Indemnity: Book Two: Covenant of Trust Series (5 page)

“
But what’s Jack gonna think if I don’t try to get to know him?”

“
You’re going to try to build a relationship with him? Bring him into your family?”

“
You don’t think that’s the right thing?”

“
You just said you couldn’t ask Bobbi to be part of this. Now you’re talking about being his dad. You’re not making any sense.”

“
You’re right, you’re right.” He blew out a deep breath. “She makes me nuts.”

“
Yeah, and the less contact you have with her the better. Better for you, and better for Bobbi.”

“
I know that, but I don’t see what other choice I have. You make it sound like I have to choose between Jack and Bobbi. I don’t want this to come between us, but I can’t pretend that Jack doesn’t exist. He’s my son.”

“
And Bobbi is your wife. You can’t decide this unilaterally.”

“
What if she doesn’t want anything to do with Jack?”

Gavin took a long slow breath. “Then I think you should honor that.”

Rita paced between her kitchen and the front door. With each pass, she recalculated how much longer she should wait before slipping into full-fledged worrying. Fifteen minutes driving, fifteen minutes - or less - in confrontation and fifteen minutes driving back. Gavin should have been home twenty or thirty minutes ago.

Maybe he stopped in at Bobbi’s. Maybe that’s what was taking so long. No. He’d leave them to discuss things privately. She took the cell phone from her pocket one more time, and ran her thumb across the back as if she could massage a ring from it.

She opened her phone and stared at the keypad. What about a text message? Gavin kept his phone set to vibrate, so it wouldn’t interrupt. He could ignore it if it was a bad time, right? She quickly punched in “so?” and send. No reply.

She stuffed the phone back in her jeans pocket and strode to the window, peering up the empty street. Then she saw headlights. “Please,” she whispered. The car slowed as it approached the house, turning in their driveway at the last minute. “Finally.”

She backed away from the window and counted what should have been enough steps for Gavin to get to the porch, and then she swung the front door open. “What happened?”

“
Not much. She’s a very evasive woman.”

Rita pulled Gavin to the living room so they could sit. “Is the boy Chuck’s?”

“
She wouldn’t say,” he answered, dropping onto the small sofa. “Chuck’s going to have to take her to court, and make her give proof.”

“
But you think he is Chuck’s son?”

Gavin slowly lifted his head and looked in her eyes. “She wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t.”

Rita slumped against the back of the sofa. An illegitimate son. Now what? “If Chuck takes her to court, is he going to try to get joint custody?”

“
That’s the plan.” Gavin slipped his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. “I just don’t know.”

“
What?”

“
I don’t know if that’s the best thing, especially for Bobbi.”

“
Does he understand what this will do to her? He promised he would never hurt her again. He has to stand by that.”

“
He thinks he is.”

“
But?”

“
Tracy doesn’t want any money from him, and she certainly doesn’t want any help raising her son. It might be better for everybody if Chuck just left her alone.”

Rita’s eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped. “Gavin, I’m stunned. We agree for a change.”

“
You’ll make me second-guess myself,” he said with a smile, but then he looked away and that smile faded. “I knew something was up with him when he was cheating on Bobbi, and I didn’t say anything.”

“
You can’t blame yourself for that.”

“
Maybe not, but I owe it to Bobbi to talk some sense into him before this goes much further.”

“
That clock couldn’t move any slower without going backwards,” Bobbi muttered as she looked out the front window again. The last time Chuck saw Tracy was the last night he was with her maybe the night this boy was conceived. What if he was still attracted to her?

That woman had the perfect set-up now. She could call their house, call Chuck’s office, or call his cell phone for ostensibly legitimate reasons. How long would it be before she wore him down this time? Chuck. He couldn’t withstand her tactics indefinitely.

Then what? How much more humiliating would it be the second time around? Their marriage would not recover from adultery again.

“
Be sensible,” she chided. “Chuck loves you. You trust him. He is
not
going to cheat on you with that woman ever again, no matter how many kids she turns up with.”

She checked the clock again. Why didn’t he call? What if Tracy was the unstable type Ann warned them about? What if her plan was to get rid of Chuck in some psychotic murder-suicide? And she sent Gavin right into the middle of that.

Glancing up, she saw Chuck’s car in the driveway. No time for relief though. She quickly dropped into the easy chair, picked up the nearest magazine. He wanted calm and rational - that’s exactly what she would give him.

She heard the deadbolt click as he turned it, but he lingered in the entry hall. A bad sign. He had bad news and he didn’t want to tell her. Great. “In here,” she called, prodding him to get it over with.

He shuffled into the living room and smiled at her. He’d spent the day in crisis mode, and now emotional exhaustion pulled his shoulders down. “You’ve been pacing the whole time, haven’t you?” he asked.

“
I have not. Don’t be silly.”

He gently pulled the magazine from her hand, and dropped it on the floor. “I’ve never known you to have an interest in
Labor Law Journal
.”

“
I read it all the time. I belong to a union, you know. It’s very relevant.”

He slumped onto the sofa and leaned his head back. “I couldn’t get a straight answer out of her.”

Of course not. If Tracy told him everything tonight, there’d be no reason for him to come back.

“
I’ll have to get a court order to get her to supply proof I’m Jack’s father.”

“
Jack? He’s Jack now?”

“
She calls him Jack.” He raised his head and looked at her. “He, uh, he does look like Joel.”

“
You met him, then?”

“
Not really. He said goodnight on his way up to bed.”

“
So what purpose did this trip serve?” she asked, throwing her hands up. “You don’t know any more now than you did before.”

“
I know you don’t trust me.”

“
That’s ridiculous.” She rolled her eyes. “How can you suggest—”

“
That’s not what I mean. You don’t trust my judgment. You don’t have any confidence in my ability to handle this.”

“
Oh, no.” She wagged a finger. “You are not going to throw this back on me.”

“
I need you to believe in me. I need to know that you’re behind me. I don’t think I can deal with this otherwise.”

She had her doubts he could face this even with her support. “All right then. Let me ask you something.” Bobbi straightened her back and squared her shoulders to face him. “What was it like? Seeing her again?” She watched him for even the slightest twitch.

He patted the sofa. “Come over here.” As soon as she slipped over beside him, he took her hands, and looked deeply into her eyes. “You are the love of my life. I couldn’t look at her without remembering how much I hurt you.”

“
No little flicker even?”

“
Not the slightest.” Bobbi watched his eyes for several moments, and then she relaxed, nestling against him as he eased back into the corner of the sofa, and stretched his legs out. “I’m glad you asked,” he said, kissing her gently.

“
I’m glad that was the answer.” But what about Tracy? How did she feel seeing Chuck again? “So what happens when you get your proof?”

“
I don’t know. Sue for visitation, then custody, I guess.”

“
Custody?” Bobbi snapped up and faced him. “You’re not serious.”

“
Maybe, I don’t know. I haven’t had much time to think everything through.”

She raised an eyebrow, but when he didn’t launch into a defense, she settled against his shoulder once again. He was lying. He always came back with this "maybe, I don’t know" deal when she didn’t agree with him. The boy was his, and he wanted custody. However, if he thought she would fall in step with him on this, he was in for a rude awakening.

Friday, August 3

After getting Shannon’s breakfast, Bobbi settled in the study with her Bible and her morning coffee. The idea of regular contact with Tracy Ravenna, of planning the holidays around her, made Bobbi’s stomach churn, robbing her of any sleep. Chuck hadn’t slept either. He got up before daylight, and kissed her goodbye before her alarm went off.

Dear God, what are we supposed to do about this boy? You know my heart, my concerns. You know this woman ... God, are You really going to make us go through this?

She sighed and opened her Bible to a topical index, searching for anything she could find on illegitimate children. The first reference drew her to the story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar. Abraham and Sarah knew that God made a covenant promise to give them a heritage, but Sarah remained childless. She urged her husband to have a child with their slave, Hagar, in order to ensure the fulfillment of the promise. However, years later, when God miraculously gave Abraham and Sarah a son, Isaac, Sarah no longer wanted Hagar’s son around. “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son,” Sarah told her husband.

Cast them out. Bobbi could go along with that. Abraham was distressed about how to proceed because Hagar’s son was his son as much as Isaac was. God, however, told Abraham to go along with his wife.

Listen to your wife, God said. Perfect. When Chuck got home this evening, she would present her own case. They didn’t have to do anything for his illegitimate son. Chuck couldn’t argue with Scripture.

Chuck adjusted his glasses so he could see his computer screen without raising his chin, and began shifting items on his schedule, freeing the rest of his day. After a night of watching the clock as Thursday slipped into Friday, he gave up trying to sleep, got dressed and came in to work.

Lord, what are you up to? I always thought Shannon meant You forgave me, but then this boy shows up. You wouldn’t have allowed him to come back here, if You didn’t want me to do something, right? Everything happens for a reason, doesn’t it?

All night Bobbi’s words rung in his ears. “Custody? You’re not serious.” He didn’t have the guts to tell her right then that, yes, he was one hundred percent serious. That little boy who zipped up the stairs in front of him, that was his son. He had an obligation to make sure the boy understood the things of God, just like Brad, Joel and Shannon. He was accountable. If he would someday answer to God for how Jack was raised, then he was going to make sure it was done correctly. That meant getting custody of Jack.

Dear God, help Bobbi see.
Help her understand why I have to do this. She’s an incredibly strong woman, more than capable of handling whatever Tracy throws at us. And it’s ‘us’, not just her. I’m having a little emotional upheaval of my own. I need some reassurance, Lord.

He blasted through his email inbox, forwarding the ones requiring action to Chad Mitchell. He’d make it up to Chad later. Three messages shy of an empty inbox, his cell phone rang. Relieved to see his pastor’s name on the caller ID, he flipped the phone open.

“
Glen, I should have called you last night.”

“
No, you and Bobbi needed some time, but I gotta tell you, I’m climbing the walls wondering what happened.”

“
She wouldn’t give me a straight answer about anything.”

“
So you don’t know if the boy’s yours?”

“
He is. I just don’t have legal proof.”

“
What are you gonna do now?”

“
Go to court, establish paternity, and then go from there.”

“
Can you get joint custody, or is that even a possibility after this long?”

No sense lying to Glen, too. Chuck leaned back in his chair, and swiveled it around to face the wall, just in case anyone was around to read lips. “I want him, Glen. I thought about him all night. I want to raise him. She may be a good mother, but I’m just as responsible for bringing him in the world, so I have to make sure how he’s going to leave it. I have to make sure he’s raised right, you know?” He braced himself, ready for Glen to try to talk him out of it.

“
Oh, absolutely. You can’t let that heathen woman raise your boy!” Glen drawled, and Chuck smiled. “In all seriousness, I don’t blame you a bit. She’s kept you away from your son for six years. You fight for him.”