He Chose My Sister on Our Wedding Day—So I Walked Away Chapter 09

He Chose My Sister on Our Wedding Day—So I Walked Away Chapter 09

Nothing stirred in me

As a mother, had she truly known nothing?

“Mom, do you remember what you said on my wedding day?”

She froze and looked at me, her face wet.

“You said you didn’t have a daughter named Maren anymore.”

She shook her head wildly.

“No, Maren. I only said that in anger.”

“The year I had a 103–degree fever, you were driving Delaney to her piano audition.”

“The day of my SATS, you were throwing her a birthday party.”

“The day I lost my baby, you said I was faking.”

“Twenty–six years,” I said, one word at a time, “and you never once acted like my mother.”

“And now I don’t need one.”

Her sobs caught in her throat, and her whole body shook.

That night, Grant came.

He carried an insulated container of chicken soup and stood at the foot of the bed, not daring to come any

closer.

“Maren, Delaney’s been arrested.”

“Aggravated assault, airtight evidence. I won’t sign any letter asking for leniency, no matter who begs me.”

“The condo, the car, my savings, all of it has been transferred to your name. My attorney has finished the

paperwork.”

“You only have to sign.”

At the end, he crouched to meet my eyes.

“Maren, I have nothing left now.”

“I’m not asking you to forgive me.”

“While you recover, let me stay by your side. Will you allow that?”

I looked at him.

The man who, seven years ago, said. “As long as I’ve got food on my plate, you’ll never go hungry.”

Now he’d stripped himself bare and was holding out everything to me.

But whatever love I’d had for him had long since worn away.

“Grant.”

“You used to have everything, and I was nothing.”

“Now you have nothing…”

“What makes you think you deserve me?”

He swayed where he stood.

I pressed the call button.

“Nurse, would you please ask this gentleman to leave?”

One year later, the grand opening of Westgate Commons was held in Port Halden.

On the day of the ribbon–cutting, the audience was full.

My team, my friends, our partners, and Bennett Kessler.

The man who’d lost to me at the negotiating table three years earlier was now the largest investor in Phase

II.
He was also the steadiest person at my side.

He took every toast for me, and when the crowd thinned, he asked:

“Ms. Whitlock, what would you like for dinner tonight?”

Career, friends, love.

One by one, I had earned them all back with my own hands.

Back in Ellsworth Falls.

Delaney was sentenced to seven years for aggravated assault.

On every visiting day, the space after her name in the visitor log stayed blank.

Grant began to drift.

In every country he reached, he mailed me a postcard.

Twenty–seven in one year. Not one of them was ever opened.

Mom moved back into the old house.

The night the news replayed the grand opening, she sat staring at me cutting the ribbon on the screen until

morning.

Three years later, she died of a broken heart.

At the funeral.

Mom had poured a lifetime into Delaney.

In the end, no one but me came to see her off.

When I turned, I saw Grant.

Three years had passed. He’d wasted away, and he was clutching a bouquet of white lilies.

He saw me. Then he saw the diamond ring on my hand.

He stood rooted to the spot.

Bennett slipped an arm around my shoulders, and gave him a courteous smile.

“Mr. Ashcroft, you’re here?”

“You’re late, I’m afraid.”

“In the hardest years of Maren’s life, I was the one beside her. Now that she has a ring on her finger, you

show up.”

“A man shouldn’t be quite this good at picking his moment.”

Grant’s lips moved, but not a word came out.

He looked down at the white lilies, then turned and walked into the rain.

His back was bent, nothing like the man he’d once been.

I didn’t look back.

Bennett tightened his hand around mine.

“Come on. Let’s go home.”