Five Years Wasted Now They Beg Her Back novel Chapter 208

A week later, Lucian's sentence was handed down.

Two years in prison, suspended for three.

As Grace looked at the copy of the verdict Felix had given her, her fingers felt as if they'd been submerged in ice water.

The red seal on the document stung her eyes.

Suspended.

It meant Lucian wouldn't have to go to prison.

"I'm sorry, Grace."

Damien hugged her from behind, resting his chin in the crook of her neck. His voice was thick with suppressed rage.

"I failed you."

"In this world, there are some rules that even I can't openly break."

Grace shook her head.

She placed the verdict on her lap and smoothed out the creases.

"It's not your fault. I was the one who signed the forgiveness statement."

"I was the one who let him go."

Whenever she thought of her elderly grandfather having to run and hide with her grandmother, who had just had a stroke, just to evade debt collectors, Grace's heart ached so much she could barely breathe.

"Is there any news?"

Grace turned and looked up at Damien.

"We found them."

"They're in a small town in the Aurelian Reach, called Briarwick Hollow."

"Your grandmother is at the town clinic. The conditions... are not great."

Damien paused, seeming to choose his words carefully.

"Your grandfather set up a shoe repair stand near the clinic entrance. He's trying to earn money while taking care of her."

Tears instantly streamed down her face.

Grace covered her mouth, trying to stifle a sob.

A shoe repair stand.

Her grandfather had been an educated man, with beautiful handwriting.

Now, at seventy years old, he had to bend his back on a dusty roadside, mending shoes for others.

All to afford a single IV drip for his wife.

And her?

She had slaved away for the Hart family and endured humiliation with the Wards.

But she had never once thought to go and find them.

She was a terrible person.

"I have to go get them." Grace clutched Damien's sleeve. "Damien, I have to bring them back."

"Okay."

Damien didn't hesitate for a second.

He kissed her wet eyelashes.

"We'll go get them."

He massaged it gently, again and again.

"Grace."

"Hmm?"

"For this trip to the Aurelian Reach, let's fly commercial."

Damien said suddenly.

Grace was taken aback.

A man of Damien's status always traveled by private jet.

"Why?"

Damien kept his head down, his focus entirely on the scar, as if trying to burn its image into his mind.

"I read online that this is what normal couples do."

"They wait in line together, check their baggage together, and eat terrible fast food in the terminal together."

"I want to try that with you."

*I want to try and give you back all the simple, everyday joys you've missed these past five years.*

Grace felt her eyes sting.

She knew what he was doing.

He wanted her to feel like she was a normal person.

Just Damien's wife.

An ordinary woman, loved and cherished by her husband.