Riven - Jerry B. Jenkins [122]
“Tell us what?” Grace said.
“In here,” Thomas said, moving to the living room, where he sat carefully in his chair, cradling Summer to his chest.
Ravinia and Grace sat on the couch.
“Dirk and I are taking some time apart,” Ravinia said.
“You’re separated?”
“Not formally.”
“What does that mean?” Grace said.
“What?” Ravinia said. “You’re not happy? I thought you’d be ecstatic. I know how you feel about Dirk.”
“Don’t say that, Rav,” Grace said. “The last thing we want is for Summer to become the product of a broken home.”
“Well, it’s not broken yet, but we’ve got work to do.”
“What’s the problem?” Thomas said quietly. “Is he seeing another woman?”
Ravinia looked down, and Thomas knew. “Rav, not you.”
She nodded.
“Ravinia!” Grace said. “What are you saying?”
“It was nothing serious. It just happened.”
“Don’t give me that,” Grace said. “Nothing just happens. You violated your wedding vows?”
“Yes, and I’m going to hell and will pay for it for all eternity, okay? Does that make you happy?”
“Rav, please. What happened?”
“Dirk and I were both working long hours and not seeing each other much. I thought he wasn’t spending enough time with the baby and certainly not with me. I was lonely. We argued. He stormed out. He’d spend a couple of nights at a friend’s and then come back. We’d work it out, forgive each other, and then it would happen again. Just getting on each other’s nerves, you know? Well, no, I don’t guess you do know. You never did that. I used to think that was so phony, that you were just faking it, not sticking up for yourselves just so you could say you were getting along. I thought normal couples fought. Well, they do. Everybody I know does. Hardly anybody I work with is still even on their first marriage.”
“Sad,” Grace said.
“But true. That’s life, Mom. Real life.”
“You’re supposed to put others above yourself, and that starts at home.”
Ravinia stood and moved to the picture window. “You know what, Mom?” she said, her back to them. “I’m not even going to argue. You guys have always done that. I have to hand it to you.”
“I can never tell whether you’re being serious or sarcastic, Ravinia,” Grace said.
Ravinia turned to face her. “Dead serious, Mom. I admire your commitment to each other. I really do.”
“Well, thanks for that, but let’s get back to you and Dirk. Have you ended this other relationship?”
“It wasn’t a relationship, Mom. It was a one-time thing. But I did tell Dirk about it.”
“And what did he say?”
“He didn’t say anything. I have never seen such pain in his eyes, and I never want to again. I’ve written him, talked with him. I feel terrible. I mean, I don’t think it was entirely my fault. Don’t say it; I know how you feel about that. But he had emotionally left me some time ago. But he’s a good man and a pretty good dad. I do love him and want him back. We’re working on it.”
“How?”
“Counseling. We meet at the counselor’s office and we take turns with Summer.”
“No wonder she’s become so attached to your father.”
Adamsville State Penitentiary
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, it was Dirk’s turn to pick up four-year-old Summer from day care so she could spend the night with him at his apartment.
On those days, Ravinia arranged her schedule to spend the afternoon meeting with her various charges at the supermax prison. At the end of the day, she found her way to the administrative wing, spent a few minutes bantering with Gladys, the warden’s secretary, and then wandered into her father’s tiny office at the end of the hall.
Like clockwork, Thomas would hear Gladys’s high-pitched cackle and Rav’s chuckle, knowing he would soon enjoy—was that the right word?—another melancholy chat with his only daughter, a county public defender.
At some point or another—he couldn’t remember when this started—they had taken to embracing each other when she arrived. Ravinia had said something once about how amusing she found her dad’s courtliness, evidenced in his rising when she entered. And one day she had simply