If for Any Reason (Nantucket Love Story #1) - Courtney Walsh Page 0,126
want to know the truth,” she said. “All of it.”
Grandma drew in a terse breath and let it out as a heavy sigh. “What do you want to know? Did we do everything in our power to make sure you had the very best life you possibly could? Of course we did, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
Emily narrowed her gaze on her grandmother. “You’d do what again?”
Emily had never seen her grandmother flustered until that exact moment. She looked—for the first time Emily could remember—like a woman who didn’t know what to say. Like a woman who’d run out of sentences to deflect and detract from the truth. She looked like she’d been caught.
“Your mother was so young, Emily,” Grandma said after several long seconds. “She was young and foolish, and she thought she loved that boy.”
Emily resisted the urge to interrupt.
“After she found out she was pregnant, Isabelle had a grand delusion that she was going to marry this boy—this golf caddie.”
She said the words as if they were a swear.
“We knew it wouldn’t do,” Eliza said. “We knew there was no way Jack Walker could provide for our daughter. Isabelle was going to college. She was a star student. She was an Ackerman.”
“And Jack Walker was a poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks.”
“Oh, I know how it sounds,” Grandma said. “It sounds cliché. It sounds like a story you’ve heard over and over in the movies, but it was true. That boy wasn’t good enough for Isabelle, and he certainly wasn’t good enough for you.”
Grandma’s lips drew into a tight, thin line.
“So what did you do?”
She shrugged, her face innocent. “I did what any sane mother would’ve done. I laid out the options for Jack.”
“The options?”
“We went to see Jack Walker at the yacht club. He was out in the back laughing it up with his buddies as if he didn’t have a care in the world. As if his actions hadn’t caused irreparable damage.”
“Did he know my mom was pregnant?”
“Of course he knew,” Eliza said. “Who do you think put those ridiculous ideas of getting married and living in some tiny apartment in Boston in her head?”
Emily shook her head. “I didn’t know about those ridiculous ideas.”
“Well, your mother wouldn’t listen to reason. She was dead set on playing house with the poor kid she met on Nantucket. We all know how that would’ve ended.”
“So you went to see him . . .”
“And we made it plain. We simply showed him the truth of the situation.”
“Which was?”
“That we could provide a life for the two of you that he never could.”
“So you told him he wasn’t good enough for her.”
“Not just her,” Eliza said. “You too.”
Emily didn’t know what to say. She had no words. Her grandmother was completely unapologetic for her actions, as if they were perfectly justified.
“It’s kind of hard to believe he would’ve walked away without a fight,” Emily said. “I mean, if they were so crazy about each other.”
“Well, once Alan told him we’d cut her off if they went through with their ridiculous plan, Jack saw the error of his ways.”
Emily’s stomach twisted into a tight knot. “He told him what?”
“Don’t be so surprised,” Eliza said. “We simply explained that if he stayed in our daughter’s life, we would no longer support her. That’s what being an adult is, after all. Did he really want to be the reason Isabelle lost her trust fund and everything else she stood to inherit? That was enough to make him walk away.”
“Because you made him think he couldn’t take care of us,” Emily said. “You made him believe that your way of life was the only way for us to be happy.”
“I wasn’t wrong,” Grandma said.
“Did my mother know you did this?”
Emily watched as her grandmother wrapped her arms around herself as if she suddenly needed protection. For the first time since they started their conversation, Eliza looked slightly sad.
“I’m tired, Emily,” Grandma said. “Let’s finish talking about this tomorrow.”
“No.” Emily stood. “She didn’t know my father loved her. She thought he left her because of me. I’ve spent my whole life believing that I was the reason she never got her happy ending.”
“Emily, none of this had anything to do with you,” Eliza said.
“How can you say that?” Emily raised her voice. “This whole thing happened because of me.”
“That’s not true.”
“Did she find out what you did, Grandma?”
Her grandmother sighed. “Not at first. But that summer, the summer