Chapter 11
GRACE
Grace woke the next morning with such bad nausea that she ended up spending the morning in bed, popping mints, drinking water, and trying not to move.
She’d thought her nausea was anxiety-related, but the longer it went on and the stronger it was, the more she worried it was something else.
Had she somehow picked up a stomach flu, along with everything else?
In the afternoon, there was a knock on her door. She pulled on a bathrobe and went to answer, feeling about as put-together as a zombie. Susie stood outside, holding a plastic container, her brow pinched with worry.
“Grace? Have you been in bed all day?”
Grace nodded. “I don’t feel well.”
“Oh, sweetie.” Without being invited, Susie stepped past her and into the apartment. “Being fired really hit you hard, huh?”
“Yeah,” Grace admitted. “I don’t know what’s going on, but it feels like my life is falling apart. I lost my job. I don’t have any job prospects. And now I’m sick.”
“And it’s all Alex’s fault,” Susie added loyally.
She was the only one who knew the whole story of Grace’s attraction to Alex, their night together, and her being fired right after.
“If I knew where he lived…” Susie made a fist and a threatening face, and Grace laughed.
It was hard to imagine her five-foot-nothing friend being violent to anyone, but the mental image cheered her up.
“It’s fine,” she said as they went into the living room.
“It isn’t. For now, though, I brought you some food.
” Susie opened the lid of the container, and another wave of nausea hit Grace along with the scent of cheesy pasta.
She went running to the bathroom and returned a few minutes later to slump on the couch.
Susie looked at her with concern. The container was now closed on the coffee table.
“You really are sick.”
“I told you.”
“I know, but I kind of thought you were just sad. Is it food poisoning?”
“I don’t know. It’s been going on for a while.”
“How long?”
“A few days.”
Susie’s black eyes narrowed. “Grace… when was your last period?”
“A while ago,” Grace admitted. “But I’m always late when I get really stressed.”
“Right…” Susie bit her lip. “Honey, is there any chance that you might be pregnant?”
As soon as her friend said the word, the truth hit Grace hard.
It was so obvious, she wasn’t sure how she’d missed it.
She’d been nauseated. She’d missed her period.
She’d been tired and headachy. There was one clear answer: she was pregnant.
With Alex’s baby. The dates lined up well enough, and although they’d taken precautions, Grace knew as well as anyone that they weren’t always effective.
Grace took a deep breath. “I… need to go buy a pregnancy test.”
“I’ll go with you.” Susie stood up, already heading for the door.
“No, please. I need to do this on my own.”
Despite Susie’s protests, Grace escorted her friend out and walked a few blocks to the nearest drugstore, where she bought a test. Grace knew that Susie just wanted to support her, but she needed a little time on her own to process this.
Susie would try to make everything sound rosy and happy right away, while Grace was still stuck in panic mode.
It wasn’t a surprise when the test came back positive. Some part of Grace must have known this for a while now, even if she hadn’t wanted to admit it.
Grace went back into the living room and sat on the couch, the positive test in her hands.
She’d always dreamed of having children, but she’d never imagined that she’d be pregnant with the child of her ex-boss who’d recently fired her.
And she’d never imagined that she’d be out of a job and living on her dwindling savings when the good news came.
Despite everything, this was good news. That realization struck her, too.
She was going to be a mother, just like she’d always dreamed.
She was going to hold and rock a sweet-smelling infant.
She was going to buy a race-car bed or a princess castle for her toddler, help her elementary-schooler with fractions at the kitchen table, and tearfully attend her high-schooler’s graduation.
She was going to be a mother, now and forever.
The thought of that made her smile and lifted her heart despite her many, many concerns.
All of those dreams meant that Grace needed to somehow keep her apartment and not end up bankrupt. And for that, she needed money.
It would be hard to work with an infant, even if she managed to get another job. The best solution was a big up-front payment. Grace had avoided thinking any more about Patrick’s lawsuit, but now, she wasn’t sure she could ignore it.
Grace’s stomach flipped again. She felt extremely deceitful at the thought of suing Alex, but she didn’t have any other option.
She wasn’t about to track him down to tell him that he was going to be a father—she didn’t want him involved in raising this baby, not after what he’d done.
And he would probably deny paternity anyway, given the way he’d acted.
The only way Grace could provide the kind of life she wanted for her child was to keep the pregnancy quiet, sue Alex, and win enough money to get by.
If there were any other solution, she would have taken it.
There wasn’t.
Grace agonized for the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening before reaching for her phone and dialing Patrick’s number. Cecilia picked up on the first ring, even though it was after six p.m.
“Patrick Hale’s office. How may I help you?”
“I need to speak to Mr. Hale, please.”
“Just a minute.” Moments later, Patrick’s voice came over the line.
“Grace. I’m glad you called. Does this mean you’re ready to work with me?”
Grace took a deep breath, summoning all her courage. “Yes.”
“Excellent. Come by tomorrow. I’ll introduce you to our lawyers, and we can start working on the case.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t sound so glum. You’re about to be rich! Well, rich for you, anyway.” Patrick laughed at his own classist joke. Grace didn’t. “See you tomorrow.”
“Goodbye.”
Grace hung up and slumped back on the sofa. Her phone showed three missed calls from Susie and one from her mother, but she had no energy to talk to either of them right now. Grace had gone to the dark side. Of course, Alex had done so first, but knowing that didn’t make this feel any better.
The next day, Grace and her box of mints returned to the Boink offices. Patrick was waiting for her in a conference room with a man and a woman whom he introduced as Jennifer Wyles and Stephen Framer, his legal team. Grace introduced herself and sank into a chair, nerves twisting her stomach.
“As you know, we’re going to be putting together a wrongful termination suit for you,” Jennifer began.
“We already know that you were fired without sufficient evidence that you’d done anything wrong.
Anything else you can tell us about your employment at MatchupNow would be a great help.
Did Alex ever seem to target you unfairly in any way before you were fired?
Did you get the feeling that others had been fired without proper cause as well? ”
Grace bit her lip. She didn’t want to reveal exactly what had happened with Alex, but in for a penny, in for a pound. If they knew exactly what had happened, she’d be more likely to get the money she needed to raise her child.
“Actually, Mr. Medson and I were… involved. A little bit. And right after that, I was fired.”
Jennifer’s eyebrows rose, Stephen grabbed his phone, and Patrick looked positively gleeful.
“Is that so?” Stephen asked. “You were dating?”
“Not exactly, but we did spend some time together.” Grace sighed.
“You asked if I felt discriminated against before I was fired. I didn’t.
If anything, I received extra attention from Mr. Medson.
We spent time together in the office and flirted.
We even went out together for drinks one evening.
But after that, he changed, and I got the feeling that he didn’t really want me around anymore. ”
Saying the story aloud, even part of it, made Grace feel far worse than before. Especially when Jennifer nodded.
“It sounds like he used you and then found a reason to fire you when he was done,” she said bluntly.
“That’s unfortunate, but it’s good for our case.
You have every chance of winning the wrongful-termination suit at this point.
You weren’t just fired without proper cause—you were fired after a flirtation with the CEO. ”
“Was it just a flirtation?” Patrick asked, leaning forward. His blue eyes were gleaming with barely contained elation. “And was it unwelcome?”
“No, it was… mutual,” Grace agreed. “But it did go a little beyond a flirtation. We spent a night together.”
Grace couldn’t believe she’d said that aloud, but sooner or later, people were going to figure out she was pregnant and start putting two and two together. She might as well own the narrative as best she could.
“Did you?” Patrick leaned forward. “Just one?”
“Just one,” Grace agreed. “And right after that, his whole attitude toward me changed. I think he wanted me gone. There were a few weeks that it seemed like everything might be okay, and then I was out. I know it was suspicious that I was the last person with that laptop, but I didn’t take it, and if Alex weren’t out to get me, I don’t think I would have been fired so quickly. ”
“Wonderful.” Patrick stood, beaming. Then he saw Jennifer’s quelling look and quickly rearranged his features into something resembling sympathy.
“I mean, I’m so sorry that happened to you.
I always wondered if Alex was that kind of guy.
Anyway, I do need to run to another meeting.
Jennifer and Stephen will get some more details from you and start setting up the case. ”
Grace nodded. “Okay.”
“And Grace?” Patrick turned back to her halfway to the door. “You’re doing the right thing. We’ll make Alex pay for what he did to you.”
“I…” Grace trailed off. The truth was that she hated every second of this.
If there had been any other way to get enough money to raise her baby on her own, any other job offer on the table, any family money to fall back on, anything, she would never have tried to sue Alex.
He’d been a jerk to her, but she still felt awful about this.
Dragging someone’s name through the mud was never the answer, and Grace always wanted to be the bigger person.
In this case, though, Alex hadn’t left her any room to be that person. After the way she’d been fired, she truly had no other options. She couldn’t get another job in tech, at least not right away. She couldn’t ask him for help. There was nothing she could do… except for this.
Part of Grace wanted to explain all that, but Patrick surely wouldn’t understand.
He seemed to be enjoying this process just as much as Grace hated it.
He’d probably laugh if she tried to explain that she was doing this to survive, so that her baby would have a good life, not because she wanted vengeance.
So, Grace just shook her head.
“Nothing. Have a nice day.”
Patrick nodded and left, closing the door behind him. Grace turned back to the lawyers.
“What do we need to do next?” she asked.
“We just need more details about your time at MatchupNow,” Stephen said. “Particularly about your relationship with Mr. Medson, leading up to and after your night together.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t worry.” Jennifer smiled, seeming to sense Grace’s worries. “This is easy, and it happens all the time. Trust us.”
“Okay,” Grace said again, but nothing about this felt easy. Guilt and shame were threatening to eat her up from the inside out, almost overpowering the nausea she still felt.
Grace had no idea how long the lawsuit was going to take, but she already knew it was going to be a difficult few weeks or months.