Too Late, Mr. Granville

Mr. Granville, You're Too Late Prologue My exboyfriend only found out I was married a year after we broke up.

Back then he walked out on me again to go overseas with his heartbroken childhood friend. I told him we were done. He said to suit myself.

He was sure five years together meant I'd never be able to leave. He figured I was just throwing a tantrum.

A year later, the day he got back, a friend held a phone up in front of him, my Instagram on the screen. "You and Philippa got married at the courthouse yesterday and didn't tell any of us?" Maxwell's face went still. "Who got married?" "You and Philippa." Then someone else suddenly spoke up. "That's not right.

Max was on a plane all day yesterday." At that, the private room went dead silent. Chapter 1 Maxwell sat dead center of the banquette, legs crossed, long and lean.

Half his face was in shadow, and no one could read his expression. After a while he spoke, unhurried. "What are you all guessing at?

Never heard of Photoshop?" Someone jumped in right away. "Right, right.

My money's on Philippa hearing Max was coming back and faking a picture to scare him." "Max was gone a whole year. She's been sitting on it." "Easy enough to find out.

Call her over now. Max sweettalks her for two minutes and the whole thing falls apart." … When Trevor called, I was working on the wedding invitations. "Philippa, Max is back.

The Brass Lantern, room twelve. Get over here." I turned him down. "It's late. I'll pass." That stopped Trevor short. "It's Max.

You don't want to see him?" I couldn't blame him for being surprised. There was a time when wherever Maxwell was, I was there too. They all said Philippa was Maxwell's lapdog.

The kind that didn't need a leash. But that was a year ago. "I'm not coming. Tell him welcome back for me." Trevor didn't like that. "It was just one year of long distance.

You're really going to hold a grudge over that?" "And anyway, he's back, isn't he?

If there were ever going to be something between him and Vanessa, you'd never have been in the picture." It wasn't the first time I'd heard it.

They all said I was the jealous type. "Maxwell's had plenty of girlfriends.

You're the only one who makes trouble." "Why does nobody else mind Vanessa, and you're the only one who can't stand her?" "If your family weren't on the same level as the Granvilles, why do you think he stayed with you five years?" Even Maxwell said it. "Be good.

Don't make a scene. It won't do you any favors." So when he chased his childhood friend out of the country again, I didn't make a scene.

I went along with what my family arranged, and I got married. Trevor's voice pulled me back. "Philippa, are you really going to do this to Max? Don't forget what he said last time.

That was the last time he was going to talk you down." The last time he meant was a year ago, before Maxwell left the country. Vanessa had just been dumped.

She let herself into my home in the middle of the night. She sat outside our bedroom door and cried.

Maxwell was a breath from the point of no return, and her crying stopped him cold.

He got off me, pulled on a robe, and stood up. "I'll go check on her." I held the blanket against me. "You're not coming back tonight either?" "We'll see." I didn't say anything else.

Once he was dressed, he looked back at me. "You're not angry?" Any other time I'd have fought about it, made a scene.

This time I just shook my head. "I'm not." Chapter 2 Maxwell started to ask something else, but Vanessa's crying outside got louder.

On his way out he tossed the words over his shoulder. "I'll be right back." Just before he was out of sight, I heard his voice through the door, hurting for her. "It's just a breakup.

What are you crying for? I'll get someone to settle it for you…" He didn't come home that night.

Naturally, that also meant he forgot the promise he'd made the day before, to come with me to my followup appointment. I went to the hospital alone the next morning.

I thought it was a formality, a doctor reading two lines of results out loud. It never occurred to me that God had a joke this big lined up for me.

People kept moving up and down the hallway. I held the report, a sheet of paper so thin it had almost no weight, and the cold went all the way into my bones.

Half an hour earlier, the doctor had pulled up the images, pointed at a shadow, and told me something was growing there. "A craniotomy carries risk.

Without it, two years at the most." I leaned against the cold wall, and for a long time my fingertip hesitated over Maxwell's name in my contacts.

Before I could put the words together, the phone rang. It was one of Maxwell's boys. It was loud on his end, but he spoke like this was the obvious thing to ask. "Max is in trouble.

They've got him at the precinct. None of us are in town. Go deal with it." He hung up before I could answer. All I could do was put the report away, call a car, and hurry over.

When I got to the precinct, Vanessa was holding Maxwell's face in her hands, her eyes red, cleaning up his cuts.

Maxwell watched her with something not quite a smile. "Keep crying like that and I'll start thinking you're about to offer yourself up." Vanessa smacked his chest, annoyed. "You wish." It couldn't have hurt.

It was closer to flirting. Maxwell sucked in a breath anyway and clutched his chest like he was in agony. He was about to say something when he caught sight of me.

He froze, and without thinking he put Vanessa behind him. "Why are you the one who came?" I didn't answer.

I went straight to the uniformed officer behind the desk. "What's your relationship to him?" the officer asked, routine. "I'm his girlfriend." The officer glanced at me, amused. "Loyal guy you've got." That was how I found out Maxwell had gotten into a fight with Vanessa's ex to settle the score for her.

By the time the bail paperwork was done, Maxwell was the only one left in the hallway. Vanessa had gone at some point. He came over and reached for my hand like it was nothing.

I moved my hand away, went around him without a word, and headed for the door. He hesitated, then caught up in a few long strides.

He took hold of my arm, his voice careful. "Are you angry?" I still said nothing.

I only wanted my arm back. "Okay, okay, it's my fault." His voice slid into that sweet trailing tone he always used to smooth me over. "I'll make it up to you when we get home.

All right?" When I didn't answer, he bent closer, softer than before. "You don't like me fighting?

I promise, never again." He explained it patiently. "Her boyfriend's a piece of garbage. He cheated on her and then blamed her for it.

I just taught him a lesson." "I promise I won't put my hands on anyone again. Don't be angry, okay?" While he talked, his fingers slipped into my palm and scratched it lightly.

That little move used to be the one thing I could never hold out against. Every time before, he only had to do it, and half of whatever I was angry about was gone.

Chapter 3 This time all I felt was a wave of disgust out of nowhere, and I jerked my hand back. His face closed off a little, but he didn't say anything more.

Neither of us spoke the whole way. Back home, I went into the primary bedroom and shut the door behind me. When I came out I was pulling a suitcase.

Maxwell was cooking in the kitchen. He turned at the sound, and the moment he saw the suitcase his eyes froze, with a flash of panic behind them. "You're leaving?" I nodded.

He came over and took hold of the suitcase handle, softening his voice to coax me. "I was wrong.

Don't go, please?" "Let's both cool off for a while." "I don't accept that." He reached out and pulled me in.

His face went into the curve of my neck, his voice muffled and rough. "I regret it.

I shouldn't have done something that dangerous and made you worry…" "I know anything I say right now sounds like an excuse.

I promise, nothing you don't like will ever happen again." Maxwell always knew how to talk me down.

His voice was low and hoarse, and even the sharpness in his face had gone soft. "Don't go. Please?" Maybe it was being sick, but I gave in easier than usual.

With him looking at me like that, I nodded, and I couldn't have said why. I thought a promise like that came with a shelf life measured in years.

I never expected his "ever" to last all of three days. In the end I still meant to tell Maxwell I was sick.

Something had come up for my parents, and they couldn't get back for two weeks. I needed someone to talk to about the surgery.

I found Maxwell drinking in the private room with Trevor and the rest of the guys. I was about to push the door open when I heard Trevor. "Nobody does it like Max.

Already got Philippa smoothed over. Share some technique with the rest of us." Vanessa laughed. "What technique? Philippa's just stupid. She's easy to fool." Trevor snorted. "True.

The Carringtons kept her way too sheltered. Call it innocent if you're being nice.

If you're not, well… she's far too easy to play." Maxwell, who hadn't said a word until then, laughed low, his voice careless. "However easy she is to talk down, doing it every time wears thin." He paused. "This is the last time." Vanessa jumped in. "Not yet, it isn't.

You promised me you'd get her to hand over that account of hers." "The one she's been killing herself over for three months?" Trevor raised an eyebrow. "She'd agree to that?" Maxwell didn't answer.

But the certainty in his eyes came back to cut me over and over for a long time afterward. I turned to go. Someone called from behind me. "Philippa?

Why are you standing out here?" Inside, the talk and laughter cut off. Someone pushed me in. Every pair of eyes landed on me.

Vanessa stood up first, a smile pasted on. "Philippa, you're here.

Good timing, there's something I wanted to talk to you about." She came over and linked her arm through mine like we were close. "You've got that account you've been on for three months, right?

Could I take it?" "Don't worry, if it lands I won't take the credit away from you." I didn't look at her.

I looked at Maxwell. "Is that what you think too?" Maxwell turned a lighter over in his fingers. "She just got dumped, she's in a bad place. Let her have this one.

I'll get you a better one later." I said nothing. Vanessa kept going. "We're all friends here. Friends don't keep score like—" She didn't finish. I backhanded her.

Chapter 4 The crack of it went off in the room.

Vanessa covered her cheek, her eyes wide with disbelief. "You— you actually hit me?" "Who the hell do you think you are?" I said, looking right at her. "You think you're anywhere near good enough to take the account out of my hands?" Maxwell shot up and caught my wrist, hard enough it felt like he meant to crush the bone. "Philippa, what the hell is wrong with you?" I looked up at him.

Looking at the anger churning in his eyes, I suddenly laughed. "You're right. Something is wrong with me.

Something's wrong with my head, or I wouldn't have believed your garbage over and over again." The room was dead quiet. Only my own voice was left ringing in my ears.

Maxwell's hand was still around my wrist. Something was gathering in his eyes that I couldn't read. I didn't dig into it. I didn't want to understand whatever it was.

The hand on my wrist was hot and sticky, like ointment I couldn't wipe off. The familiar nausea started creeping up. I wrenched free.

I looked at the clear red marks on my wrist and kept my voice cold. "If you feel that sorry for her, give her the better account yourself.

Stop scheming for what's mine." As I turned, I looked at Vanessa. "The account, I'm not giving up." "The man, if you want him, take him." Then I left without looking back.

The hallway was wide and empty. No footsteps came after me. About what I expected. Just as well. At least I'd seen what he really was before any wedding.

After that day, Maxwell and I were completely out of contact. I got ready for the surgery, kept up with work, and the two of us were done with each other for good.

I thought that was how it ended between us. Until the day before the surgery. In a hospital corridor, I saw him again.

He was easing Vanessa along, careful with her, the two of them coming out of the OB/GYN office