Into the Fire - Leslie Kelly [74]
"You can't think I was anything but thrilled to find you!"
She sighed. "How could I not think that, J.T.?"
"I loved and wanted you from the minute you wrote me." He sounded indignant. "It was your mother and her husband who—"
"Hold on a sec," she interrupted him. "I was there, remember? You were perfectly happy letting me into your world for two weeks every summer. You loved playing dad, spoiling me rotten, then getting back to your regularly scheduled life for the rest of the year." She'd shocked him into silence. "I know you love me, J.T.," she continued gently. "I love you, too. But let's be honest about this—a full-time teenage daughter would have put a real cramp in your lifestyle. You were quite happy with Mom's solution. All of you seemed quite happy with it."
Finally, after a long, drawn-out pause, he said softly, "Everyone except you?"
Lacey never answered his question. She was still thinking about it later that day when her mother finally called. "Mom, are you all right? I've been waiting to hear from you all day."
"Everything's fine, Lacey," Donna replied. "Your father and I have had a nice talk."
Lacey knew she meant her stepfather. Her mother never called her real father anything but J.T. "Dad took it okay?"
Donna let out a shrill laugh. "Oh, yes. He went over to talk to your grandparents. He's not back yet."
Lacey cringed. "What about Jake?"
"We told your brother this morning. I think he'll be fine in a few days."
"I'll call him."
"That would be nice, Lacey, I'm sure he'd love to hear from you. But wait until Monday. He's staying with a friend now."
Lacey understood what that meant. "Hell come around, just give him time. What about Dad's congregation?"
Her mother laughed again, and again Lacey didn't like the sound. "As a matter of fact, the timing is not so bad. Your father plans to rework his sermon for tomorrow's services. He's going to admit everything and use our marriage as an example of the power of forgiveness."
Lacey closed her eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry."
"Why? It's fine! I'm just thankful I married someone so understanding and forgiving."
Lacey couldn't bite back her retort. "You must be joking." She heard silence on the phone. "Mom, he's been punishing you since the day I was born."
"Lacey Clark !"
"Be honest—with yourself, at least, if not with me. Standing in that pulpit and proclaiming his goodness for forgiving his sinning wife? What is that if not more punishment? God, I'd rather spend my life alone than stay with a man who said he forgave but never even tried to forget—and never let you forget it, either!"
Her mother's shocked silence finally became tears. Lacey started crying right along with her, apologizing for her harshness, almost wishing she'd left it alone and not spoken her mind. After all, she'd gone many years without saying what she thought.
Finally, after a few minutes, her mother managed to shock her in return. "You're right, Lacey. I know you are. I did something selfish and foolish when I was young—just a dumb teenage military bride who spent a total of three weeks with her husband the first year of her marriage."
Lacey remained silent. Her mother had never volunteered details about her affair with J.T.
"I went to visit a friend in the big city, and a handsome, wealthy man swept me off my feet."
"Mom, you were a kid," Lacey said, hearing her mother's self-recrimination. "Don't tear yourself up over this anymore."
Her mother sniffed, obviously drying her tears. "I know. You're right. I deeply regret hurting Charles, and I'm thankful he didn't end our marriage when he found out I was pregnant. But I've been apologizing and trying to make it up to him for more than two decades. I think I've been punished long enough."
"Yes, Mom, you have."
By the time they'd finished their telephone conversation, Lacey felt closer to her mother than she had in years. She realized something else, too, about the way she'd challenged her mother to admit the truth—Nate would have been proud of her.
* * *
When Lacey arrived in her office