All Chapters of MARRIED TO MY EX-FIANCE'S RUTHLESS UNCLE: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

95 Chapters

Real

August came in hot.The city was the version of itself it got in August loud and sticky and everyone slightly irritable. Grace had two more weeks before school started and she was spending them at maximum intensity. Every day a new project, a new obsession, a new thing she needed to know immediately.That week it was architecture.I didn't know where it came from until Sunday when she sat next to Nathaniel at dinner and asked him to explain how buildings didn't fall down. He drew something on a napkin. She studied it for ten minutes and asked four follow-up questions.My father watched this from the other end of the table with an expression I'd never seen on him before. Something between surprise and recognition.After dinner he pulled me aside."She asked about load distribution," he said."I know.""At five.""She's been like this her whole life. Finds something and goes all the way in."He looked back at the table where Grace was still studying the napkin. "She gets that from you."

September

Nathaniel arrived at noon and Grace pulled him inside before he'd fully got through the door.My mother was at the stove. She glanced at me. I didn't do the thing I'd been doing for months where I found something else to look at. She turned back to the pot.My father came in from the garden at one. Looked at us both at the kitchen table. Looked for maybe two seconds. Went to wash his hands.Claire was on the phone propped against the fruit bowl at dinner. Halfway through the lamb she said, "Evelyn. Something's different.""Nothing's different.""Your face is different.""I have one face.""You have several. This is the good one." She angled the phone toward Nathaniel. "You're on speaker.""Hello Claire," he said."So calm. I love it." She pointed even though he couldn't see her. "I'm noting this. That's all. Carry on eating."Nora looked at me across the table. Nothing on her face except a small nod. Filed and approved.Grace didn't look up."I knew already," she said."Knew what," I

The Proposal

Grace had a cold the first week of October.We stayed home, soup, bad television, her falling asleep on me by seven thirty. Those evenings had their own quality. Nothing required from either of us.Nathaniel texted to check on her Tuesday. She dictated her reply through me, very specific about what she wanted said. I typed it exactly and sent it.She read the response he sent back."Good," she said. Went back to her programme.Second week she was better. Back at school, back to normal, back to the rhythm of things.Dinner Tuesday, West Village place we'd been to before. He was talking about a consulting job. Developer in Brooklyn who wanted something that looked expensive without costing what expensive cost."Told him it didn't work that way," he said."How'd he take it.""Getting a second opinion.""You're not bothered.""Physics doesn't change because he asks someone else." He turned his glass. "I'll call him next week. Try again."I looked at him. "You'd rather the building be righ

Telling Grace

I told her in the morning.Saturday, no school, she came padding out at seven in her socks and climbed onto the kitchen counter the way she did when she wanted to be at my level while I made coffee.She sat there watching me. She'd been doing this since she was two. Just sat and watched and waited for the day to begin.I put her juice in front of her."I have something to tell you," I said."Okay.""Nathaniel asked me to marry him last night."She picked up her juice. Drank some. Put it down."What did you say," she said."Yes."She looked at her juice. Then at me."Does that mean he lives here," she said."Eventually yes.""In the spare room or your room.""My room."She thought about this. "Okay." She drank more juice. "Does he know where everything is.""He'll learn.""I'll show him," she said. Like that was settled. Like she'd just been assigned a task and was fine with it.I looked at my daughter."You're okay with this," I said."Yes." She said it simply. "He's good." She picked

Before the Wedding

We picked May. Upstate house. Small guest list.Three decisions and everything else came from them.My mother tried twice to add people. I said no both times. She stopped. Claire made the flowers more elaborate than I'd asked for. I looked at them and let it go because they were actually better.Nora asked once if I needed anything and when I said not yet she said okay and waited. That was exactly right.March. Nathaniel moved in properly.He'd been there most nights already but this was the formal version. His books on the shelves. The lamp from his old place in the bedroom corner. The piano coming up separately, four people, my father appearing without being asked and taking charge of the angle.Grace supervised."More left," she told the movers."It's level," one of them said."More left."It went more left.Nathaniel looked at me across the room. The warm version of his face.After everyone had gone and Grace was in bed the apartment settled into itself. His books next to mine. Th

The Wedding

May.The upstate house in the morning looked the way it always looked in May the garden coming in full, the tree with all its leaves back, the light through the windows the specific kind that only happened here at this time of year.Grace woke up at six and came into my room and climbed in without asking."Today," she said."Today."She lay there for a minute. "Are you scared.""No.""Good." She looked at the ceiling. "I'm a little scared.""Why.""Because it's a big thing.""It is.""But good big.""Yes," I said. "Good big."She stayed until seven then went to find my mother who was already in the kitchen doing something that smelled like the best version of breakfast. I lay there a few more minutes. The room, the light, the sounds of the house.Then I got up.Claire did my hair. She'd insisted and I'd let her because arguing with Claire about things she'd already decided was a waste of time and also because she was actually good at it.She worked quietly for once, which meant she ha

After the Wedding

We didn't go anywhere for the honeymoon.I know that sounds wrong but it was the right call. Grace was six and in the middle of a school term and the idea of leaving her for two weeks felt like the wrong way to start.We'd talked about it and both arrived at the same answer without much argument, which was something I was still getting used to decisions that didn't require negotiation, just two people thinking the same thing.We took four days. Upstate, just us, my parents taking Grace. Four days of nothing required. Walks, food, the piano in the living room he played in the evenings while I sat and didn't do anything, which was harder than it sounded.I was not good at nothing required."You're thinking about the Fenchurch follow-up," he said on day two."I'm not.""You have the face.""I don't have a face.""The specific one you get when you're solving something and trying not to." He kept playing. "It's okay. Think about it.""I'm on my honeymoon.""You can think about work on your

The Second Year

The second year of marriage was quieter than the first.Not in a bad way. In the way of something that had settled into itself. The routines had become real routines, not the careful kind where you were still working out the shape of things.Just Tuesday evenings and Sunday dinners and Grace's school pickups and the piano in the mornings and the specific rhythm of two people who knew each other well living in the same space.I hadn't understood before what it felt like when nothing needed managing.I was understanding it now.September Grace started second grade.She'd grown over the summer, suddenly, the way children did one day the same and then one day noticeably different. New teacher, new classroom, new set of things to report home about every evening.The fish phase had become a marine biology phase, which was more serious and required books, which Nathaniel sourced without being asked. He'd been doing this since the architecture book. Noticed what she was into, found the right

Grace at Eight

She turned eight in July and somewhere in the months around it she stopped being a small child and became something else.Not a big child exactly. Something in between. She had opinions that were fully formed now, not the opinions of someone trying things out but actual positions she'd arrived at and would defend. She had a sense of humour that landed.She'd started noticing when adults said one thing and did another and filing it away without comment.That last one was the Blackwell part.School had a project in September. Pick someone doing important work and write about them.She came home and said, "I'm doing Mum."I looked up. "You don't have to do me.""I know." She put her bag down. "I want to.""There are more interesting people.""No there aren't." She got her snack. "I'm doing you."She interviewed me at the kitchen table that weekend. Actual interview, questions written down, Nathaniel at the counter pretending to read something."What do you do exactly," she said.I explai

What Stayed

Third year of marriage and the company was doing something I hadn't expected.Not growing fast. Growing right.The trust capital model had been running two years and the thing I'd been told to expect that relationships took longer to build than acquisitions but held better was proving true in ways the quarterly numbers were only starting to show. Regional partners in the Southeast Asia markets were approaching us.Not because of what we could offer financially. Because of how we were known to operate.I sat with the Q3 report one evening and read it twice.Then I sent it to my father with no message attached.He called twenty minutes later."Page eleven," he said."I know.""The Shen partnership renewal.""I know.""They renewed at better terms than the original." He paused. "Because of reputation.""Yes.""You built that.""We built it. The governance work, the pipeline development, the whole — ""Evelyn.""What.""You built it." He said it plainly. "Take that."I sat with the report

...

5 6 7 8 9 10

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP