Part 7
Nathan waited until Emmy said he could visit.
He sat across from her in Lorraine’s office, leaving the space between the chairs untouched.
“I was frightened,” he said. “That explains what I did. It doesn’t excuse it.”
Emmy watched him.
“I kept calling things protection when they were decisions I’d taken away from you.”
“I can’t live like that.”
“I know.”
Beatrice came the following day without Nathan.
“I wanted him to marry someone good,” she said. “Then I helped him hide himself from the good woman I’d found.”
She folded her hands in her lap.
“I laughed at the stories. I should have stopped them.”
Emmy looked at the older woman’s lowered head.
“Thank you for saying that.”
Nathan put the legal choices in Emmy’s hands. If she wanted a divorce, he would not contest it or use his money to make it difficult. He explained, without asking for credit, that Sabrina had never been his fiancée. Their families had discussed a match; he had never agreed.
The investigations removed the directors and employees who had protected Vanessa’s conduct or abused their positions, including the manager who had sent Emmy to the birthday party.
For the charitable fund, Nathan stepped away entirely. An independent board would oversee its money and decisions.
“You shouldn’t have to wonder whether helping the children means accepting me,” he told her.
Emmy did not return home with him.
He left alone.
Lorraine found Nathan unloading groceries from a van one Saturday morning.
“No entourage today?” she asked.
“No.”
“Emmy’s out.”
“I know. The pantry order still needed bringing.”
He carried sacks inside, then asked where the leaking windows were. When a contractor needed help moving furniture away from a wall, Nathan took the other end.
He came again the next week, and the next.
Once, Lorraine found him scraping old adhesive from a shelf. She sat on a nearby chair.
“Why test her?”
He kept the scraper still in his hand.
“I thought people wanted what I had. I assumed she did, too.”
“And after you knew she didn’t?”
“I wanted her to keep loving the person she thought I was.”
Lorraine waited.
“So I made it harder to tell her.”
“Mm.” She stood and handed him a cloth. “You’ve missed a patch.”
He bent over the shelf again.
Months passed before Emmy joined him on the porch after one of his visits.
Inside, the children were having supper. A fork clattered, and somebody laughed too loudly.
“I still love you,” she said.
Nathan didn’t move toward her.
“But I can’t go back to our marriage.”
“I don’t want that marriage back.”
She looked at him for a long time.
He held out his hand.
“Nathan Vale. No disguise this time. I love you, and your trust is mine to earn.”
A small smile reached her mouth.
“Emmy will do.”
“I’m glad to meet you, Emmy.”
She put her hand in his.
Beatrice insisted on choosing the cake herself.
Orlisse’s manager hurried forward when Nathan entered, offering the most elaborate confection in the case. Nathan shook his head.
“We’ll wait our turn.”
Beatrice pointed to a small vanilla cake.
“That one.”
Della froze behind the counter. Joyce came out from the workroom and stopped beside her.
“You,” Della said softly. “You were waiting for your grandson.”
“Yes,” Beatrice said.
Before the purchase was completed, Owen joined them with the manager. The archived security footage had been reviewed alongside the staff records. Both employees had been identified pushing out and insulting an elderly customer, then abusing the woman who intervened.
The manager informed them that their employment was ending. Their unvested incentives and staff privileges would end with it; all earned wages and legally required benefits would be handled properly. Formal reports would be submitted, and neither would be employed by another Veylan-connected business.
Joyce began crying.
“We made a mistake.”
Beatrice rested her purse on the counter.
“You had time to choose.”
The manager faced Beatrice and Emmy.
“Our staff assaulted you and humiliated you. We accept responsibility. We’re not going to explain it away.”
Della stared at Emmy’s shoes before making herself look up.
“I saw your clothes and decided you didn’t deserve patience. I’m sorry.”
“So am I,” Joyce said. “We were cruel.”
The manager opened a notebook as Nathan asked about written protections. Customers were not to be handled, insulted, or excluded because they appeared poor. Elderly customers and people who needed assistance were to receive it without being required to prove they could spend money. Complaints involving assault or discrimination would be preserved and investigated immediately. Every employee would be trained, and the policy would be enforced.
Beatrice listened until he finished writing.
“Apply it on a day when none of us is here.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Then she opened her purse.
“I remembered this today.”
Emmy set her own card beside it.
“And I can buy the cake.”
Beatrice took Emmy’s hand and squeezed it before the manager carried the little box around the counter.
Outside, Nathan held the cake while Emmy fastened her coat.
“Will you take me home?” she asked.
“Back to Lorraine’s?”
“No. Ours.”
He studied her face.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
At the house she had never lived in, he stopped inside the doorway and began explaining that she could choose any room, that no one would expect anything from her.
Emmy touched his sleeve.
“I didn’t come to be your guest.”
He put the cake on the hall table.
She took out her wedding ring. For a moment, she held it between them.
She slipped the ring onto her finger.
“I agreed to the marriage once. Now I choose you.” She looked up at him. “No hiding.”
“Never again,” he said.
Later, when he asked again whether she was comfortable staying with him, she pulled him gently toward her.
“I came home to my husband.”
Morning light lay across the curtains when Nathan opened his eyes.
Emmy was awake beside him.
“Mrs. Vale,” he said.
“She still answers to Emmy.”
He smiled and drew her hand beneath his cheek.
“Morning, Emmy.”
The pregnancy test sat between two cups on the kitchen table.
Nathan looked from it to Emmy, then back again.
“A baby?”
She nodded.
He came around the table slowly, as though moving too quickly might disturb the news.
“Our baby.”
She laughed when he knelt beside her chair and wrapped his arms around her.
At the ultrasound appointment, he held her hand while the clinician moved the probe and studied the screen.
Then the clinician smiled.
“Here’s one heartbeat. And here’s the other.”
Nathan leaned forward.
“Two?”
“Twins.”
Emmy covered her mouth. He looked at her, astonished, until she began laughing and crying at once.
Months later, Beatrice stood beside the nursery window while Nathan brought in the two sleeping babies. Emmy followed, tired and smiling, with a hospital bracelet still around her wrist.
“Benjamin,” she whispered as Nathan settled their son into his crib.
“And Audrey,” he said, laying their daughter beside him in the neighboring crib.
Beatrice bent to kiss each small forehead.
“May you be kind,” she murmured. “And may you always be able to tell the truth at home.”
Nathan reached for Emmy’s hand.
“Welcome home,” he said.
Their daughter stirred, and together they leaned over the crib.