Chapter Twenty-Eight #2
Instead of heading into the store, Maisy drove to her Grams’s place. When she arrived, Maisy had no memory of driving there. Her heart felt heavy and sad. Chase had gone against his word. Against the very thing she’d begged him not to do.
When her grandmother opened the door, she, too, wore a huge smile. Maisy wondered if she’d already heard the news about the sale of the store.
“Maisy, this is a surprise. It seems the day is full of them,” she said, greeting Maisy with a big hug.
“Are you talking about the store?”
“That, too.”
“You mean there’s something else?”
“You didn’t hear?” Her grandmother could barely contain herself.
Apparently not. “No. What’s happened?”
Grams threw out her arms with sheer joy. “My hospital bill was paid by an anonymous donor.”
Maisy had assumed Medicare had taken care of the bills associated with her grandmother’s stay. “I didn’t know there were any large payments owed to the hospital.”
“It came as a shock, let me tell you. I didn’t mention it to your mother because she already had enough on her mind. It weighed on me, though. My secondary insurance paid a small portion of it. The balance was enough to send me reeling, but as of this morning, I’m debt-free.”
Chase again.
He knew her grandmother had been hospitalized. It would be a small thing for him to pay it off.
Small to him. Huge to her.
Maisy did her best to sound pleased. They hugged again, and Maisy left for work.
The rest of the day Maisy was lost in a fog. Chase had no idea what he’d done, nor did he seem to understand the consequences of his actions.
She felt numb.
Sad.
Betrayed.
Matters came to a head when she arrived home and found a letter from the administrator of the nursing program.
Mrs. Greer had been her administrative counselor and had helped Maisy choose the classes that would best fulfill the requirements needed for the nursing program.
She wrote to say how pleased she was to offer her a scholarship—a large donation had been made in her name.
Mrs. Greer was thrilled to inform Maisy she would be able to complete the program debt-free.
Chase again.
When he called that evening, she hesitated before answering. Her heart felt like it was weighed down with lead. She almost let the call go to voicemail. She wasn’t sure she was ready to confront him. It might have been better to wait, but she couldn’t.
“You had to do it, didn’t you?” she said, not offering him even the shortest of greetings.
“Maisy?”
“You’re the one who made the offer for the store, Chase. Don’t bother to deny it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he flared.
“Please don’t lie. First it was Sean’s truck—I have no idea how you managed that. Then the sale of the store and paying off my grandmother’s hospital bill. Oh, and let’s not forget the so-called scholarship to the nursing program.”
“Maisy, stop. I didn’t do any of that.”
That he would vehemently deny it was even worse.
She didn’t want to believe he was involved.
It was only fair to give him the benefit of the doubt, but research had shown her otherwise.
Just as she’d suspected, the conglomerate that had put in the offer for the store was located in Chicago, with links to Furst Bank.
As much as she wanted to believe Chase wasn’t involved, she had all the proof she needed.
“This changes everything,” she said, unwilling to listen further to his denial.
“What do you mean?”
“It means I…It means it would be best if we were no longer…that we no longer see or talk to each other.”
“What?” he exploded. “If this is a joke, then it’s a terrible one.”
“This is no joke. You promised me, Chase. You gave me your word you wouldn’t meddle in my family’s affairs. You couldn’t stand by and do nothing, even knowing what it would do to our relationship.”
“Maisy, I’m telling you, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t make it even worse than it already is by lying.”
“I’m not lying,” he insisted.
She desperately wanted to believe him. “Don’t you realize what you’ve done?”
“Maisy, please, you’re not making any sense. I swear I wasn’t involved.”
She ignored his denial. “You made it impossible for us to be together. Our relationship is forever changed by this. You might think it was the right thing to do, but later you might come to resent us or feel that we had taken advantage of you. I…believed you would keep your promise because you understood we were determined to deal with our own problems as a family and not have you intervene. Don’t you understand?
This money will always stand between us like a sword, hanging over our heads. ”
“You’re overreacting,” he insisted.
“Am I? Your relationship with my family is ruined. How do you think Sean is going to react when he hears about this? You’ve stripped him of his pride.
You took matters into your own hands and betrayed us all.
We will feel obligated to you for the rest of our lives.
It feels great to have helped, but you made us feel small, and incapable of dealing with our own situation. You took that away from us.”
He went silent while she continued to rant.
“You’ve always had money,” she continued.
“To you it’s the answer to everything. You’ve never had to do without.
Never had to work through a problem, especially when all you needed to do was to write a check.
You have no understanding of what it means to struggle, or the rewards of sacrifice, because money is all you’ve ever known. ”
More silence.
“After my father died, we had to pull together, had to work together as a family. Sean had been living on his own with roommates. He was floundering, drifting from job to job, and from one empty relationship to another. He blew his paychecks on stupid stuff. With Dad gone, he had to settle down, find a career, and help support the family. Who knows how long he would have squandered his life if that hadn’t happened?
You have no concept of the rewards of struggling, of pulling together and making the best of a bad situation. ”
“I don’t understand what your brother has to do with you and me?”
That was his only comment other than to deny the truth after everything she’d said? “You wouldn’t, would you?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Tears streaked down Maisy’s cheeks. “I shouldn’t be talking to you when I’m this upset and angry. Fool that I am, I trusted you to be a man of your word.”
“I didn’t do it,” he shouted.
“Please don’t lie. That only makes your duplicity worse.”
The silence that followed was as thick as a concrete wall.
“Maisy, listen to me. I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m doing my best to hold on to my anger. You’re being utterly ridiculous.”
“Perhaps I am, perhaps I’m overreacting, but I can’t help feeling betrayed.”
“And if I had done everything you claim, one would think you’d be grateful.” Chase was angry now, too.
That said it all. “In other words, you’d be happy if my entire family felt forever indebted to you—that we would be obliged to take into consideration all that we owed you?”
“Yes…no. You’re wrong.”
“I’m not, Chase,” she said, her voice hoarse with pain. “Don’t you understand how this changes everything? Don’t you recognize that while your intentions might have been good, you have destroyed any chance we have of being together?”
“You’re being ridiculous. You couldn’t possibly mean we’re finished.”
“I do, Chase. I mean every word. Rather than let this relationship die a slow death, I’d prefer to make a clean break. I’m sorry…” Her voice cracked then. “It’s over. Please don’t contact me again. I know you meant well, I do…but it’s too much.”
Before he could argue, Maisy disconnected the call.