Camera Flashes (1) - Taylor Swift

49

Michael, Grace and Amber sat at the pine wood table with coffee cups as little Gracie went to colour on the coffee table in the connected living room. The small table in the kitchen was a vast contrast to the one they had grown up with, there were many dining rooms but never a kitchen one so comfortable, so close to the actual cooking area.

Grace wrapped her hands around the warm mug as she watched her niece scribble on loose paper after paper without a care in the world, "We should have had that."

"I know," Michael replied softly, little memories of his past snuck up on him, "You don't have to tell me, I know."

"Have you been happy?" She finally looked at him, she wanted to make sure. It felt obvious, he could have picked anything in the world with the money they had at eighteen, the trust was newly available and they were educated enough to know just how far it could get someone— and he picked a farm in nowhere New York.

"The happiest," he nodded sincerely, "Happier now that you're here."

"Why did you leave?" She also needed to know that because it had been destroying her from the inside for nearly a quarter of her life.

Michael shifted his eyes away as his smile left, she looked at the black coffee in his mug and inhaled as Amber touched his forearm for support, "I was suffocating there. I know you had it bad 'cause they didn't want a third kid, especially not a girl— but for me it was bad, too. Everything was always about William, I was just back up and they reminded me of that all the time. I didn't want that life and I was so depressed for so long. I felt like I was going to die if I didn't go so I planned to get out, clear my head and then come back for you once I had things sorted because I was afraid that you would talk me out of it if I told you before I went. I was going to get somewhere to stay lined up and come back and get you if you wanted to come."

"You didn't come back. You left me there."

"I wanted to but before I even had the chance to get out of London they found me. I refused to come back so Robert said he would let me keep the money if I never showed up again. He gave me a new life on the condition that he got to keep tabs on me and I laid low. I know he told William because he called me the next day and chewed me out, I thought you would have known too so I didn't come back. I figured if you wanted out you would find me, Robert's known where I've been since the first week, he even got the new identity for me. Mike Robertson, he needed one last reminder that I would never truly be out from under his thumb."

"So there wasn't a clean way out," Grace put her elbows up on the table and held her head, "I've spent the last seven years trying to figure out how you left without a trace but you didn't— you couldn't. I knew there wasn't a way."

"I tried but he's got everyone in his pocket. Even Louis. You and I thought he was our little secret digging into stuff for us but nope, he was working for him all along."

"Louis...? No, don't tell me Louis knew, too."

"That's who I thought you were when you pulled in. He stops by every few months and reports back to father dearest."

"Louis was the one I had looking for you. So he knew and he lied to me every week for years. He lied to me last night, even. Who else knows? Don't tell me Charlie or Parker, please, don't tell me they knew and have all been lying to me," her mouth went dry as she considered the idea of being betrayed by everyone in her life.

"Not that I know of," Michael shook his head surely, "What about Charlie? You're engaged, I saw the announcement. You mentioned a girlfriend."

Grace blushed at the thought for a split second and then her stomach dropped as she remembered the sad reality she had been ignoring, "She just left me because I was too scared to break things off with him in case you came back. I was with her almost eight months. My relationship with Charlie is fake."