Saving Grace by Kimberly McKay

to give her some privacy as she helped her best friend. 
    Philip watched as she sat up – alert.  Mercy jumped up and started pacing their room.
    “It’s not just he.  It’s what did they do?”  Grace cried in response.  “Lilah has used Zach as her personal spy.  All this time, I thought my sister just left – but she was cut off from me.  Lilah cut my own flesh and blood off from me and kept tabs on me with her own personal hand picked boyfriend.”
    “Ew, Zach is her boyfriend?”
    “No, she picked him for me.  She had him over for tea.  It’s how this all started.  And now I think it was just to keep tabs on me.”
    “She’s not even that low.”  Mercy shook her head in disbelief.  She looked to Philip with wide eyes and mouthed the words:  ‘her grandmother’. 
    Philip nodded in understanding.  Mercy had filled him before about Lilah.
    “I don’t know the why behind it all.  I just know she has been holding Anne at arms length and kept me from her calls.  And Zach knew about it and was on the phone with her this morning – telling her he’d do the best he could to keep me from the T.V.” She took a breath. “He said Anne was on television.”
    “For what?” Mercy motioned for Philip’s laptop.  He quickly opened it up and turned it on.
    “I didn’t even ask,” Grace sighed.  “Oh Mercy-Merc.  I’ve been such a fool.” 
    She slid down her door into a sitting position on the ground.  Grace dropped her head on her knees and cried.
    “If Anne’s been trying to reach you all these years – and Lilah circumvented somehow …”
    Grace interrupted.  “By losing my phone and giving me a new number.  It turns out she kept the old one for herself and read any texts Anne may have sent – or listened to any messages …”
    “…And didn’t pass them on.  Just gave you a new phone, and left you wondering why you sister gave up on you?”  Mercy finished for her – and then whispered to Philip, with her hand over the phone.  “Philip – Google Anne LaSal and see what pops up.”
    “Yeah,” she groaned.  “My poor sis.  This whole time I’ve been listening to Lilah’s input on how my sister was just like my mom – running away and not looking back.  And here she was trying to reach out and getting nothing in return.”
    “Honey, I hate to ask this.  But - if she didn’t hear from you … why didn’t she just come to visit?”  Mercy treaded lightly. 
    “I don’t blame her for that.  As of right now, I’m never going back.  I finally understand my sister.  I always defended Lilah.”
    Mercy recognized that Grace used her first name forgoing the term grandmother.
    “Mercy, I’m done.”  Grace drew from her initial anger and stood up.
     
    After a few drinks, Zach’s anger turned to rage.   He stood in his doorway staring daggers at her closed door, thinking of ways to repay her. He’d had just enough alcohol that it overrode any common sense in the matter.
    He heard her crying through her door and smiled.  Good, he liked her better that way.  He took a swig of the last of his scotch and set down the glass with a hard thud.  He turned to stare across the suite and narrowed his eyes at her doorknob.
    Grace was just about to hang up, when she heard him banging on her door and trying to force open her door.
    “Open up!  We need to talk.”  He pounded harder.
    “Grace!” Mercy hollered into the phone. “Is that Zach?”
    “Yes,” Grace whispered and shied away from the door.   “But don’t worry.  I have my own room and the door’s locked.” 
    “Honey, that doesn’t sound good.”   Mercy’s heart beat picked back up.  She was truly scared for her friend.  “Can you get out of there?”
    Although Grace was just as scared, she reassured her friend.  There was no point in alerting her friend of the monster she thought Zach really was.  What could Mercy do from there?
    “I’m okay.  It’s okay.  He’ll calm down and