Learning to Forgive (7 page)

He
was much farther away, and she couldn’t make out what he was saying. His arms
were flung out, pointing all around him. She watched him kick something and
then walk away. When he was out of sight, she moved with Trent back to the
house.

They
were watching television, and she walked up the steps to the bedroom she shared
with David. In the closet he kept a large box that contained all traces of
Isabella.

She
stared at that box for some time wondering if she should run. Take her baby and
leave. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t bring herself to leave the
only man she’d ever loved.

Closing
the closet she turned and jumped. David was standing behind her.

“What
are you doing?” he asked.

“Nothing.
I was
just putting away some of your clothes.”

“Trent
and Luke are hungry.”

“I’ll
go and see to them.” She brushed past him. David caught her hand before letting
her go.

“Did
you have a good day today?” he asked.

“The
day is not over. Will you be staying tonight or disappearing again like you do
every year?” She pulled her hand out of his. Her body came instantly alive at
how close he was. His musky scent invaded her senses. Did he have any idea how
he affected her? She couldn’t stop herself from feeling when he was around. It
was like a constant pulse between her thighs with him.

“I’ll
be staying.”

“Good,”
she said, then cleared her throat, repeating the word once again to make
herself
sound more convincing. “Good!”

“You
look beautiful,” he said, brushing her hair behind her ear. She shivered from
the touch, closing her eyes at his contact.

“Thank
you.”

“You
don’t need to be so polite, baby. You’re my wife, and I can pay you compliments
when I want.”

She
kept her lips sealed even though she wanted to scream that he’d never paid her
a compliment before. Instead, she nodded her head before making her way down
the stairs to where their kids were.

Molly
took Trent the next year and the year after that until he asked to stop going
to his mother’s graveside. She knew David stopped going but had no idea what
any of it meant.

Chapter Seven

David
loved his sons, but he wanted them to leave so that he could spend some time
alone with his wife. Molly had shut off the study where he’d been burning
Isabella’s stuff. They were seated in the sitting room. Erica was with Chris
while Blaze and Cassie sat together. His other sons were waiting. Molly got up
to get the drinks, and the other two women helped her.

The
moment they were out of the room, he turned to the rest of them. “Look, I’m
fine. I need you all to leave,” he said.

“Dad,”
Trent said.

“No,
no 'Dad this' or 'Dad that'. Molly is trying to leave me, and I’ve got to stop
that from happening. I know I’ve not been the best father, but I love her. I
won’t let her go. Please, there is a lot more to this, and I will tell you some
day but not today. Please, I’m begging you. Leave,” David said.

Molly
came out with the drinks in the next instant. She handed everyone a cup and
took the seat next to him. He patted her knee wishing they were alone. They had
so much to talk about.

He
made sure to stare at all of them so that they got the message.

“That
was lovely, Molly, but Cassie and I need to be heading back,” Blaze said,
standing.

Once
Blaze declared their need to leave, so did the other boys. He hugged them close
when they came to him. David closed his eyes thankful for a great many things
in his life.

“You
don’t have to leave,” Molly said.

“Let
them get home. They’ll visit us in plenty of time,” David said.

“Stay
here. I’ll see them out.”

Molly
saw them out while he sat back drinking the remnants of his tea. She came
'round the corner with her arms folded, leaning against the door-frame.

“You
forced them to leave.”

“I
did no such thing.” He opened his arms wide and showed his best innocent face.
“Why would I do something like that?” he asked.

“Because you wanted them to leave.
I know you, David. You’d convince them to do anything.”

He
smiled when he saw she wasn’t mad at him. “Will you come and sit with me?”

She
stared at the seat next to him. The smile on her face disappeared. “I need to
clean away these dishes,” she said.

Molly
grabbed the tray with the cups then went through to the kitchen. He sighed in
frustration. David stared at the picture on the mantle above the blocked-off
fireplace. He’d blocked it up with bricks some years ago. Now all that remained
was one of those electric fires you can get with the fake flames, unlike in his
study where he’d kept the original fire where he’d burnt Isabella’s belongings.
The picture had been taken many years ago. It was one of the few he had of
Molly. She was surrounded by all the boys in the back garden. He hadn’t taken
the picture. Like so many times before he’d been at work.

Getting
angry with himself, he got out of his chair and made his way back up to his
bedroom. David went straight for the photograph albums that Molly had kept over
the years. He pulled all four thick albums off the book shelf, sat on the end
of the bed, and began to look at them.

With
each page he turned, the feeling of dread built in his gut. There were so few
pictures of Molly and David together. Most of the pictures were of the boys.
How could he have been married for twenty-five years and never had his picture
taken with his wife?

He
pulled his wallet out of his pants pocket, flicked the leather open to gaze at
the one picture he’d kept of his wife. It had been taken in the hospital on the
night she’d given birth to Luke. She held their son in her arms. Her hair was
damp, and she looked exhausted. He stared at the picture feeling the love
consume him once again. Luke had been a difficult pregnancy for her. It had
been a painful process and one he’d struggled through.

Molly
had held on. Her grip on his hand as she pushed had kept getting weaker, but
she had refused to give up.

“What
are you doing?” Molly asked, coming to sit next to him on the bed. She didn’t
know about the picture in his wallet. David stared at the picture then passed
it to her.

“I
was remembering,” he said.

She
took the wallet, staring at the photo. “You took a photo of this moment?” she
asked.

“Not
of you giving birth. You had Luke in your arms, and you looked so beautiful.”

“I
look tired and swollen,” she said, handing the wallet back.

“Not
to me you didn’t.” He stared at her for some time. She gazed back at him. The
blush he loved seeing filled her cheeks.

“This
was a long time ago, David.”

“This
is our life. I can’t forget about everything that has passed between us.”

“I’m
not asking you to,” she said.

“Then
I want you to go away with me.” The photograph album dropped to the floor,
forgotten.

“Why?
Why now?” she asked.

“Because I need time to make this right.”

“I
think we need to talk about all that downstairs,” Molly said.

David
stared at her. A strand of hair had fallen out of the ponytail. He tucked the
loose strand behind her ear, caressing her cheek.

“I’m
not going to screw up again.” David took her hand, leading her downstairs. The
fire looked a mess. He sat down on the couch, pulling her down next to him. The
empty boxes had been stacked into a neat pile while the rest of the stuff was
still in the box. “I guess Chris went through it all.”

“He
stayed over while I was at the hospital. I’m sure he’ll ask for an explanation
at some point,” Molly said.

“What
to tell him?” David asked.

“I’d
go with the truth. I think I need to know the truth as well.” She squeezed his
hand, offering him comfort.

“The
truth is not always fun,” David said.

“No,
but it pays well to be honest. Will you be honest with me?” she asked.

He
nodded his head.

“Then
I think you need to start from the beginning. There is a story here, and I
don’t understand it,” she said, gesturing to the boxes.

“Do
you have a lot of time?”

“More
than you know.”

David
sat back. Molly deserved to know the truth once and for all. Much time had
already passed where he’d kept the truth to himself. He no longer wanted to go
through his life waiting for these moments to pass him by.

“Okay,
I guess it all started when I was young. My father was completely in love with
my mother. She was his everything, as he’d sometimes call her. Never a moment
went by when he didn’t think about her. I was about fourteen, I think, when he
sat down and had a real good talk to me. A father-son talk where he told me the
birds and the
bees
story along with this curse or
prediction, some might say.” David stared down at the box as all of his old
memories swamped him. He took a deep breath then began again. “He told me that
it was destined for the Sinclair men to find one woman and to fall in love with
her. No other woman would do. Our whole lives would be devoted to the love of
that woman.”

“And
you found Isabella?” Molly asked.

He
shook his head. “First, I rebelled against it. At the time, one woman didn’t
sound like a lot of fun.”

She
chuckled.

“Then,
I sat down and saw that my uncles and grandparents had never divorced or
separated, and I began to believe what my father said. There was one woman out
there whom I’d be completely besotted with. So, I worked up the ranks in the
family
business,
and one Christmas party that my folks
held, she was there. Isabella Mitchell. She was a family friend’s daughter. I
fell for her instantly. At the time, I thought it was love, and now I think it
was lust.”

He
stopped to make sure Molly was okay. The last thing he wanted to do was upset
her. She smiled at him. “I need to hear this, David.”

“Does
it hurt?” he asked.

“Yes,
I never doubted it would hurt.”

Tears
glistened in her eyes, and he wanted to stop talking. There was no way he
wanted to make her hurt. “I’m so sorry,” he said.

“Don’t
be sorry. This is your life, and I want and need to hear it. Please, keep
going,” she said.

“Anyway,
she was like an ice maiden.
Untouchable.
My friends at
the time had said she wouldn’t even look at them. I thought she was pure and
beautiful. If someone was that beautiful and lovely, then she had to be
perfect, right?
Boy,
was I wrong. I married her. She
wouldn’t sleep with me until she had a ring on her finger and the marriage
license.”

“Was
she a virgin?” Molly asked.

He
shook his head. “I thought she was. She wasn’t. From what I can recall, she
slept with pretty much anyone who could give her a lift in the world.”

“What
do you mean?”

“Her
father was losing money. She didn’t want to lose her lifestyle. When she saw me
looking at her, she decided the Sinclair name was a good meal ticket.” David
shrugged his shoulders remembering her vicious words.

“You
don’t know that,” Molly said.

“Yes,
I do. She told me. I shouted at her for flirting with a waiter at a dinner
party we’d attended. She slapped me 'round the face and told me that I wanted
her for a good piece of eye candy while she would spend my money. At least it
was something along those lines. Then she told me how she only married me to
get my money.”

“How
did you stay married to her?”

“She
ended up pregnant with Blaze and then Chris and then Trent. I had gone to my
lawyer to file for divorce, when she came to me pregnant with Blaze. She was
apologetic about what she said.” He stopped at his own stupidity for being
fooled.

Molly
cupped his cheek. “You don’t have to say any more if you don’t want.”

“I
do. I need to get this off my chest.” He took a deep breath and pulled out the
photo that he hadn’t burned. Isabella, Blaze, and Chris were in the picture.
David handed it to her.

“They
look happy,” she said.

“We
were happy. She was different, kind, welcoming.
A proper
mother.”

“Then
what happened?”

“She
got her figure back. I was happy with two sons and settled, and then she went
back to being who she was.
A money-hungry woman.
While
I was at work, she hired a nanny to look after our boys. She was out, drinking
or getting some plastic surgery. It was big at the time, almost as big as it is
now.”