Mason.
Max.
Micah.
“There are four boys,” he said.
Another silence.
This one lasted longer.
Grant closed his eyes.
That silence answered more than any confession could have.
“How old?” his mother asked.
His grip tightened around the phone.
“You tell me.”
She did not.
Instead she said, “Come home before you make this worse.”
Grant ended the call.
He kept his promise to Mara.
He did not go to the River North apartment that night.
He also did not sleep.
First he went to Brielle.
She was still dressed for the announcement when he arrived, wearing a pale silk dress and no engagement ring because he had never had the chance to place it on her hand.
The velvet box remained in his coat pocket.
Her expression was furious until she saw his face.
Then the anger thinned into dread.
“There’s someone else,” she said.
Grant did not insult her with a lie.
“There was someone before you.
I was told she left me six years ago.
Today I found her.”
Brielle folded her arms.
“And?”
“She has four sons.
They’re six.”
Brielle stared at him.
The room went very still.
“You think they’re yours.”
“I don’t know yet.”
“But you canceled us because you think they might be.”
Grant shook his head.
“I canceled because if there is even a chance I have four children I never knew existed, I cannot stand in front of two hundred people tonight and make promises to you while pretending nothing changed.
You deserve better than that.”
Pain crossed Brielle’s face, but she did not cry.
“Your mother is going to say I wasn’t patient enough.”
“My mother doesn’t get to define what happened here.”
Brielle studied him for a long moment.
“That’s new.”
The words hurt because they were true.
Grant took out the velvet box and placed it unopened on the table between them.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know,” Brielle said quietly.
“That’s part of the problem.
You were always sorry.
You were never in love.”
She pushed the box back toward him.
“Go find out who those boys are.”
The following morning, Mara sent Grant a message containing only a time and the address of a small coffee shop two blocks from the apartment.
He arrived early.
She arrived exactly on time.
