Page 20 of Billionaire Corruption

Grace

I quietly unlocked the front door and snuck into the apartment. I peered into the living room and saw my grandmother sitting in her favorite easy chair in front of the television.

“Oh, you’re back,” my grandmother casually remarked, as if I’d popped out for milk, instead of staying out almost all night without letting her know.

“I’m sorry I didn’t let you know I was going out,” I said sheepishly.

“You have fun?”

I thought of the night I had spent with Paul McKinney, the way my body had felt like it had been on fire, wherever he touched me, my skin burning under his fingers. I wouldn’t call it fun, but it had been one of the most memorable nights of my life.

“I went out with some people from work, I didn’t think we would be this late,” I lied, coming into the room, and sitting down on the sofa. I wasn’t ready to go to bed yet.

“What are you watching?” I asked.

“Oh, some nonsense,” my grandmother said, waving her hand dismissively. “I’m glad you got out a bit. Toby came back late too.”

“Did you eat?” I asked, concerned.

She only smiled at me. “Tell me about these people from work, are they tall, dark and handsome?” Her eyes were twinkling, and I knew she was on to me.

“I don’t know, Nana,” I said.

“He’s all those things, but I don’t think it’s going to work out,” I said honestly.

“He’s married?” She asked sympathetically.

“No, it’s not that.” I didn’t know how to explain it. In the end, I just came out with it. “I’m not sure he’s good for me.”

She leaned forward in her chair, and I could feel her eyes scrutinizing me, trying to find out more.

“Did I ever tell you the story of how I met your grandfather?”

I shook my head. All I knew of my grandfather really, was that he had been a good man and had been killed in a supermarket robbery by some kids looking to rob a store. It had been a terrible tragedy for the entire neighborhood, because the kids were from the area and my grandfather had recognized their voices, which is why they’d shot him, out of fear, rather than because they’d wanted to kill him. The shop owner had a shotgun under the counter and ended up shooting one of them. The other kid ran out into the street where he was hit by a bus. As the other boy in the shop bled to death, he confessed that he hadn’t known the gun was loaded. It was their first robbery and they had only intended using the gun to scare the shopkeeper into handing over his cash.

“I met Jimmy Bishop when I was seventeen years old,” my grandmother said, settling back into her chair, making herself comfortable.

“I was engaged to be married to a young man called Edward St. John.”

“I didn’t know that!”

My grandmother smiled mischievously at me. “There are a lot of things you don’t know about me, my dear!”

“Anyway,” she went on. “As I was saying, I was already betrothed to someone else. But at that stage, Edward had been away for over a year already. You see, his parents and my parents had been friends for years, I had grown up hearing how Edward and I were meant for each other. I liked him well enough and so I agreed to marry him. But he was supposed to establish the family’s import business in India first.”

She took a breath.

“He told me he’d be away a few weeks at most. But he stayed away for months, then one year, later two. I received plenty of letters initially, but as time went on, his letters became less frequent and much shorter too.”

She paused. “My sisters got married, I started working as a secretary at a law firm to keep busy, but I was beginning to wonder about Edward and whether he was ever coming back. Then, one day, my parents came back from a meeting with the St. Johns and announced that I was to travel to India. I was to see if I liked it and marry Edward there.”

“I didn’t know about any of this!” I said, shocked.

“Because I said no,” my grandmother said calmly.

“By then I had already met and fallen in love with Jimmy Bishop. He walked me home from the factory every day, bringing me apples and sweet treats. I didn’t tell my family about him because I knew they wouldn’t approve. Jimmy was working class, he worked as a driver, and they would never have allowed me to marry him.”

My grandmother’s parents took the news badly. It turned out her father had lost some money on an investment, and he was hoping that the family fortune would improve with her nuptials. But my grandmother refused to marry Edward. Instead, she said she would marry Jimmy. Her family disowned her and when she married Jimmy, they had to move in with his parents, and it would be years before they could afford to move out.

---