Grace
Grace's hands wouldn't stop shaking in the car.
Ryan sat next to her, phone pressed to his ear, talking to doctors in a clipped voice that meant he was barely holding it together.
"How long does he have? I need a straight answer."
Grace stared out the window watching Seattle blur past. Mr. Brooks was dying. Actually dying, right now, tonight. And he wanted to see her.
Why did he want to see her?
"We're ten minutes away," Ryan said into the phone. Then quieter, "Tell him to hold on. Please."
He hung up and the silence in the car was suffocating.
Grace thought about the gala they'd just left. Victoria's cruel smile. Mrs. Harrington's condescending questions. Marcus implying she'd ruined Ryan's company. Derek promising to destroy everything tomorrow in court.
Every person at that party looked at her like trash. Like she didn't belong. Like she was a gold digger who'd manipulated a dying old man.
Maybe they were right.
"Stop thinking about the gala," Ryan said without looking at her.
"How do you know what I'm thinking about?"
"Because you're crying and I doubt it's about my father."
Grace touched her face. She was crying. She hadn't even noticed.
"I'm thinking about both," she admitted. "Everyone at that party hated me. And now Mr. Brooks is dying and I don't know why he wanted me in his life in the first place."
"He saw something in you. I don't know what, but he saw it."
"What if he was wrong? What if I'm exactly what Victoria said? A nobody pretending to be somebody?"
Ryan finally looked at her. "Victoria is a bitter woman who's jealous you have what she wanted. Don't give her that power."
"She said I was good at serving people. That I'd need that skill." Grace's voice cracked. "She made it sound like being a waitress made me worthless."
"You're not worthless."
"You thought I was. You thought I manipulated your father for money."
Ryan was quiet for a long moment. "I was wrong."
Grace's head snapped toward him. "What?"
"I was wrong about you. You're not a gold digger. You're just someone trying to survive who got thrown into a nightmare." He looked back out the window. "I'm sorry for how I treated you. At your apartment, in the alley, all of it. You didn't deserve that."
An apology. From Ryan Brooks. Grace didn't know what to do with that.
"Thank you," she whispered.
The car pulled up to the hospital. They rushed inside, not bothering with elevators, taking the stairs two at a time.
Grace's heels kept catching but she didn't slow down. Ryan grabbed her hand, pulling her faster.
They burst into room 407 breathing hard.
Mr. Brooks lay in the bed looking so much worse than at the wedding this morning. His skin was gray. His breathing rattled. Machines beeped frantically.
A nurse stood by the bed adjusting something. She looked up when they entered.
"He's been asking for you both. Kept saying he needed to see Grace."
Grace moved to the bedside on shaking legs. "Mr. Brooks? I'm here."
His eyes opened slowly. When he saw her, he smiled. It was weak and barely there but it was real.
"Grace. My sweet girl."
"Don't talk. Save your strength."
"No strength left to save." He coughed and the sound was awful. "Need to tell you something. Both of you."
Ryan stood on the other side of the bed. "Dad, you should rest."
"I'll rest soon enough." Charles reached for Grace's hand with fingers that felt like paper. "I know what people said tonight. At the gala. I know they were cruel."
"How do you know about the gala?"
"James called me. Told me everything." Charles's eyes found Ryan. "You let them attack her. Your own wife."
"I was testing her. Seeing if she could handle it."
"She shouldn't have to handle it alone!" Charles's voice got stronger with anger. "You're supposed to protect her, not watch her drown!"
"I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize to me. Apologize to her."
Ryan looked at Grace. Actually looked at her, not through her or past her.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I should have defended you. I should have made them stop."
Grace didn't know what to say. Her throat was too tight.
Charles squeezed her hand. "Grace, I need to tell you why I put you in my will. Why I chose you for Ryan."
"You don't have to explain."
"Yes I do. Before I die, you need to know the truth." He took a rattling breath. "Twenty-seven years ago, I knew your mother."
The world stopped spinning.
"You knew my mother?" Grace whispered.
"She worked as my secretary when I was first building the company. Sarah Parker. Kindest woman I ever met." Tears filled Charles's eyes. "She was married to a good man, your father. But we became friends. Real friends. She used to talk about wanting a daughter someday. Someone she could teach to be strong and kind."
Grace's own tears spilled over. "She died when I was seven."
"I know. I tried to find you after that. Wanted to help. But you'd already gone into the foster system and I couldn't track you down." Charles coughed again. "Then two years ago, you walked into my regular diner. I recognized you immediately. You have her eyes. Her smile. Her heart."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I wanted you to know me as just Charles. Not as some rich man connected to your past. I wanted our friendship to be real, not based on obligation or pity."
Ryan's voice was rough. "You never told me any of this."
"Because you would've investigated her. Run background checks. Treated her like a threat instead of a gift." Charles looked at his son. "Grace reminded me what I'd forgotten. That kindness matters more than success. That people are more valuable than profit. I wanted you to learn that too."
"So you forced me to marry her."
"I gave you a chance to know someone real. Someone who'd challenge you, stand up to you, make you better." Charles's breathing got more labored. "Did it work? Or did I just ruin both your lives?"
Grace and Ryan looked at each other across the hospital bed.
"I don't know yet," Ryan admitted.
"We barely know each other," Grace added.
Charles smiled sadly. "Then get to know each other. Really know each other. Not as strangers fulfilling a contract, but as two people who might actually like each other if you gave it a chance."
The heart monitor started beeping faster. The nurse stepped forward looking worried.
"Mr. Brooks, you need to calm down. Your heart rate is too high."
"I'm dying anyway. What's it matter?" But Charles's voice was getting weaker. "Grace, promise me something."
"Anything."
"Give him a real chance. Not the angry man who showed up at your apartment. The real Ryan underneath all that armor. He's worth knowing. I promise."
"I will. I promise."
Charles looked at Ryan. "And you. Stop being so damn scared of letting someone in. Grace won't hurt you. She's not like Victoria or anyone else in your world. She's real. Don't waste that."
"I'll try Dad."
"Don't try. Do it." Charles's eyes started closing. "I'm so tired."
"Then rest," Grace said, crying openly now. "We'll be here when you wake up."
But she knew he wouldn't wake up. Somehow she just knew.
Charles's last words were barely a whisper. "Thank you Grace. For making an old man's last years happy. For being the daughter I never had. For saving my son even though he doesn't know he needs saving yet."
His eyes closed. His breathing slowed.
The heart monitor's beeping got erratic.
The nurse pushed a button and suddenly doctors rushed in. They pushed Grace and Ryan out of the room.
"We need space! Please wait outside!"
Grace stood in the hallway, shaking, crying, watching through the window as doctors worked on Mr. Brooks. Ryan stood next to her, face blank, body rigid.
"He's going to die," Grace said. "Isn't he?"
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry Ryan. I know you're angry at him but I know you love him too."
"I do. I just wish he'd talked to me instead of manipulating me."
"He was trying to help."
"By destroying my life?"
"By giving you me." Grace wiped her eyes. "I'm not much but apparently he thought I was enough to save you."
Ryan looked at her then. Really looked at her like he was seeing something new.
"Maybe he was right," Ryan said quietly.
Before Grace could respond, the machines in Mr. Brooks' room went silent. The steady beeping flatlined into one long, terrible tone.
Doctors stepped back.
One of them looked at the clock and said something Grace couldn't hear through the glass.
But she knew what it meant.
Mr. Brooks was gone.
Ryan made a sound like something breaking inside him. Grace grabbed his hand and he gripped hers so hard it hurt.
They stood there holding onto each other while the only person who believed in both of them died twenty feet away.
A doctor came out looking sympathetic. "I'm very sorry for your loss. He went peacefully. No pain."
Ryan nodded but didn't speak. Couldn't speak.
Grace thanked the doctor because someone had to.
"You can go in and say goodbye if you'd like," the doctor offered.
Ryan walked into the room like a man in a trance. Grace followed.
Charles lay still and quiet. The machines were off. He looked like he was sleeping except Grace knew he'd never wake up.
Ryan stood by the bed, staring down at his father. His hands were clenched into fists. His jaw was tight. Every muscle in his body was locked down like if he moved even slightly, he'd shatter.
"I wasn't ready," Ryan said. "I thought I'd have more time to figure out what you wanted from me."
"He wanted you to be happy," Grace said softly.
"He wanted me to be someone I'm not."
"No. He wanted you to remember who you were before the world made you hard."
Ryan's phone buzzed. He looked at it and his face went pale.
"What?" Grace asked.
Ryan showed her the screen. A text from Derek: Heard Dad died. Guess the will doesn't matter now. See you in court tomorrow where I take everything.
Grace's stomach dropped. "Can he do that? Can he still challenge the will even though Mr. Brooks is gone?"
"Yeah. The hearing is still happening. Derek's going to argue Dad was mentally incompetent. If he wins, everything I just promised my father doesn't matter. The marriage doesn't matter. You don't get your money. I lose the company. Derek destroys everything."
"So we fight him."
"How? We have no proof my father was sane. Three psychiatrists are going to testify he was delusional from cancer."
Grace looked at Mr. Brooks' peaceful face. At the man who'd been her friend, her father figure, her unexpected savior.
"He wasn't delusional," she said firmly. "He was the sanest person I ever met. And tomorrow I'm going to tell that to the judge."
Ryan stared at her. "You'd testify?"
"Of course I would. For him. For you. For both of us."
Something shifted in Ryan's expression. Surprise maybe. Or respect. Or something Grace couldn't identify.
"Thank you," he said.
They stood in silence for a moment. Then Ryan did something that shocked Grace completely.
He pulled her into his arms and held her tight.
Not a polite hug. A real one. Desperate and needing and human.
Grace hugged him back, and they stood there holding each other while the man who'd brought them together grew cold in the bed next to them.
Grace's phone buzzed. She pulled it out, still in Ryan's arms.
A text from an unknown number: You looked pathetic tonight at the gala. Just so you know, I'm coming for you. You'll regret stealing what's mine. - Victoria
Grace's blood went cold.
"What?" Ryan asked, feeling her tense.
Before Grace could answer, hospital security rushed into the room.
"Mr. Brooks? We have a situation. Someone just tried to access your father's medical records. Attempted to steal them from our system."
"Who?" Ryan demanded.
"We don't know yet. But whoever it was knew exactly what they were looking for. Your father's psychiatric evaluations from the last six months. All the documents proving his mental competency."
Ryan's face went hard. "Derek."
"Or Victoria," Grace added, showing him her phone.
The security guard looked grim. "Whoever it was got them. The files are gone. Deleted from our servers."
Grace felt the world tilt.
Tomorrow they had to prove Mr. Brooks was sane when he changed his will. But now all the evidence was gone.
Which meant Derek was going to win.
And Grace's marriage, her five million dollars, everything she'd sacrificed, was about to become worthless.