At Last (The Idle Point, Maine Stories)(100)

"He told me about my mother, that they loved each other." Her voice broke and the sound tore at Noah's heart. "He said they were going to leave their spouses, take me and run away. They were only forty, he said, still young enough to build a new life. I didn't want to believe him but all the bits and pieces suddenly started to fit together, all those things about my life that had never made sense before—"

"Spit it out," he demanded, as fear downshifted into anger. "What does any of that have to do with us? I don't give a damn what happened between them. All I want to know is what made you throw away our dreams."

"Oh God, Noah, don't you see?" She knelt in front of him, forcing him to meet her eyes. "Simon was my father too."





Chapter Seventeen





Her words tumbled around inside his head like Scrabble tiles.

"Say that again." Maybe if he heard the words a second time, he'd be able to make sense out of them.

She was crying. He saw that. He understood that. She knelt in front of him, knees sinking into the mattress, her slender body illuminated by a thin ribbon of moonlight spilling through the window.

Then she said it again. "Simon Chase was my father, too."

His father. Her mother. Years of secrets and lies and plans that ended on a sunny afternoon in May when Mona Taylor died.

"It doesn't make sense," he said, struggling to find one shred of sanity in the sordid mess. "If you were his child, why did he hate you so much?" He remembered his father's withering sarcasm whenever Gracie's name was mentioned. His seething resentment of his cook's grandchild had always seemed out of whack to Noah. "You were all he had left of the woman he loved. You should have been—"

"He blamed me. I was the reason she stayed in her marriage. My birth brought her and Ben back together. Don't you see? In Simon's eyes, it was my fault and he hated me for it."

"Why didn't you come and tell me?"

"Your father was a very powerful man, Noah. He told me he would ruin what was left of Ben's life, break your mother's heart, and—" she hesitated a moment "—he said he would cut you off without a penny."

"Do you really think I gave a damn about his money?"

"No, but we were so young, Noah! He was going to take school away from you, everything that was part of your life. I knew what it was like to be poor but you hadn't a clue. How could I do that to you?"

"Are you sure you weren't looking out for yourself?"

His words stung like a slap. "I think you know the answer to that."

"There was money involved. I heard the stories."

"Ten thousand dollars cash," she said without hesitation. "He left it in an envelope on the kitchen table. I found it when I was leaving the notes for you and for Ben." She told him about Old Eb and his surprise. "I like to think he had himself a good time on it."

In a twisted way, everything she had said made sense. Each piece fit perfectly with the piece next to it and the pieces above and below.

He swung his legs from the bed. "Get dressed."

She stared up at him as if she'd never seen him before. "What did you say?"

"Get dressed. We're going to talk to my mother about this."

"No!" She leaped from the bed and faced him. "Leave Ruth out of it. I don't want her to be hurt by this."

"I need some answers and she's the only one who might be able to give them."

"You can't do this, Noah. She's old. She hasn't been well. You can't throw the past at her this way. What if she doesn't know?"

He pulled on his pants and sweater, jammed his feet into his shoes. "Then I'm afraid she's about to find out. This is the rest of our life we're talking about, Gracie. Don't you need to finally hear the whole story?"

The last thing Gracie wanted was to hear the whole story in all of its sordid detail but Noah was out of his mind with anger and pain. She'd never seen him this way before. This Noah hadn't existed when they were young and their future stretched out before them, bathed in the golden light of innocence. She quickly slipped back into her clothes and ran down the hall after him.





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The loud voices were what woke Sophie up. She tried to cover her ears with the pillow to keep them out but it didn't work. Papa's angry voice found her anyway. She thought she heard Gracie too but Gracie didn't sound angry. She sounded scared and very sad, like she was about to cry.