Chapter 128 05

ELSIE

I found grandpa outside in the garden the next morning.

He was standing near the rose bushes with Andrew beside him. They were talking in low voices the kind of voices people use when they don't want to be overheard.

My grandfather held a cup of coffee in one hand and a folder in the other. Andrew was nodding at something he said.

I stopped a few feet away.

I didn't know if I should interrupt. I didn't know if I was welcome but I had come this far so I couldn't turn back now.

"Grandpa," I said.

He turned.

He looked at me the way he always had like he was trying to see through me, like he was searching for something before looking away.

"Andrew," he said. "Leave us."

Andrew nodded, taking a glance at me once with a quick, reassuring look and then he walked back toward the house.

My grandfather gestured to the stone bench beside him.

"Sit."

I sat.

I took a breath.

"Grandfather," I said. "I'm sorry."

He didn't respond.

"I'm sorry I didn't listen to you," I continued. "I'm sorry I ignored your warnings. I'm so sorry grandpa"

He took a slow sip of his coffee.

"I warned you," he said his voice was calm. "I told you the Cross family would never accept you. I told you they would chew you up and spit you out. I told you that you were nothing but a novelty to them, a middle-class girl playing dress-up in their world."

"I know—"

"Do you?" He looked at me. "Do you know what you gave up Elsie? Do you have any idea?"

I shook my head.

"You gave up your fortune," he said. "The fortune I spent my entire life building. The fortune your father died protecting. You gave it up for a man who you thought loved you, for a family that never accepted you for a life that was never yours."

I felt tears prick my eyes. "I know grandpa and I’m so sorry”

"You left your marriage the night before the wedding," he snapped. "You ran off to the Cross family. You chose an outsider over your own blood."

I flinched.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

"Sorry," he repeated. "You're sorry?”

He set his coffee down on the bench and turned to face me fully.

"Sorry doesn't fix this, it doesn't undo seven years you’ve wasted on an undeserving fool. Sorry doesn't erase the fact that you abandoned your family for people who threw you away like garbage."

I couldn't speak. I couldn't do anything but sit there and take it because he was right.

"I won't forgive you," he said.

I nodded I had expected that

"But," he continued, "I will give you a chance, one more chance"

I looked up.

"What is grandpa? Whatever you want, I’ll do it”

"I will only accept you back into this family and give you the fortune you left behind—“

I cut him off. “I don’t care if you take my fortune, I don’t want to be the Vale heiress, I don’t want anything but your forgiveness—“

He held his hands in the air. “Enough! What you will do is marry Alistair Grant”

My blood ran cold.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Grandpa, I—"

"You humiliated him, embarrassed his family and broke a contract that had been in place for years and now that you’re back you will fix it."

I shook my head. "No…please no."

" I don't plan on getting married ever again," I said with my voice shaking. "Please grandpa I can’t suffer the same pain again, I can’t marry Alistair”

“You don’t have a choice. You made the mistake of running off years back two days to your wedding and now you must fix it. You must marry him”

He didn’t say anything but stare at me.

"Grandpa," I said. "Please. Don't do this to me, I can take any punishment but please don’t make me marry him."

"I'm not doing anything to you," he said. "You did this to yourself. You made your choices now you live with the consequences."

“And if I refuse?”

“I will cut you off.”

I stared at him. “You would really do that to me Grandpa?”

“Yes.”

“You really would cut me off?”

“I already gave you everything you needed to become a Vale.” He said his voice was cold. “You chose another family over your own and look where that got you”

“I beg of you Grandpa don’t do this”

He continued. “If you want to come home, you will do it on my terms.”

With that he stood up and walked away.

I broke down into a new set of tears feeling the weight of everything crash down on me.

I had lost Adrian.

I had lost Lily.

And now if I wanted to be part of this family again I would have to marry a man I had abandoned years ago.