Chapter Text
***
“So I just need to pull a card?”
Every single eye in the room was on Grace as she reached forward and plucked the playing card from the game box. The scrutiny was intense and unsettling. Even though he wasn’t saying anything, she could tell that Alex was nervous. Anxious.
For some reason, this tiny little moment felt like it could be world-changing.
She glanced awkwardly at all of the Le Domas family and read the game printed on the card. “Checkers.”
Alex looked like he wanted to collapse, a weak smile finally returning to his mouth. Mrs. Le Domas looked so pleased, she began beaming.
“So we just play Checkers?” Grace asked, still a bit confused by the whole situation, as she handed the card back to her new Father-in-law. “That’s it?”
He smiled at her and said lightly, “That’s it.”
***
Even though Grace wanted to stay longer, the next morning Alex had already packed all of their things and had the car ready to go at eight in the morning. He was uncharacteristically firm about leaving on time, even though Grace whined and cajoled, “Can’t we at least stay for breakfast?”. But she could see how stressed and upset he was, so she kissed his cheek and climbed into the car.
It was only until they were about thirty minutes down the highway that Alex finally seemed to relax and breathe easy.
“All things considered, I didn’t think your family was that bad.”
His brow furrowed, like he wasn’t sure how to respond, and finally settled for, “You don’t know the half of it.”
“Sooo…” she drew out carefully, “…we’re not doing Christmas? Thanksgiving? Birthdays?”
Alex shook his head.
“We are staying as far away from them as humanly possible.”
She sat back, put out. Alex wouldn’t respond to any of her teasing or light-hearted attempts to talk about his family. Or the fact that cutting them off after the wedding made the whole marriage thing…moot. Grace had been looking forward to belonging to a family, which meant phone calls and holidays and dinners and corny email chains.
“You aren’t telling me something.”
Alex reached over and squeezed her hand.
“All that matters is you are safe.”
***
The honeymoon period was fantastic. A perfect fairytale – so long as Grace didn’t bring up the ‘F’ word, family. They spent a month traveling around Asia, they put up a cute ‘Mr. and Mrs.’ Sign in their apartment, and Grace got a thrill whenever someone called her “Mrs. Le Domas” or got to introduce Alex as “my husband”.
She managed to sneak a few phone calls to Becky, her mother-in-law, when Alex wasn’t home. She lamented that he was being stubborn and that she wanted them to be more involved in family gatherings, and Becky was sweet and understanding. Encouraged her to hang in there and that was a typical trait of the Le Domas men – they were stubborn.
“We’ll see each other soon, sweetheart. If my Alex has his head screwed on straight, he’ll do whatever to make his wife happy. You just need to be patient.”
She did get DM’s on Instagram from Emilie occasionally, though they were sporadic and usually came in rapid-fire at 3AM, a stream of consciousness ramble. Grace had worked with enough cokeheads when she was a server to get the gist.
Otherwise, their married life looked a lot like their life before. Alex studied for the bar and when he passed, they went out for a ridiculously nice dinner. They still went for their morning runs, took a spin class, did their weekly shop at Whole Foods, and on Sunday nights they snuggled up on the couch, split an edible and watched trashy reality TV.
For their first year anniversary, Alex flew her to Paris for the weekend. For most of the year, Grace felt like they were boring, ordinary people that she sometimes forgot Alex had money. Correction, that his family had money.
The family she wasn’t allowed to bring up, unless she wanted to see a raincloud over Alex’s face. And even standing on the Eiffel Tower, watching the sun set, enjoying the most romantic trip she’d ever been on – Grace felt like something was missing. She had no one to tell this to, to brag about her amazing husband who spoiled her, couldn’t take a goofy selfie with him here and plan on making Christmas cards to send to her family.
Briefly, she thought about calling Faith – but the last phone number she had tracked down had been disconnected. Her baby sister didn’t exist either, in any way that mattered.
Grace began her second year as a married woman with a single grey cloud ruining her perfect fantasy. It felt like a small price to pay, in exchange for a charmed life. She wondered if she’d ruin it all, fixating on this distance from her in-laws. She didn’t want it to, but it nagged at her. What happened when she and Alex had kids? Would he still insist on this coldness? Never letting them meet their grandparents?
Later, Grace would wish she could live in this ignorance, this mundane dissatisfaction. Because she got exactly what she asked for.
“Alex, what’s wrong?”
The concierge had a parcel addressed to him, though he hadn’t been expecting anything. It looked fancy, wrapped in nice paper, definitely not another Amazon package.
When Alex opened it there was a note inside with beautiful calligraphy, bound with a wax seal and silk ribbon. Everything looked so fancy, that it made Grace wonder if it was connected at all to his family.
And when Alex read it over, his face went completely pale.
“What is it?” She touched his shoulder, worried, but he was still too frozen to speak. Grace glanced at the letter.
Your presence is requested for the coronation of Titus Chester Danforth & Ursula Michelle Danforth.
“A coronation?” Grace almost laughed in surprise, “Do you know royalty?”
Alex pressed the heel of his palm against his head, staving off a headache. He began to pace, panic building, as he shook his head, “Not royalty…fuck. Fuck.”
Grace had never seen him react this way.
“Hey, we don’t have to go. It’s okay.”
But he shook his head again, face grim.
“We have to.”