented a modest house near the courthouse for the duration of the case. Not the Vale mansion. Not the lake house. A normal house with a small kitchen, a backyard fence, and no rooms that locked from the outside.
Grace agreed to stay in the downstairs bedroom.
The first night, Izzy slept on a mattress on the floor beside her bed.
Julian did not argue.
He made grilled cheese badly and burned one side black.
Izzy took one bite and said, “Grace makes it better.”
Julian nodded.
“I believe that.”
Grace took the pan from him.
“Move.”
By midnight, the house smelled of butter and cinnamon. Izzy fell asleep with one hand on Grace’s sleeve.
In the kitchen, Julian sat across from Grace like a man interviewing his own shame.
“I should have come sooner,” he said.
Grace poured tea.
“Yes.”
He blinked.
Most people softened guilt with lies.
Grace did not.
“Jonathan told me Vivian was isolating him,” Julian said. “I thought he was being dramatic. We had old fights. I let pride answer instead of blood.”
“Pride is a thief,” Grace said.
Julian looked down.
“How do I help now?”
“Stop asking how to feel better. Start asking what Isabel needs.”
That landed.
Good.
The next morning, Detective Quinn came with updates.
Dr. Caleb Merrick, the physician whose sedatives were found at the lake house, had disappeared from his clinic. His nurse said he left after receiving a call from Vivian’s attorney.
Graham Lyle hired counsel.
Vivian refused another interview.
And Jonathan’s estate files showed that he changed his will two days before his death.
Julian sat straighter.
“To what?”
Quinn opened the folder.
Jonathan had removed Vivian as trustee of Izzy’s inheritance and restored Julian as emergency guardian if anything happened to him.
The change had not been filed.
Why?
Because the attorney who drafted it was found dead in his car the day after Jonathan died.
Heart attack, the file said.
Grace whispered, “No.”
Izzy appeared in the hallway, pale.
“Daddy said Mr. Paul was scared too.”
Quinn turned gently.
“Who is Mr. Paul?”
“The lawyer with the blue tie. Daddy recorded him.”
“On the pink recorder?”
Izzy shook her head.
“No. On the bear.”
Everyone stared.
“What bear?” Julian asked.
Izzy’s lips trembled.
“The one Vivian threw in the lake.”
May you like
Grace closed her eyes.
Somewhere in the dark water behind the lake house, another piece of Jonathan Vale’s truth was waiting.
