Chapter 14
Grant was questioned the next morning.
He walked out three hours later.
No arrest.
No charges.
Not yet.
I understood how investigations worked.
Evidence had to be verified.
Intent had to be established.
Documents had to be authenticated.
But knowing that did not make watching Grant return to his hotel feel any easier.
Naomi called me before he could.
“They warned him not to contact you outside the parenting app.”
“He'll obey?”
“No.”
She was right.
Twenty minutes later, Grant sent a message.
You are trying to turn a divorce into a criminal case.
I did not respond.
Another appeared.
You know I would never hurt you.
My stomach turned.
Then:
I was angry. I said stupid things. Don't destroy Everly's father over words.
That one hurt.
Because it was exactly the argument he would make.
Not for himself.
For her.
He wanted me to feel guilty for protecting the child he had threatened to use.
I handed the phone to Elise.
“Take this.”
She put it facedown.
“Done.”
My scheduled security review began that afternoon.
I met with investigators in a secure office while my mother watched Everly with Elise present.
Leaving my daughter for three hours felt harder than any deployment departure I'd experienced.
Before I left, my mother said, “I won't take my eyes off her.”
I looked at her.
“I need you to follow Elise's instructions.”
“I will.”
“No visitors.”
“None.”
“No posting photos.”
“I won't.”
“No calls to Grant.”
Her face tightened.
“Never again.”
I held her gaze.
Then nodded.
It was a small amount of trust.
A teaspoon.
But it was more than I'd offered the day before.
The security review was exhausting.
Every financial connection.
Every business Grant had operated.
Every occasion he attended military functions with me.
Every computer in our home.
They were professional.
Not accusatory.
Still, I felt exposed.
At the end, Colonel Marcus Reed from security leaned back.
“From what we've seen, there is no indication you disclosed classified material.”
My shoulders lowered slightly.
“But?”
“There is concern Mr. Holloway traded on perceived access to you.”
“I had no knowledge.”
“We believe that.”
The words mattered.
“What happens now?”
“His business contacts will be reviewed. Your command assignment remains intact unless new evidence emerges.”
I exhaled.
“Thank you.”
As I stood, Reed added, “Colonel.”
I turned.
“Your husband underestimated how many records federal contracting creates.”
For the first time that day, I smiled.
Grant had built his life around appearances.
Records did not care about appearances.
When I returned home, my mother was asleep in the rocking chair with Everly against her chest.
Elise sat nearby reading.
She looked up.
“They're both alive.”
I smiled.
My mother woke.
Immediately she looked guilty.
“I fell asleep.”
“You were sitting.”
“Elise was right here.”
“I know.”
She hesitated.
“How did it go?”
“I'm cleared to continue.”
Her face brightened.
“I knew you would be.”
I almost said, You didn't know enough to trust me before.
The words reached my tongue.
Then stopped.
Punishing her forever would not undo what happened.
That did not mean forgiving everything.
It meant choosing which wounds deserved more blood.
“Thank you.”
She looked surprised.
Then she nodded.
That evening was Grant's first supervised visit.
I did not attend.
A court-appointed monitor met him at a family services center.
I sat in Naomi's office waiting for updates.
Forty minutes into the visit, the monitor called.
Grant wanted to end early.
I stared at Naomi.
“Why?”
“He says the baby won't stop crying.”
I almost laughed.
Everly was four days old.
Crying was most of her schedule.
“Did he feed her?”
“The monitor helped.”
“Change her?”
“He declined.”
Something inside me ached for my daughter.
Not because she would remember.
Because one day she might ask.
Did my father love me?
I wanted to give her a simple answer.
I already knew I wouldn't be able to.
Grant left after fifty-two minutes.
His requested visit had been two hours.
Ten minutes later, he posted online about being “grateful for precious time with my daughter.”
Naomi saved the post.
Then came another surprise.
Sophia called.
She was at the police station.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I found something in my car.”
Her voice shook.
“What?”
“A key.”
“To the storage unit?”
“No. A safe-deposit box.”
Naomi leaned closer.
Sophia continued.
“Grant gave me his spare keys two months ago. I never looked through them. There's a bank tag attached.”
“Did you open the box?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“I told the detective.”
“Also good.”
She went quiet.
“Tessa?”
“Yes?”
“I need to tell you something else.”
I waited.
“The night you went into labor, Grant wasn't supposed to meet me.”
My skin prickled.
“He told me he had somewhere important to be.”
“I thought he was meeting an investor.”
“Where?”
“A hotel near Dulles.”
“With whom?”
“I don't know.”
Naomi began writing.
“Why did you think investor?”
“Because he said if the meeting went well, everything changed the next morning.”
I thought of the trust finalizing.
“Did he go?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“He called me after the ambulance left.”
My chest tightened.
“What did he say?”
“He said the schedule had changed because you were ‘making a scene.’”
My hand turned cold.
“He asked me to come to the house instead.”
“Anything else?”
Sophia started crying.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“He said, ‘She made it to the hospital, so we have to use Plan B.’”
The room became completely silent.
Naomi looked at me.
I looked at her.
Plan B.
May you like
There had been another plan.
Which meant there had been a Plan A.
