Chapter 3 - The Letters He Hid From Her
Grace opened the oldest envelope with shaking hands.
Walter had written it when she was twenty-one and preparing to graduate from Northwestern University.
He congratulated her, reminded her that her mother had believed education should make people kinder rather than more arrogant, and asked Grace to visit him at Saint Vincent Behavioral Center.
A handwritten note across the envelope read RETURN TO SENDER—RECIPIENT REFUSES CONTACT.
Grace had never seen it.
The second letter was sent after her first charity campaign.
The third followed her engagement to Daniel.
In that one, Walter warned that the Mercer family was using the Hale Trust to purchase distressed apartment buildings, remove low-income tenants and convert the properties into luxury rentals.
Grace had spent years publicly praising those same projects as examples of neighborhood renewal.
Daniel had written her speeches.
He had selected the families photographed at ribbon-cutting ceremonies.
He had also ensured she never met the tenants displaced before construction began.
Grace felt the humiliation of realizing her compassion had been turned into advertising.
Daniel said Walter was manipulating her guilt.
He claimed the letters had been intercepted because doctors considered contact harmful to Walter’s treatment.
Ms. Reed requested the medical authorization supporting that claim.
Daniel produced nothing.
Walter revealed that he founded the Hale Trust with money inherited from his father, a South Side factory owner.
Unlike his father, Walter transferred company shares to employees and used the profits to provide housing and college scholarships.
Richard Mercer served as his attorney.
After Grace’s parents died, Walter became her guardian and planned to make her co-director when she turned thirty.
Before that could happen, Richard persuaded a judge that Walter was mentally unstable.
The judge approved emergency confinement after a private hearing Walter was never allowed to attend.
Grace asked Daniel whether he knew.
He admitted learning about the letters after their engagement but said he believed Walter was dangerous.
Grace asked why Daniel had never let her decide for herself.
He answered, “Because you were finally becoming one of us.”
Walter looked at the luxury stores surrounding them.
“Grace was never supposed to become one of you,” he said.
“She was supposed to change what people like you do.”
Then Ms. Reed opened Walter’s final letter.
May you like
It warned Grace that her parents’ deaths had not been accidental.
Richard Mercer had been driving the other car.
