“All right,” he muttered under his breath.
“What?I answered your laundry list of questions yesterday.”
His phone chirped from his back pocket.Callum checked the time.The lines above his brow deepened.“I have to take this.”
He stepped outside to take the call.She hadn’t seen him do that with a phone call before.Grace glanced at the grandfather clock.
Who called someone that early?Not work.Her curiosity piqued, then plummeted.For all the discussions they’d had about being alive and about her ex-husband, she hadn’t asked about him.Who was he now?
Callum could be married.Would Hayden have told her that?She didn’t ask about anyone.That had initially been about self-preservation but then became a habit built out of guilt.Getting updates on others when they didn’t know about her felt wrong.Callum hadn’t volunteered news of his life when he questioned her, and she hadn’t asked.He might have a family.Maybe kids.Either way, he definitely had an entire life that she selfishly hadn’t thought about.
She pinched her eyes shut.How egotistical.
Surprise!She was alive.
Surprise!Her ex-husband had found her.
Not once had she asked about him.
Had he been wearing a wedding band?Surely she would have noticed.But the lack of a wedding band didn’t preclude a girlfriend at home or even children.Callum as a father?She hadn’t pictured it before.He would be a great dad.Stern but understanding.Responsible and fun.
It gave her the warm-and-fuzzies, which quickly fizzled into regret.His life had moved forward.He probably shared it with an amazing woman.Grace’s life had stayed the same since she had dropped off the radar.
In all the years since she’d been hiding from Dominic, she’d never been jealous.There had been lonely times, times when she was curious what another life might look like, times when she desperately craved being held in the middle of the night.But she’d never been jealous of what might have been.
Not until now.
He opened the living room door—and was pissed.Arms crossed, face scowling, he strode to her as if she’d been hiding Dominic in the kitchen.“What else have you left out?”
“What?”Grace blinked back regretful tears she hadn’t realized were pooling in her eyes.
“Forget our list of questions and tell me the important parts you’ve left out.”
“What?”
“No.We’re not going to pretend here.If I’m laying everything out, you need to also.”
“What, exactly, areyoulaying out?”
His glare tightened.Glowering over her, he leaned in and lowered his voice.“You know what I mean.I’m here until this shit is fixed.You keep lying—”
“I’m not.”
“You’ve lied about a whole hell of a lot.So pardon me if we have a trust issue.That’s the starting point you gave me.”
Grace squared off with him.He tipped his face down.She tipped hers up.Her breath raced, and confusion rang in her ears.“What the hell are you talking about?”
“This is serious.”
“Really?You think?”she shouted.“Because, no kidding, Callum.If I hadn’t already known that after living my damn life like this every day, I think I would have figured it out sometime after macing you and before the FedEx delivery.”
He jerked away.Shoving his hands in his pockets, he paced as waves of anger rolled off him like the aftershocks of an earthquake.
Yelling at each other would not fix this.She swallowed over the ache in her throat and hoarsely asked, “What’s going on?”
He halted and turned to face her.With a disappointed shake of his head, he said, “We know about your attorneys.We have the records of the incoming calls.”
Her blood ran cold.“What?”
