Chapter 51

Grace was lost in her thoughts that night when she returned to the apartment. Just as she was having dinner with Jay, someone knocked at the door.

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Grace was startled because she doesn’t usually have visitors.

“Could it be your family?”

Grace wasn’t up to another visit from her dad or stepmom, and it would be a long time before she’d forgive Evelyn for her treachery.

But when she opened the door, she was surprised to see Chase standing outside.

Chase was wearing a black cotton shirt and his face was slightly red. He looked at Grace and spoke rather uneasily, “I…” He had barely opened his mouth when he noticed Jason, who had walked over to stand behind Grace, and he stopped suddenly as if he was hesitating.

“Why are you here?” Jason asked. “Are you looking for my sister?” Jason asked.

“I… I have some business to discuss with Grace privately,” Chase said with a flushed face, then he glanced at Grace and asked, “Is that okay with you, Grace?”

Jason frowned.

Grace opened her mouth to reply, but Jay interrupted her and said, “Is it something you can’t discuss here?”

“It’s…” Chase hesitated.

Grace said, “If there’s something you need to say, there’s no harm in speaking frankly, and in front of Jay.”

www Chase started to wring his hands. “I… I wanted to say that I don’t mind that you’ve been in jail. I really like you and I hope that you can be my girlfriend. I… I can wait. As long as you’re not interested in anyone else, I can wait,” he blurted out in a single breath as if he had had to muster all of his courage to say those words.

Grace was stunned. “I, uh, Chase, I don’t know what to say.”

Chaset kept talking. “I know I’m still just a small-time driver but I will work hard to earn money to support a family, I… I just hope I can give you happiness.”

As soon as Chase was done talking, he nodded in Jason’s direction, bowed toward Grace, and hurried away. “Just consider it,” he said as his parting words.

Grace stared numbly at his back. Chase really liked her?

Only when a hand looped around her waist to pull her into the room and the door slammed shut did she snap out of her trance.

“What are you…?”

She had barely finished speaking when Jay trapped her against the door. He leaned forward and stared at her fixedly with his dark eyes. “What are you thinking about, Sister?”

But there was a bite to his words, and the way he normally called her sister felt more like a promise-or a threat.

“Nothing,” she replied.

He closed the space between them until she couldn’t draw a breath without breathing him in. “Let me go, Jay.”

And yet, it was as if he did not hear her. He pressed his face closer to her instead and his lips lightly grazed her ear.

She sucked in a breath.

“Sister, were you touched by what that man said just now?”

“Touched?” Her laugh was sad. “That I don’t know, but I am surprised. I’m a convict, Jay. Accused of taking a human life. What man would want to be with me?”

“Did you invite him here?”

“No.” She shook her head. “And I truly didn’t expect Chase to just show up and say those things.”

He frowned. “I don’t trust him.”