Saving Grace (14 page)

As he held her close, he didn’t hear mention of parents.  He made the obvious assumption that her grandparents were her mainstay, which meant that her parents might not be in the picture.  His heart broke for Grace, as she heard her story.   

As they lay there intertwined, a cool ocean breeze flowed from the slatted windows across their bodies.  And as it washed over them, it gently brushed Grace’s hair across his chest.

At that point, he knew he was done for.  He could never sit here in solitude again, without thinking of this moment.  She had changed every thing.  And silently, he vowed he would do whatever he could to protect her.

Chapter 19

Just when he thought his wife couldn’t surprise him any more, she dropped the bomb on him that his second granddaughter was missing.  Andrew sat in the chair, opposite Lilah, and stared her down.  He couldn’t believe his ears.

It took Lilah over seven days to finally tell her husband the truth.  Initially when Grace didn’t return, she told him that Grace had decided to extend her trip.  She kept any conversations with Zach to cell calls, in the privacy of her garden.  This would guarantee no ears would hear her current dilemma.

She thought she’d have found Grace by now, and convinced her to come home, but now here she was over one week later and no Grace.

“What do you mean she’s missing?  What have you done this time?  Wasn’t running off our daughter and our first granddaughter enough for you?  Or do you want to keep everyone from our life forever!”  Andrew leapt to his feet. 

He couldn’t stand it anymore.  There had been too many years of loneliness, and he didn’t think he could survive one more ousted family member.

“Now, Andrew.  Don’t jump to conclusions.  It’s not my fault that she didn’t make the plane.  It’s not my fault TSA did a random bag search.  You can’t blame me.”

Andrew knew his wife better than that.   He walked around their sitting room table, and with every intention of intimidating her, towered over her in her chair.

“You mean to tell me that you have done nothing wrong to cause any of this?  You’re totally innocent?”  He stared his wife down. 

Lilah tried her best to hold her stern front, but his bold play of power had her squirming in her chair.  She dropped her gaze from his.

“You look guilty about something, my dear.” 

Andrew glared at his wife, and leaned in, placing a hand on either side on the arms of her chair, narrowing the gap between them. 

“Tell me ... because, I know Grace.  If this were a case as simple as a missed plane, she would call home first thing to let us know.  And, I’ve received no such call.”

Lilah winced and began to stammer.  “We may have had a fight on the phone, earlier that day.”

“May have??”  He stood and began pacing.  “So in other words, you were controlling her again?  And she probably got tired of it?”

“No!  I’ve never controlled her!”  Lilah jumped to her defense, before seeing her husband’s accusing eyes.

“Really?”  He sat down and crossed his arms.

“No, I’ve only led her in the right direction … to do what was best for her.”

“What was best for her?  Or for you?” Andrew was fuming.  “I should have put a stop to your incessant behavior long ago, but I always thought you had some means of a heart in that puffed up chest of yours.”

“Puffed up chest?”  Lilah scoffed.

“Yes, that prideful stance you take at any social event.  You look like a proud peacock.  And it’s a scam, Lilah!  You’re such a scam.  You pretend we’re this perfect loving family.” 

Andrew was yelling loud enough that anyone in the house could here.  “And I bought into it for a while, until my daughter died!”  He stood once more and threw his arms up in disgust. 

“How dare you!”  She stood, and lifted her chin toward the ceiling.

“See there you go again.  Stand a little straighter and your chest will puff out.”  Andrew angrily laughed.  “So where is she?”

When Lilah stood silent, he crossed the room and shook her, yelling, “Where is Grace?  Do you have any idea?  Hopefully you filed a missing persons report?  If not, you’ve wasted valuable time!  She could be hurt!”

Lilah’s eyes threatened tears for the first time in years.  She’d never seen her husband like this.  He’d always left her to her own devices without judgment.  She thought it was because he accepted her the way she was.  She never thought it was because he couldn’t stand her.

When he saw the first teardrop fall, he instantly resigned his grip on her arms. 

“I’m sorry.  I should have never touched you in anger.  We’re never going to find her if we tear each other apart.”  He reached to wipe her face.

Humiliated that he’d brought her to such a weak place, she pushed his hand away.  There was nothing she’d like more than to walk out of the room while she still had a shred of dignity left, but this wasn’t about her anymore.

“Please don’t look at me.”  She hid her face and wiped the tears.  With her head turned, she bit her lips in anguish.  She would not cry anymore.  Once she regained her composure, she softly sat back in her chair and faced Andrew.

“It’s all my fault.  You’re right.  Feel better now?”  Her chin quivered slightly with each word.

“Lilah, I’m just as much to blame.  We’ve not made the best choices for our family.”

“I never wanted to hurt anyone.  I just wanted to live up to your name, to give you the family you ever dreamed of.  And when I … pushed our daughter away – it wasn’t intentional.  I just didn’t know what to do.  She ran off with the person she loved.  I was jealous, and seeing her so happy made me feel worse every day.”

“I don’t need the reminder that I wasn’t the one you chose, Lilah.  I know your family pushed you toward me.  You don’t think I didn’t try to make you love me at first?  I tried as hard as I could to be the best husband for you.”

As hard as she tried, the tears came again.  “I’m sorry.  I know you tried.  I just couldn’t give you my heart though … it was with another.”

“I know.”  Andrew gritted his teeth.  After all these years, it still got to him.

“So I figured, since I couldn’t give you my love – I’d give you the best family I could.  And that started with our powerful union and every social event to bolster you in the community.  And then when our daughter came into the world, I knew she would be your legacy … our legacy.”

Andrew’s jaw dropped.  “That was your motivation?  I thought …”

Lilah leapt from her chair to drop to her knees in front of her husband.  “You thought what?”

He gently shook his head.  “I thought you were just in it for what the Aundine name could do for you.”

Lilah gently cried.  “No!  Don’t you see?  I just tried to be the best wife I could in what ever way I could.”

Andrew sighed and stroked his wife’s face.  “I don’t care about any of that stuff.  I just wanted you.”  He sadly smiled down at her.

“I figured that out once it was a little too late.  Once I came around – you had already left me … emotionally.  So, I did the only thing I knew how to be … Lilah Aundine, the socialite I had grown into.  Then I ended up pushing Elizabeth away.  Then when the girls came to live with us, I tried to change.  But Anne was so much like Elizabeth, and it hurt seeing how I’d failed.  She was a constant reminder.  So that’s why I pushed her out.”

“I thought she left.”

It was cleansing to finally get all this pain off her chest, but with that one sentence she knew she’d said too much.

Lilah stood once more and walked across the room to the window.  She sat on the ledge below their large bay window, and grimaced.

“You’re going to hate me even more now.”  She looked up to the ceiling to keep the tears from falling.

He rose from his chair, and crossed the room to sit by her.  “Will what you’re about to tell me help us find Grace?”

“It might.” 

“Then tell me,” he said softly and took her hand. 

Lilah filled Andrew in on her past exploits in keeping Anne from Grace.  And with each detail she revealed from the new cell number, to the additional home line … she saw her husband’s jaw harden.

“You tell me that you went as far as to add a new home line, to keep Anne from contacting Grace?”  He tried to reign in how he was feeling.  This was the most he’d gotten from his wife in their entire marriage, and he didn’t want to break her trust.

Lilah’s tight face gave him the answer he needed.

“Why?”  He asked in awe.  He was blown away as his wife’s trickery.

“I wanted Grace to ourselves.  Grace is who I thought Elizabeth could have been.  Just the sweet trusting child, we could raise to our standards.  Anne was so much like Elizabeth, that I was afraid she’d ruin her future.”

Andrew couldn’t take it anymore.  “How?  By showing her how to live?”  He jumped up and paced the floor.  “How did you swing the phone line?”

“Remember about five years ago, when I told you how upset I was with our current provider?”

“Yes, we went with someone else, and got a new number …” Stern recognition lit up Andrew’s eyes.  “I see.  Go on.”

“Well, I didn’t switch providers.  I only had them add a new line.  And asked them to send the old line straight to a phone out in my shed, behind the garden tools.  That way only I had access to it.  So when Anne would call, she’d get voicemail, to which Grace wouldn’t hear.”

“So then you have a new line, on which Anne never calls her sister?”  Andrew growled. 

Lilah nodded and looked up with guilt.  “I’m sorry.  It was wrong.”

Andrew wanted to be furious, but he was just as much at fault.  He could have reached out to Anne, but felt guilty for never establishing a real relationship – so he kept his distance.  He thought he’d leave it up to Anne to approach him. 

He slumped down once more next to his wife and sighed, saying, “I was just as much at fault.  And am I to connect the dots and surmise that Grace found out?”

Lilah sniffled, nodding to her husband.

“So at least that is some comfort.  Now I know she doesn’t want to be found, but I’d still like to make sure she’s okay.”

“Well, I’ve already asked Zach to fly back to look into it.”

“You never answered my question.  Did you file a missing person’s report?”

“No, I gave Zach an account to use at his discretion and he flew out last week to find her … discreetly.”

              Andrew dipped his head.  “Lilah.  You should have let me know as soon as this happened.” 

He stood and walked over to his wife’s desk, and picked up the phone.

              “What are you doing?”  Lilah’s chin lifted in the air.

              “Doing what I should have done a long time ago – taking control.”  He dialed the number for information on the phone, and when they answered, he asked, “Can you get me the Honolulu police department?”

Lilah dropped her shoulders.  Her husband was right.  She had made a bad situation a whole lot worse.

                After Andrew finished giving the police the details about Grace, he told them to offer up a substantial reward.

He asked them to keep him posted, and promptly hung up. 

He looked over to his wife, and left her with these words, “Let me know what account you set up for Zach.  I’ll want his number, and you’re to have no more contact with him.”

              “Yes, dear.”  She said to his back as he exited the room.  She had a newfound respect for her husband, and was grateful everything was out in the open.

Chapter 20

As Burke drove his little Nissan along Kaneohe Bay Drive, he marveled at its beauty, which always caught him off-guard.  For as long as he lived, he would never stop being blown away at the bright bold colors, set deep in the ocean, which rose to greet the lush vegetation at the foot of the Ko’olau mountains.  The homes set within weren’t even a distraction.  They only added to the charm, which was truly breath taking.

This side of the island, known as the windward side because of its strong trade winds, made for great sailing, which he didn’t get to take advantage of but always loved watching.  Even today, as he was running errands, which some would think mundane, he felt it was truly a gift. 

Being surrounded by all this heavenly beauty was a true blessing – and something he’d never take for granted.  Silently, he said a quick prayer to God, that after all the madness he’d survived; he had this existence to savor.