.dreizehn.
When Bastian heard from Marco that Jude was working at the bakery alone because Grace refused to get out of bed, the Bayern footballer took it as his chance to visit her. He parked his car in front of her house, the back window had been fixed and Bastian had promptly sent the bill to Marco, and he looked out for any deranged maniac trying to destroy his expensive car. By that, he meant that he was looking out to make sure Jude was gone.
Adding to his paranoia and fear of Jude, Bastian had actually gone out and bought a metal shield to protect himself from any attack. Maybe it was too much, but Bastian didn't want to take any chances.
Bastian sneaking made his way to the front door and rang the door bell, calling Grace's name at the same time. His first few attempts got no answer, but minutes later she finally came to the door. Her straight, jet black, hair was pulled back into a messy pony tail and she was dressed in a night robe. Her eyes were red and puffy.
"I'm so sorry, Gracie." He blurted out. It was the first thing he could think to say to her.
Grace shook her head. "You don't have to apologize, Bastian. I'm upset because of bad memories I haven't been able to shake away."
"I'm just a guy with a shield." He shrugged his shoulders, and then added, "But you can talk to me about it if it'll make you feel better."
"A very handsome guy with a shield." She clarified. "Why did you bring it anyway?"
Bastian grinned. "I came to see you and apologize a couple of weeks ago. I didn't even make it to the front door because your kid smashed my car windows. So I bought this shield at a Halloween costume shop. I needed something to protect me from Jude's wrath."
Grace shook her head as a slight laugh escaped her lips. "I'll have to scold Jude for that. I'm very sorry, Basti."
"I probably deserved it."
The mere sight of his presence was already making her feel better. It was the fact that he had taken the time to visit her at all that made her feel she should give him another chance. Gesturing into the house, she offered to him, "Do you want to come in? You'll have to excuse me being all messy like this, but I honestly haven't gotten out of bed unless it was to eat, shower, or use the toilet."
He shook his head, "You're beautiful in anything, Gracie. Really."
"Well, you're so sweet." She reached over and pinched his cheek playfully.
Then she turned and led him into the house. Inside, Bastian made himself comfortable on the living room couch while Grace went to make some coffee.
He had assured her he was okay, but she insisted.
The woman with jet black hair returned with two cups of coffee and a small plate of pastries. As soon as she set them on the coffee table, he grabbed a pastry off the plate. He hadn't tried them before, but he head heard from friends at Borussia Dortmund that Jude made the best pastries. Since the bakery belonged to Grace as well, he knew she was probably good at baking too.
Heaving a sigh, Grace began to speak, "I was fourteen and in my ninth year of school when I met Jude's dad."
She paused for a moment to take a sip from her cup of coffee and then continued. Her eyes were looking forward, they would not meet with Bastian's. It was like she was staring into space, having flashbacks of whatever happened that day.
"I was on the football team and he was our nineteen year old assistant coach." She explained. "I never got a good feeling when I was around him. He was handsome." Grace admitted, recalling the first time she met him. "But he had a bad vibe. Like when you don't understand why, but you can feel that someone isn't a good person."
"One day, coach couldn't make it to practice after school, so she asked him to take over for the afternoon." She paused once more and it was then that Bastian noticed her voice caught in her throat. Her dark brown eyes glazed over slightly. "Everything went by okay, until he asked me to stay behind to help him put away the equipment. I knew I shouldn't have gone with him alone, but I thought that it was probably my imagination and that I would be okay. I should have listened to the fear in the pit of my stomach. I-"
She couldn't even finish. Grace bit down on her lip to hold back a sob.
Bastian frowned, knowing clearly what had happened to her, "Oh, Grace-"
He pulled her into his arms and let her cry into his chest. He said nothing, just listened as she cried and held her tighter.
"He told me that if I dared to tell anyone, I would regret it. But that no one would believe me anyway because he had such a good reputation around the school. Everyone loved and respected him. So I stupidly kept quiet, as if it had been my own fault. The very next day I quit the team." She explained when she was finally able to compose herself. "I was only fourteen, I didn't know any better."
"Months later I found out I was pregnant with Jude and I told my parents what happened to me." She sniffed, wiping the wet tears from her face. Bastian still held her close, his heart aching for her and all that she went through. "They thought I was lying and kicked me out of the house. They said if I thought I was old enough to have sex, then I should go live with my boyfriend and figure things out on my own. I didn't have a boyfriend."
"Everyone at school picked on me because I was pregnant. They made rumors that I was sleeping around with all the boys. I lost all my friends. I completely hit rock bottom." She told him. Bastian felt terrible. Just when things couldn't have gotten any worse for her, she told him another bit of her story that was much more depressing than the bit before it.
"But then," She breathed, "I met a woman who worked at a halfway house called Mary Help of Christians and she allowed me to stay there until I could find a job and save enough money to move out. They helped me finish school. When Jude was born, I was fifteen and had already opened the bakery. I never saw Jude's dad again, and I have no interest in seeing him. He doesn't deserve our baby because I had Jude after that horrible thing he did to me."
Bastian was speechless.
He now truly admired Grace for everything she had accomplished, and how strong she truly was. She could have chosen to not have her baby, or put it up for adoption, which would have been understandable given the circumstances in which she had Jude. But instead she chose to fight, and she loved her baby as though it had been conceived in love.
When Bastian was finally able to put together words, he said to her, "Grace...you are an amazing woman. I can't believe you went through all that by yourself."
She shrugged her shoulders. "The way I saw it was that I had two choices: I could have sat on the streets and cried about it, after my parents kicked me out. Or I could have gotten up, dusted myself off and done something about it, for me and for my baby. The second was a better option. In this life you will fall many times. But its how many times you get up that is important." Her lips formed into a small smile.
The two spent the rest of the afternoon talking about better things. And it seemed, that Grace was back to her old self. It had been that she only needed someone to talk to. Someone who would listen.
And Bastian was willing to listen to her as long as she wanted him to.
The mere sound of his voice was one of the things that was making him fall in love with Grace Wopschall.
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kinda depressing chapter. but from here there are three more chapters and the epilogue, so there isn't much more.
thank you all so much for reading. it meant so much to me.
blessings, clary xx
