All Chapters of Lost Without Me: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

I pushed Elliot's urn into Owen's hands and got behind the wheel myself.Neither of us said a word the whole way.Owen looked guilty and pressed a hand to his head as he apologized."Grace, I'm sorry. I went over the route last night. I don't know how I still—"I thought of the map he'd been studying before bed.The pin he'd dropped was his assistant's house.Owen really couldn't hold a route in his head. He'd gotten lost countless times since he was a kid, and someone always had to go find him.Before the wedding, our friend Nadia used to tease him about it."Grace is basically your GPS. Let's hope the baby doesn't take after you."Only now did I understand that there were places he could remember.The winding roads had never been the problem.He could sit up all night with the lamp on, studying one route.He didn't spare a thought for the wife crying beside him over the son they'd lost.What was I to him, exactly?At Cedarveil Memorial Park, I lowered the small urn into

Chapter 2

The next day I went to see Owen's grandmother, and to my surprise he'd brought Paige home with him.The family traded looks, but not one of them said a word to Owen about it.I'd spent ten years of my marriage building a career before I decided to have a baby, and then I hadn't been able to keep him.As far as they were concerned, that made me selfish, and every ounce of blame landed on me."Couldn't even hold on to one baby. All that celebrating for nothing. Hurry up and try again."Nobody asked why there'd been water on the bathroom floor.Nobody asked how weak my body still was, or that the stretch marks hadn't faded from my stomach yet.The weight of it pressed down until I couldn't breathe, and I set down my fork."There won't be another one."Ruth Kessler's smile froze on her face, and Owen rushed to soothe her."Grace just isn't ready yet, Grandma. We'll try again in a while."After dinner he came looking for me."Why would you say that? You know how badly Grandma wa

Chapter 3

I didn't expect Owen to follow me back. He rubbed his hands together awkwardly."I drove behind you the whole way. Paige is doing a lot better, so I sent her home."I didn't answer. I was busy clearing out the nursery.He watched me work, baffled."Why are you tearing it down already? We'll have another baby, and then we'll just have to set it all up again."Even now he thought I was sulking.Of course he did. He'd never been sick every morning for three months.He'd never felt the baby move.He had no idea how every small kick had run straight through my heart.It rose up in me all at once, and I made myself not cry.I slept hard that night, and I woke up to find Paige in the house.She dropped straight to her knees in front of me."Grace, please help me. You're the only one who can."I had no idea what she was talking about.Owen tried to pull her up, but she wouldn't leave the floor."Grace, my grandmother is all alone out in that country cemetery. I want to bring her

Chapter 4

The fight went nowhere. The door cracked shut.Owen was out again, and he never once noticed how little time he spent at home anymore.The day I got back from giving my statement, Dale Prewitt from Cedarveil Memorial Park called me in a panic."Ms. Ellison, there's a crew at your family's plot. They're opening it up for some kind of shared burial. They say your husband signed off on it."My heart dropped, and I was already driving.By the time I got there they had most of it open. I threw myself at them and shoved one man back hard."Who are you? Get away from him. What do you think you're doing at my son's grave?"Two of them caught me and slammed me down on the ground."Quit screaming. This is Paige's spot now. We'll do whatever we want with it."They held me pinned there.I screamed for both of them."Where's Owen? Where's Paige? He wouldn't do this. He promised me it was over."Not one of them cared.I watched them open the grave, lift out my son's urn, and set Dolores

Chapter 5

Owen stood there blank for a long while, and for some reason almost nothing Paige said reached him.She had to say his name several times before he answered at all."What?"She repeated it through tears, and he finally agreed to come out.By the time he got there it was already finished.Paige lay across the grave, sobbing so hard she couldn't breathe."Owen, that was my grandmother. You have to do something. What kind of person plays games with the dead?"Something in his chest lurched.His son had gone the same way.So this was what it felt like.And he'd only worked it out once Paige's eyes went red.Then how much had his Grace been carrying?He hadn't answered, so Paige tugged at his sleeve."Owen."He helped her to her feet."It's all right. I'll handle it."She wasn't satisfied."This is all Grace's doing. How could she give up the plot without telling anyone?"He had no interest in the complaint and brushed it off."I'll talk to her."Paige bit down on her li

Chapter 6

Right then a video landed on Owen's phone.He opened it.Screen sharing was still running, so it went straight up onto the conference room display.Paige, laughing with a handful of men."Who cares what Grace thinks? I've already decided what I want."One of them hesitated."If Mr. Kessler ever finds out, doesn't that blow up on us? That was his kid too. We'd be the ones holding the bag."Paige didn't sound worried in the slightest."Relax. I know how to work him. As long as I can say I didn't order it, Owen will smooth it over. He always does."Another one laid it on thick."True enough. Any man can see he's got a thing for you. Push a little, get the wife out of the picture, and that seat's yours."Then the laughing started.Every sound of it went into Owen's chest like a blade.His jaw locked."Paige."She went to pieces."That's not — that video's fake. Grace made it to frame me. She's furious about the plot and she wants to take everything from me. Owen, you believ

Chapter 7

After I left Owen, I moved out to a small town called Bellcove.The skills I'd spent the first half of my life building were worth something. Without him, I did just fine.The agreement he'd signed went into force, and Vivian handled all of it.And on my laptop, the footage from the cemetery played on a loop.Paige crying like her heart had been cut out."Don't touch my grandmother! Get away from her!"Nobody listened to her. Nobody had listened to me either.Nobody heard me screaming.I sat there in the dirt where they'd left me and watched my son's ashes go, and there was nothing I could do about it.I wanted her to pay for that.Revenge, right out in the open.If I couldn't have that ground, she wasn't going to have it either.And then, while I was quietly enjoying my new life, a shape I knew turned up.Owen stood in front of me unshaven, his eyes lit up like a man who'd found what he'd lost."Grace. I finally found you."I took a step back, repulsed."Sorry. Who are

Chapter 8

Owen went back and drifted through the days like a man who'd left his body somewhere.He went to Starlight Remembrance Chapel and lit a memorial candle for his son.Before, a life that ended before it began hadn't weighed much on him. Not much attachment, and you forgot it quickly.Now it wouldn't let him alone. He should have held on to that boy with both hands.If he and Grace had raised him, they'd never have ended up here.They picked Paige up, and she went down on her knees begging."Mr. Kessler, after everything I did for you — help me. I can't go to prison. I've barely been out of school."Owen took her chin in his hand."Then tell me how you ended up borrowing from people like that."There was something amused in the way he said it, and she took it for an opening."I... I..."She couldn't get it out.His patience ran out."Then don't. The courts can sort it. Stealing trade secrets and leaking them will get you a few years."That finally pulled it out of her."Tho

Chapter 9

Owen watched Paige's sentencing on the television in his room.Three years, for taking the files and passing them on. He couldn't wait to tell Grace, and once again nothing came back.He couldn't even leave.Everyone around him pushed him into treatment.They took away every map in the place.He was stuck there, and the company wasn't doing well either.Even with the whole family pulling together, they couldn't stop Kessler Industrial from sliding under.Day after day in that room, Owen got harder and harder to be around.He shouted until his voice gave out."Fine. I was blind. I threw away the one woman who loved me. I'm not a person."His family tried to comfort him and he ran every one of them off."Don't. Paige was right. I was never good enough for a woman like Grace."Swinging that hard, that often, wore his body down until there was nothing left in reserve.The relatives who'd never had any use for me were the ones who finally called."Grace, just go see him once.

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