Chapter 7 - Forty-Seven Dollars and Eighty-Three Cents
The landlord canceled the sale to Mercer Residential on a Thursday.
Not because Daniel had become a villain in a newspaper.
Not because Vincent had threatened anyone.
Because Mr. Klein’s attorney advised him that continuing with the same buyer while police were reviewing Patrick Shaw’s conduct could create more trouble than the sale was worth.
Grace received the email at 10:06 in the morning.
She read it twice.
Then she called Denise.
“So it’s over?”
“The sale is.”
“The building is safe?”
Denise paused.
Grace closed her eyes.
“Right.”
“Mr. Klein still wants to sell.”
“So someone else could buy it.”
“Yes.”
Grace looked around the break room at work.
A vending machine hummed.
Someone had abandoned half a yogurt on the table.
Ordinary life kept insisting on itself.
“How long do we have?”
“No one knows. Your lease still controls. But I would start looking.”
Grace rubbed her forehead.
“Okay.”
She did not call Vincent.
That was deliberate.
She did not call Daniel either.
Also deliberate.
That evening, she opened her laptop at the kitchen table and began searching for apartments.
Emily sat beside her with homework.
The jar sat between them.
Two bedrooms.
Safe neighborhood.
Near school.
Near Grace’s work.
Affordable.
Each filter removed another option.
Emily noticed.
“Too much?”
Grace looked at the screen.
“Some are.”
“How much do we have?”
“We have enough.”
That was not exactly true.
Grace had savings.
Not enough for first month, deposit, moving costs, application fees, and a surprise rent increase without pain.
But enough to make a plan.
Emily spun the jar slowly.
“We have forty-seven dollars.”
“Your forty-seven dollars is not paying a deposit.”
“Forty-seven eighty-three.”
“Still no.”
Emily rested her chin on the table.
“What if we don’t find one?”
“We will.”
“How?”
Grace looked at her.
“I don’t know yet.”
Saying that felt dangerous.
Emily nodded as if it were normal.
Maybe it could be.
The next day Daniel asked to meet.
Grace said no.
Then he asked if he could reimburse tenants for expenses caused by Patrick.
Grace forwarded the question to Denise.
Denise wrote back:
He may offer. They do not have to accept. If the company has legal exposure, his lawyer will want releases. Nobody signs anything without review.
Grace sent Daniel the message.
He responded:
Understood. No releases. I’ll let counsel handle it.
Grace stared.
People could learn.
Slowly.
Inconveniently.
Without becoming different people overnight.
Daniel’s second meeting with Emily happened Saturday.
He brought a telescope small enough to carry.
Emily approved.
They spent twenty minutes assembling it wrong.
Grace watched from a couch across the room.
Daniel insisted a bracket went on the left.
Emily insisted right.
Emily was correct.
Daniel laughed.
Grace remembered why she had once loved him.
That frightened her more than hating him.
Afterward, Daniel asked if Grace would talk in the parking lot.
Dr. Patel stayed inside with Emily.
Daniel leaned against his car.
“I can pay for a new place.”
“No.”
“I knew you would say that.”
“Then why ask?”
“Because I should offer.”
Grace crossed her arms.
“You should pay child support.”
Daniel blinked.
She had surprised both of them.
“I’m not asking for a house. I’m not asking for a favor. You are her father. If you are coming into her life, then the responsibility comes with you.”
Daniel nodded.
“Yes.”
“We do it formally.”
“Yes.”
“No cash. No surprise accounts. No gifts that become arguments later.”
“Yes.”
Grace stared at him.
“Stop agreeing so fast.”
He almost smiled.
“Sorry.”
“Stop apologizing every ten seconds.”
“Okay.”
That made her laugh.
She hated that too.
Daniel looked toward the office window.
“I want to do this right.”
“You already didn’t.”
“I know.”
Grace gave him a warning look.
He nodded.
“Right.”
Then he said, “Vincent came to see me.”
Grace went still.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Anger flashed so fast she tasted metal.
“He promised me.”
Daniel lifted a hand.
“He didn’t threaten me.”
“That is not the point.”
“He apologized.”
Grace stared.
“For what?”
“For making me leave without telling you the truth.”
Daniel looked embarrassed.
“I told him not to take all the credit.”
Grace almost laughed.
“What else?”
“He said he was staying out of Emily’s relationship with me.”
“Then why was he there?”
Daniel looked at her.
“To tell me that in person.”
Grace closed her eyes.
Of course.
Vincent could turn respecting a boundary into a meeting.
Daniel said, “He also said if I hurt either of you—”
Grace opened her eyes.
Daniel raised both hands.
“I stopped him. I told him that kind of sentence was the whole problem.”
Grace stared.
“You told Vincent Romano that?”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
“Looked annoyed.”
Grace laughed.
Daniel smiled.
Then both stopped.
The shared humor felt too familiar.
Grace looked away.
“We are not becoming friends because we both think Vincent is difficult.”
“I didn’t think we were.”
“Good.”
Daniel nodded.
“Good.”
That evening, Grace went to the diner alone.
She found Vincent at his booth.
He looked up.
“You’re angry.”
“Yes.”
Martha put down coffee and immediately walked away.
Grace slid into the seat opposite him.
“You saw Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“You told me you would stop.”
“I did stop.”
“You met him.”
“To tell him I was stopping.”
Grace stared.
Vincent rubbed one hand over his jaw.
“When you say it like that—”
“There is no other way to say it.”
He looked toward the window.
“I’m not good at doing nothing.”
“I didn’t ask you to do nothing.”
“What did you ask?”
“To trust me to handle my own life.”
Vincent’s face changed.
Grace continued.
“If I need help, I will ask. If Emily is in immediate danger, act. Otherwise, stop arriving before I decide what I want.”
Vincent nodded slowly.
“I can do that.”
“Can you?”
“I don’t know.”
The honesty disarmed her.
He looked at the empty seat beside her.
“Where is Emily?”
“With Martha’s daughter. Movie night.”
Vincent nodded.
Grace looked at his coffee.
“Cold?”
“Yes.”
“You always let it get cold now.”
“Apparently I have become sentimental.”
Grace almost smiled.
Then Vincent reached into the inside pocket of his coat.
He took out an envelope.
Grace’s body tightened.
He immediately stopped.
“It’s not money.”
“What is it?”
“A list.”
She did not reach for it.
“Of what?”
“Three apartment buildings owned by people I do not control.”
Grace stared.
“That is a very specific disclaimer.”
“I asked a real estate agent for public listings near Emily’s school.”
“You investigated.”
“I searched apartments.”
“For me.”
“Yes.”
Grace stood.
Vincent’s face fell.
Then she sat back down.
“That was almost enough to make me leave.”
“I know.”
“But I am tired.”
He slid the envelope away.
“Then forget it.”
Grace looked at him.
“Show me one.”
His eyebrows rose.
“One.”
He opened the envelope.
No secret address.
No free mansion.
Three ordinary listings.
Grace chose the second.
The next morning, she called the landlord herself.
When she toured it, Vincent was not there.
Daniel was not there.
Emily carried the jar.
The apartment had scratched floors, two bedrooms, a narrow kitchen, and a window in Emily’s room that faced west.
Emily stood in the empty room.
“Can we see stars from here?”
Grace looked out.
“Some.”
Emily hugged the jar to her chest.
“I like it.”
May you like
Grace did too.
For the first time in weeks, the choice felt like theirs.
