A Perfect Husband (6 page)

“I would never do anything to hurt her.”

“I know,” Caitlin said, “you and Mom loved each other.”

“It's the police,” he said. “They're trying to make problems.”

“Well, I think it's just crazy.”

“It is,” Michael assured her, “but we'll get through it.”

Michael and Caitlin had no more time to waste on the subject. They had to think about the others. Everyone was downstairs waiting for them. There was a small cake someone had brought, just to acknowledge Margaret's birthday, and they felt they should at least go down and talk to her, and just be with the rest of the family.

The Petersons were never really a touchy-feely family. As they sat huddled together, some of them crying, it was an awkward time for them. No one was really saying much. There was nothing being discussed about the funeral. The family was just receiving callers, people from the neighborhood, mostly, who were stopping in with goodies, who had come to offer some support.

The family was overcome with grief, and with the added trouble the police were causing, turning their most solemn time into a public circus, they had nothing to say to anyone. At about 10:00
P.M.
, when the police phoned Michael Peterson to say that he could return to his home, everyone felt a sigh of relief. The officials had informed him that the search warrant was completed, that the yellow tape had been removed. The Petersons would be able to grieve in a place of comfort.

Michael and his sons were anxious to get back over there, but the girls had no desire to enter the house. There was still blood in the stairway. It was too sad, really, for the girls to face. The girls had a lovely hotel room on the Duke campus waiting for them, and they were happy to go straight there, to be in the midst of their aunts and uncles, their cousins, and their lovely grandmother, Veronica.

As for the adults, they were not allowing the children to see the full extent of their grief. It was already too hard on the girls, who were so fragile, each in their own way. For Caitlin, Kathleen's baby, there was a sense of complete and utter devastation. For Margaret and Martha, two girls who had long-before suffered the loss of their biological mother, losing their stepmother was all the more dramatic.

Things were different for Todd and Clayton Peterson. They were older, already finished with college. They still had their biological mother, Patricia Peterson, who was a constant presense in their lives. Patricia lived in Europe, where she had raised her sons until they graduated from high school, and the boys visited with her often, each taking trips back and forth to Germany. Nonetheless, even Patricia's phone calls could offer little comfort regarding the loss of Kathleen. Sure, Patricia had played a significant role in raising her sons, and she had played a role in raising the Ratliff girls. In her many years of marriage to Michael, Patricia had an impact on the four children. Her boys were close to her, but they still could not be consoled. As for Margaret and Martha, who had left Germany as children, they had formed a bond to Kathleen that Patricia could never replace.

The Ratliff girls had a special type of relationship with Kathleen. No doubt Margaret and Martha remained distant at times, but that was more a consequence of having been orphaned. There was always a distance the two girls kept from outsiders. They referred to both Patricia and Kathleen as Mom, but they were removed, at some level, from both women. Even if the Ratliff girls shared a close relationship with Kathleen, in the final analysis, it was only their dad, Michael, whom they considered true family. It was Michael who had spent all his adult life doting on them.

In the months after they had been orphaned, Margaret and Martha had truly become his. For most of their lives, hardly a moment had gone by that Michael wasn't there for Margaret and Martha. Michael was their one shining light. In a way, Michael had become the Ratliffs' savior. Michael was their primary parent, always taking the girls with him, back and forth from Germany to North Carolina. Michael was the one who helped with the burial of the girls' mom, Elizabeth, after she had died tragically in Germany.

He meant everything to them, and the feeling was mutual. So, as much as Margaret and Martha were saddened about the loss of their stepmother, to the Ratliff girls, it was their legal guardian, Michael, who was their only true parent. It wasn't that Margaret and Martha didn't feel their own sense of loss about Kathleen, but it was also for their dad's sake that the Ratliff girls grieved. They knew how much he loved Kathleen.

Of course Kathleen Peterson had tried to be a good mother to the Ratliff girls. But it was complicated. Over the years, Kathleen had to deal with Michael's ex-wife making trouble. In the months following Elizabeth Ratliff's death, once Michael and Patricia had been designated guardians to Margaret and Martha, Patricia had agreed to leave Germany, to move back to North Carolina with Michael, really for the sake of the girls. For whatever reason, Michael convinced her that it would be easier to raise the four kids in the States. But Patricia had a hard time making that adjustment back to American life. Living in Durham was not what she had expected, and having to supervise four demanding children just made her life impossible. Michael would later tell Kathleen that Patricia had been making comments about how she really didn't want to raise the Ratliff girls. Michael reported that Patricia said she hadn't signed up for a second family.

Nonetheless, Patricia had tried. She had moved back to the States, returning to the home she and Michael still owned in Durham. It was the home that she and Michael had bought in their early days of marriage, when they were young college kids, when their lives were carefree. But life with four kids was a whole different ball game. Michael was working in isolation, writing his novels, and most of the everyday burdens fell on Patricia. And so, returning back to North Carolina would wind up being disastrous for her, and especially for her marriage. Patricia would never feel quite comfortable in the States. Even though she was an American, she didn't really adapt very well. Because of that, Michael wound up retreating into a friendship with Kathleen, the glamorous divorcée who lived nearby.

In the beginning, when Michael and Kathleen were only friends, when Caitlin and Margaret and Martha were three grade-school kids, living as neighbors, playing happily together, everything seemed simple and innocent. But then Patricia noticed that Michael was spending more and more time with Kathleen. For months, she tried to keep a blind eye; she basically stood back and said nothing. But as Michael and Kathleen became more and more involved, Patricia found them together to be near impossible.

Michael and Kathleen were falling deeply in love, and Patricia couldn't help herself from feeling hateful. Naturally, she resented Michael and Kathleen's love affair, especially as it became increasingly open. As things became more serious, as Michael was threatening to move out of their house, Patricia decided she wasn't about to make things easy for Kathleen. She was painfully aware of how well Kathleen was getting along with Michael, Margaret, and Martha, and Patricia was becoming outwardly nervous about losing her family.

Back in those days, Patricia was still trying to save her marriage to Michael. Determined to maintain her status as his wife, Patricia requested that Michael move back with her to Germany. She had accepted a teaching position there, and would be taking their sons with her, whether he liked it or not. Patricia would suggest that Michael keep the house in Durham, that he rent it out as an investment property, but she insisted that North Carolina would no longer be her home. Michael would have to choose. If he wanted to live with his sons, he would have to leave the United States.

Patricia figured that since she and Michael had been happy back in Germany, they could rekindle their love there. They had many friends in that part of the world, Patricia having worked many years as a teacher for the Department of Defense. She knew Michael loved it there; he had written his first novel in Germany and adored European ways. Germany was a place of so many fond memories for Michael, a man who loved being an expatriate. And Patricia knew that.

The two of them had initially agreed to return to the states as a temporary fix. They felt the old Southern ways, the Southern hospitality, would make life more cushy for their larger family. But once she became a full-time teacher and a full-time mom in Durham, Patricia grew increasingly unsettled with the American ways of life. As Michael became more enamored with the ease of an American existence, Patricia felt that her sons would be best served growing up in Europe. As for the Ratliff girls, Patricia felt Michael should determine what the best upbringing for them would be. Their “adopted” girls were in grade school; Margaret and Martha would be able to withstand another move. If Michael wanted his sons in his life, he would have to take the girls away from America. Patricia felt the girls would flourish in Germany, where their biological mom, Liz, had wanted them to grow up. She believed that Michael would somehow agree.

But no one could have foreseen the love that Michael would find with Kathleen. The love affair between Michael and Kathleen had started off slowly, with their girls being best friends. But as the two of them continued to see each other, they realized how much they really had in common. When their secret love affair was no longer hidden, Patricia was devastated. At first, she was hopeful that she could outlast Kathleen. Patricia was willing to do anything to keep Michael in her life, to make concessions about staying in America, to do whatever her husband might ask. But when Michael announced that he was going to move into Kathleen's house, just a few blocks away, telling Patricia that he had decided to live with Kathleen out of wedlock . . . Patricia could hardly stand it.

At first, Michael had this idea that Caitlin, Margaret, and Martha could live like sisters. They all seemed so happy together, and Kathleen was all for it. But that was too much of a leap for Patricia to make. In those early years, even though Patricia hardly showed it, she disliked Kathleen and her preppy daughter, Caitlin. Patricia refused to allow her sons to even visit Kathleen's home. As the tug-of-war for Michael continued, Patricia picked up and moved back to Germany, taking hers sons with her.

By shifting households, Patricia Peterson felt certain that she would force Michael back into her life. But to her surprise, Michael, who had gone back to give Germany a try for a few months, who had taken Margaret and Martha overseas to try to keep his family whole, had decided that there was no way he could make it work with Patricia. Instead, Michael had grown spiteful toward Patricia and her attempt to keep him away from Kathleen. It became even more clear, with all the miles and the Atlantic Ocean between them, that Kathleen was the only woman Michael loved. After only nine months, not being able to live apart from her, Michael returned to Kathleen. With his two daughters in tow, Michael Peterson would never move from his home base of North Carolina again.

Once Michael returned, Kathleen took on greater responsibilities for the Ratliff girls. Margaret and Martha were always closer to Michael, and Kathleen had her daughter, Caitlin, but Kathleen tried very hard to be a true mother to Margaret and Martha. Kathleen seemed to know how to handle the kids; she was fair with all three girls. She showed each of them the same unconditional love. The same love she had for Caitlin, she tried to bestow to Margaret and Martha. Kathleen only became the type of mother they needed.

As the girls grew up together, they blossomed under Kathleen's watchful eye. She encouraged them to become involved with sports; she guided them through their school projects. But Kathleen wasn't the type to take control of the girls. Martha and Margaret were still Michael's children. She tried to earn their admiration, and she understood that Michael was the person they loved best. It was okay that Michael was the mainstay for the Ratliff girls. Kathleen knew her place, and did everything possible to complete their lives.

It would take years, but Kathleen slowly earned the title of Mom. Through her nurturing and fairness, she had won them over. Margaret and Martha loved her. They considered themselves hers. Even though they stayed in touch with their “mom” Patricia, who would make annual summer visits to Durham, who would try to assert her own status with the girls, Margaret and Martha had developed a very unique relationship with Kathleen—one that was hardly penetrable.

Patricia, of course, would continue to operate from the sidelines. She would continue to resent Michael's true love of Kathleen. For a long time, Patricia tried to delay her divorce from Michael, but Kathleen had won Michael's heart. Kathleen stood by him, and had managed to live through his lengthy separation and divorce.

When Michael was finally free, the two of them moved out of Kathleen's Forest Hills home. They had purchased their storybook mansion on Cedar Street. At that point, Kathleen and Michael had been together for over five years. With their move into their very own home, with Michael publishing a new book and reaching a new height of success, the two decided they should marry. They loved each other, and they wanted to make everything official.

Michael was well on his way to becoming a famous author, and Kathleen was also becoming a success, climbing the corporate ladder at Nortel Networks. The two worked so well together, and once they were married, things were better than ever. Michael and Kathleen were really on top of the world. Their lifestyle felt so right. They had a love and respect that few couples ever knew. Their ties to the kids had become so strong that neither of them needed to worry about how Patricia might affect the family. When Michael's sons returned to Durham to begin looking at American universities, the boys fit right in. Kathleen treated Clayton and Todd with the utmost respect. After years of marriage, Kathleen was no longer concerned about doing anything that might make Michael balk. She no longer had to walk a fine line, no longer had to worry about causing ripples or waves with the children.

Certain bad feelings continued to exist between Patricia and Michael and Kathleen over the years, but once Clayton and Todd had decided to attend Duke University, to live back home with Michael, Patricia was good about letting Michael keep his boys close to his home. For their part, Clayton and Todd came to know what a good soul Kathleen was.... They held her in a separate place.

As the boys began to appreciate how gentle and respectful Kathleen was with them, as they shared stories about Kathleen's kind ways, their mother began to set her hard feelings aside. Michael and the children backed Kathleen one hundred percent, and eventually Patricia conceded that Kathleen had become a central figure in the Peterson family.