Grace had left a note on the table.
“I went to see Mom. I’ll be home this afternoon.”
Nathan could have left the brown envelope beside her note.
For some reason, he could not.
Perhaps a small part of him was still waiting for one final explanation.
Maybe he needed to look into Grace’s eyes before permanently closing that chapter of his life.
He drove to Georgetown.
Grace’s car was parked outside Margaret’s house.
Nathan climbed the front steps and lifted his hand toward the doorbell.
Then he heard his name.
“Nathan can’t know yet,” Grace said from somewhere inside the living room.
He moved closer to the partially open window.
“You cannot continue hiding this,” Margaret answered. “You’re losing your strength.”
“If I tell him, he’ll sell the company.”
“He is your husband.”
“That’s exactly why I haven’t told him. I know Nathan. He’ll cancel every contract, mortgage everything we own, and spend every hour beside me. He has spent years building his dream. I refuse to let him lose it because of me.”
Cold moved down Nathan’s spine.
“What are you saying?” Margaret asked through tears. “You are not a burden.”
“The doctors cannot promise I will survive the surgery.”
The brown envelope began to shake in Nathan’s hands.
Inside the house, Grace kept talking.
Months earlier, she had started experiencing intense pain.
At first, Grace believed stress was responsible.
Then the medical tests revealed an aggressive tumor near her pancreas.
She needed treatment.
Expensive medication.
And a high-risk surgery.
Grace had emptied her personal savings.
She sold jewelry inherited from her grandmother and accepted extra hospital shifts so she could pay for the first stages of treatment without using Nathan’s money.
She had also spent nearly every weekend with her mother because the medication caused vomiting and fainting.
“Why did you let Nathan believe you no longer loved him?” Margaret asked.
Grace remained quiet for a long moment.
