“What! Grace has signed this already Craig, how come?” Michael said.
“Grace has already signed, where is she?” Jason asked.
“She left about ten minutes ago,” Craig replied.
“What do you mean, left? Doesn’t she have to be here with us to finish this?”
“No, she only needed to sign, and she’s done that and gone.”
“Left! Left where?”
“Jason, you know I can’t give you that information unless she asked me to.”
Jason turned to Michael. “She didn’t even say good-bye.”
“What did you expect, Jason? She cheated on us with Scott. We wouldn’t look at her, and we made her sleep in the guest room, telling her the sight of her made us sick. To top it off, we left her the note this morning. Besides, who wants to say good-bye to the cheating, lying bitch? Let’s just get this over.” Grabbing the contract, Michael signed it then pushed his chair back so hard it crashed to the floor.
“Michael, not that it’s my place to interfere, but have you even considered that she didn’t actually have sex with Scott?”
“Craig, you’re right. It’s not your place, and there is nothing to consider. I saw them in bed together. What’s done is done! It’s time to move on.”
“Okay then, it’s all signed, so everything’s over and done.”
Both Michael and Jason turned then and left Craig’s office without another word.
Michael watched the garage door open with dread. A deep sense of loss and pain filled his heart. Grace was gone. She wouldn’t be waiting for them. Grace was gone…
The silence in the house was disturbing. He felt like there were ghosts of the past here. He could see the images of the three of them happy and laughing replaying like a ghostly movie in each room. He knew they would both move back into their own rooms soon, but right now he just wanted to crash on the bed and sleep forever, to block out the memories, the pain and sadness he felt.
When he walked into the bedroom, he found Jason kneeling on the floor holding something, his tears falling to the floor. He looked down and saw Grace’s collar in Jason’s hands. He couldn’t face it. He could handle this. He wandered into the walk-in closet to put his watch away, and there on the racks were all the clothes and things they had ever given to Grace. She’d left everything behind. Grace was gone…
Tears coursed silently down his cheeks. Scrubbing his face in annoyance at his eyes for betraying him, he headed for the shower. Under the warm spray, he allowed his tears to fall. He felt the pain of the loss of Grace. He loved her, and she’d betrayed them. She was perfect for them, they would have given her everything, and she had betrayed them.
The next two weeks were like a living hell for both of them. They were in pain and couldn’t seem to get back into the swing of life. The temp agency had sent over a new housekeeper, but she just messed everything up. Michael didn’t realize how much Grace did for them until she stopped doing it.
Their life, in only two weeks, was in chaos, and he and Jason were not speaking. There was no fight or argument. They just had nothing to say to each other. “Jason, I got a call from Craig today. He wants you and I at the club tonight. He needs to talk to us about something. He said it is extremely important.”
“Michael, I just don’t give a shit about anything. I don’t care. I don’t want to go.”
“I know. I don’t want to either. But we have to leave the house. We can’t go on like this.”
“Fine, you want to go, you go. There’s the door, go!”
Sensing things were escalating out of control, Michael realized only the Dom in him could settle Jason and get him moving. “Look here, sub boy. Get your ass into the car. We’re going to the club, and we will listen to Craig. Once he’s said his piece, we’ll drink until we can’t walk anymore. So move it!” Jason jumped off the couch and walked toward the garage. At least Michael still had some control.
Craig was pacing the floor. Scott was sitting on the couch, a drink in hand. It had taken him two weeks to track Scott down and drag him to the club. Once he finally had him open up, he couldn’t believe what Scott had told him. Where the hell were those two? They should have been here twenty minutes ago. Just then, a knock sounded. Ah! Good, they’re here.
“Craig, what the hell’s going on? What’s that bastard doing here?”
“Michael, calm down and take a seat. Scott has something to tell you, and by god, you’re going to listen!”
“If he’s going to do some remorseful apology speech, I don’t want to hear it.”
“Fuck, Michael, get your pretentious head out of your ass. See, Craig, I told you they don’t deserve her.”
Jason, looking back and forth between Michael and Scott, finally yelled, “Just tell us the fucking story!” He turned to Michael. “We’ll feel no worse than we do already, so let’s listen and then go get drunk.”
After Michael and Jason sat, Craig turned to Scott. “Tell them what you told me. Michael, Jason, shut the hell up till he’s finished.”
Scott, first gulping the rest of his drink, sighed. “I shouldn’t be telling you this. I’m breaking my confidence to Grace, but I’d no idea you knuckleheads thought I had fucked her. Until Craig reached me and dragged my ass back from a much-needed vacation, I presumed everything was just fine between the three of you.”
“What confidence are you talking about?”
“I’ll start at the beginning. I was driving home that Thursday and saw your car stopped on the side of the road. Thinking that I was doing you a favor, Michael, I pulled over to help and found Grace bawling her eyes out. She was so messed up, she couldn’t drive. I offered her a lift home, but she said she couldn’t face you both yet. She needed time to clear her head and work out what she was going to do. I offered to take her to my place, but she was concerned about leaving your car on the side of the road. I drove your car to my place and left my car there. She was so upset she didn’t have a hope in hell of driving anywhere. Once we got to my place, I tried to get her to tell me what was going on. I thought for a moment you two were hurting her. I told her as I wasn’t involved, what better sounding board than me. Eventually she told me the story. She cried buckets more and I took her to my room to lie down. I held her while she cried her eyes out until finally she fell asleep. I at no point had sex with her in any way. I want you both to know I had made multiple offers to her before that night, and she’d always knocked me back. She loves you guys too much to screw around, and she’s a strong chick and by the looks of her she knows how to fight, too, and I like my nuts.”
Jason was stunned speechless. Was this the truth? Was this all some misunderstanding? “What did she tell you? What was she was so upset about that she couldn’t talk to us?”
Scott squirmed on his seat, obviously uncomfortable.
“Scott, they deserve to know.”
Looking at them both, Scott sighed and continued, “Grace told me she had been to the doctor’s because she was cramping and had fainted after a terrible pain in her stomach. She thought it was just her endometriosis playing up and didn’t expect anything else. She has some tests to check it out, and they discovered she was pregnant.”
“What the fuck?” Michael jumped up, screaming.
“Look, Michael, before you jump to conclusions, listen to the rest of the story. So, she found out she was pregnant, but there was a problem with the pregnancy. Her doctor said that the ultrasound showed that due to the severity of the scarring from the endometriosis, he didn’t believe that the pregnancy would go to term. He told Grace she had a decision to make, risk having a very dangerous pregnancy that would most likely end in a miscarriage and could possibly threaten her life, or terminate the baby. She was also told that she’d have the same problems in any future pregnancy. She was devastated. She didn’t know how to tell you both. Firstly that she was pregnant and then about the problems. She didn’t want to make you both suffer with the decision and then the fact that she was most likely never
going to be able to have children of her own. You can imagine how devastated she was feeling.”
“So let me get this straight. Grace found out she was pregnant with our child, and that she was most likely going to lose it. Then, she was told she most likely would never have children. She was completely messed up and having a meltdown and you helped her out because she couldn’t face us. Then you, Michael, automatically jump to the conclusion that she’d cheated on us. Then we kick her out of our house and our lives, all within twenty-four hours,” Jason said very quietly.
Michael looked at the fury burning in Jason’s eyes. “What was I supposed to think? I found Scott and Grace in bed together. I didn’t know anything about any baby until now,” he pleaded.
“Tell me, Michael, when you found Grace and Scott together, were they dressed?” Jason growled, struggling to keep his voice under control.
Chapter Nineteen
Michael thought back to that horrible morning, an image that was burned into his brain. Looking at it from different angles, he realized that Grace might have been fully dressed. “I think they may have been. I’m not sure.”
Jason rubbed his face with both hands “Fuck! Michael, I trusted you! I never once thought to doubt you. You just jumped to conclusions and didn’t give her a chance to explain. You just declared her guilty and sentenced her. You stupid fuck! You lost us the love of our lives. Over what! Your stupid fucking pride. If we don’t get her back, I am never, ever going to forgive you. And let me be crystal clear here, Michael, if she’ll take me back, but not you, I’m gone.”
“Jason, you and Michael have a bigger problem right at this moment. Sandra and I have spent half the day running every lead and every contact we have. We can’t find her. She’s disappeared off the face of the earth.”
Jason collapsed into his chair. “My god…What are we going to do? We have to find her!”
“Scott, you told us she went to the doctor. Did she tell you the doctor’s name?” Michael pleaded.
“Michael, most of what she told me was incoherent blubber. I don’t remember the doctor’s name, and I don’t think she told me.”
“Did she tell you what decision she’d made about the baby?”
“She hadn’t made one by the time she left my place.”
“What the hell does it matter about the decision, Michael? I want Grace, however I can get her.”
“Jason, it matters because if she decided to terminate, we could contact hospitals. She may be there right now.”
“Did she tell you how long she was into the pregnancy?”
“I’m not sure exactly, but she did say she had been pregnant for months without knowing.”
All Michael could think of was Grace alone out there and forced to make such a huge decision by herself. She could still be carrying their son or daughter. She should never have had to go through this alone. If he’d just listened to her…How would they ever get her back? She’d never forgive them. She could never trust them, not after what they’d done to her. He had destroyed her!
One month later, Grace lay, silently crying, in her hospital bed. Not only had she suffered the loss of her men, she’d lost the only precious part of them she’d had left. She had lost her daughter. Her pregnancy lasted twenty weeks, but her little baby girl just couldn’t survive within her any longer.
Grace named her Anna, a beautiful little baby girl she’d never get to take home and hold. She didn’t know how to go on! The only thing that had been holding her together this past month had been Anna. Now she’d lost her, what did she have left? She felt nothing but despair. She wanted to die and be with her precious baby.
“Grace, I’m so sorry, honey.” Grace didn’t answer her sister. She continued to stare out the window, wondering what the point to life was. There was no point. The pain and torment she suffered growing up with a sadistic father. Then the years spent taking caring of everyone else, and then the suffering in the years of being married to Duncan.
When she finally thought her life had turned around, and she’d be able to experience true happiness and love, it had been torn away from her and exposed as the lie it was, but at least she’d had Anna, she thought. But now, Anna was gone. “Please, god, just let me die. I just need this to end. I can’t fight anymore.”
“Grace, honey, please, please, don’t say those things. Don’t think that way. I need you! I need my big sister. I promise you it’s going to get better. What was it you always said to me, when we were growing up? ‘Tomorrow is going to be brighter. Let’s weather the storm and dream of tomorrow.’”
“Sophie, I was full of shit. There’s no brighter tomorrow. I just told you that to give you hope that we would survive. Just leave me alone please. I need to rest.”
Sophie looked at her sister and left the room. Her body felt ice cold with fear. She’d never seen her sister like this. Grace always held everything together. She was the strong one. Grace had given up on life. The doctors were giving her tranquilizers to keep her calm. They told Sophie this was normal for late-term miscarriages. She didn’t know what to do. Grace normally dealt with all the hard stuff.
Six weeks later
“Grace, you need to get out and be part of the world again. It’s been six weeks since…. You need to resume your life.” Grace just continued to stare at the TV. She had barely moved in the past three weeks since she had left the hospital. She was in such a deep pit of depression that even her doctors were becoming worried.
Sophie had become desperate. She was scheduled to go to Africa on assignment in three days for six weeks, but she couldn’t leave Grace, not like this. She needed to do something, anything to get Grace to come alive again or even to just feel again.
Sophie walked out of the house and down the street. She need to be far enough away so Grace couldn’t hear the conversation she was about to have. She was going to call Michael Cooper and Jason Smith. Grace had told her how they believed she’d cheated on them, and how they had cruelly booted her out of their life. But Grace needed something to wake her up. She needed to feel again, and anger at those two bastards was feeling, wasn’t it? After all, Anna was their baby, too, so they should share some of the responsibility for Grace’s recovery, and Grace in the state she was in was freaking her out. She couldn’t do this alone. She needed help, and who better to help than the people who caused all this in the first place.
It’d been nearly three months now since Grace left, and Michael could still feel her presence in the house. They had searched relentlessly for her. They had employed two separate private investigators to help them find her, but both had come up with nothing. They so very much regretted not knowing more about Grace’s past. They couldn’t even find her family.
They had lost her. At least they knew she wasn’t dead. Taking another gulp of scotch, he slumped further in the chair. He was outside on the deck, his new favorite place. He couldn’t bear to be in the house much anymore. It held too many memories. He could hear the phone ringing persistently inside the house, and he continued to ignore it. He didn’t want to speak to anyone.
He listened as Jason answered. Every day he expected Jason to say he was moving out. His friendship with Jason was so damaged. Jason blamed him for the loss of Grace, and he couldn’t fight him. It was his fault.
“What? You’re who? Grace’s sister, Sophie! My god…My god…where is she?” Michael jumped up and ran into the house. When Jason saw him, he put the phone on speaker.
“Yes, I’m Sophie, Grace’s little sister. You two are the last people I wanted to call on this planet, but I need your help.”
“Anything! We’ll do anything! We’ve been looking for Grace for over two months. We’ve had private investigators searching the country trying to find her, and we’ve driven and flown thousands of miles following up leads, but have come up blank every time,” Jason said.
“So let me guess, you two wised up and realized my sister is the most loyal person on this earth. Who could never, ever have cheated on yo
u. You also realized you both are a couple of idiots that lost the best thing that ever came into your lives.”
Michael and Jason both looked at each other. “That just about sums it up,” Michael stated.
“Look, I’m not trying to patch up your relationship with my sister. To tell you the truth, I was never truly supportive when you were all together anyway. I don’t see how her being with two guys is healthy, but I shut up because she was so happy, and she sure deserves to be happy. I’m calling because I need your help! I’m losing Grace, and I don’t know what to do. You are my only hope before I try to institutionalize her for her own safety.”
Gasping with shock and fear for Grace, Michael said, “Sophie, we’ll do anything. We understand your dislike of us. We’re not asking for you to understand our relationship. We both love Grace with all our hearts. We desperately want her back home with us.”
“Okay, here’s my plan.” Sophie gave them a rundown of what she wanted to do. She told them she was counting on Grace’s anger toward them to wake her up. She refused to tell them what had happened to her. But both Michael and Jason guessed that she most likely had lost the baby.
Grace heard someone knocking on the door, but she ignored it. She really didn’t want to talk to anyone, but whoever it was wouldn’t give up. They just kept on knocking. Finally, she got up off the couch just in case it was Sophie, who’d locked herself out again.
She opened the door to find Michael and Jason standing there. Shock coursed through her, and she tried to slam the door shut. Michael blocked the door, and Jason pushed through as they both barreled into the apartment. Grace turned, calculating an escape route, caught like a deer in the headlamps of a car. Jason wrapped her in his arms in a tight embrace. At the feel of the arms she had loved with all her heart, Grace felt something in her break, a dam burst. She began to sob with all the pain and misery she felt, all the fear and loneliness, all the agony and despair. She was keening like a wounded animal, all her pent-up emotions finally released.
Kingston, Sara - Grace's Final Submission [Locks and Chains] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) Page 15
