Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
T he morning’s sunlight streamed in through the living room windows, gently pulling Emily from her slumber. Adjusting beneath the quilt, she lifted an eyebrow at the realization that she had slept there the entire night. Finding her phone near her on the couch, she checked the time. It was just after six in the morning. Shoving the quilt off, she stood up from the couch and headed to the master bedroom. Ryan was in the shower.
Standing at the doorway of the open ensuite bathroom, she could feel the steam of the shower.
“Late night?”
“I was home before ten, but you were out cold.” He shut the shower off and reached out to grab the towel from the hook beside the shower.
“Are late nights at the grill just something I need to become accustomed to, Ryan?”
“No.” He yanked the shower curtain back, the towel wrapped around his waist. “I was trying to figure something out.”
“What?”
Stepping out of the shower, he went up to the mirror and wiped a hand over it. “Nothing.”
“Tell me it’s not about that transfer again . . .”
His eyebrows furrowed as he turned toward her. “And if it is?”
Coming further into the bathroom, she came right up beside him and caught his gaze. “Like I told you before, Ryan. You need to let it go. Your dad was a good man. It’s just a waste of time, and honestly, a little dishonoring, to suspect otherwise.”
Elizabeth called for her. Going into her daughter’s room, she found her daughter crying into her hands.
“What’s wrong?”
“I have a zit!” Her daughter unshielded her face to reveal a little red pimple on her forehead. It took everything in Emily not to laugh at her daughter’s distress over a zit. To be young again, to have a zit be so important to your emotional state. Emily smiled at recalling her own youth, and then shook her head.
“You’re going to be okay, baby girl.”
During her lunch break at the school, Emily took her cellphone and went for a walk outside on the sidewalk around the campus.
She called her mother, Zeena.
“I wondered if I had a daughter anymore . . .”
The judgmental tone was nothing new. Breathing deeply, Emily sat down on the bench under a willow tree. “How’s Dad doing?”
“He’s fine. Playing golf like crazy. Nothing new here in SoCal. We miss seeing you and the family. Are you planning to come down next month after school gets out?”
“Honestly hadn’t thought about it. We just barely moved here.”
“Oh, please. Lizzy told me about how you’re all miserable up there other than Ryan . You should’ve never left your life here in California. I told you that you wouldn’t be happy in Washington.”
Touching her forehead, Emily regretted calling her mother. “We’re fine here. It’s just taking some . . . adjusting is all.”
“Is Ryan forcing you to stay?” Her mother’s voice became serious. “If you need a way out, I have already spoken to your father, and he agreed to fly you and the kids back home. Or pay for gas. Whatever it is you need. We can help you get your life back. Just come home, Em.”
Watching as a hedge trimmer cut the bushes on the side of the school across the walkway, Emily shook her head. “What is wrong with you? I love my husband and this is my life! I can’t just abandon it! And I’m a little offended that you would even suggest such a thing.”
“I just want you to be happy, Emily. Isn’t that what every good parent wants, for their child to be happy?”
Emily scoffed. “No. Good parents sometimes realize there’s more to life than making your child happy.”
“Whatever, Emily. The offer still stands if you change your mind.”
As the call ended, Emily continued her walk around the campus. She couldn’t believe her mother would offer such a thing, but then again, she knew how upset she and Dad were about their leaving California.
Hot tears spilled onto her cheeks as she felt the sting of loneliness brush against her soul in that moment. She didn’t feel like she had anyone in the world to talk to lately. Then, like a reminder sent from Heaven, a bird flew across her vision, prompting her to think of God. Lifting her heart in prayer, she prayed. God, please show me the way You desire me to go. Fill me with Your encouragement, contentment, and joy as my family and I get used to this new and strange place of Cedarwood Creek. Amen.
Crushing his empty energy drink can, Ryan tossed it into the back seat behind him. He was only a few miles out from Spokane. He was running on about three hours of sleep, two energy drinks, and a whole lot of determination.
His phone buzzed with a notification of a text message from his brother.
Jason: Call me.
Pulling off at the next exit, just before Spokane, he got out of his car and used the restroom. On his way back to his car, he called his brother.
“I stopped by the grill and you weren’t there. Where are you?”
“Just outside of Spokane.”
“What? Why? I thought you were done with it.”
“I had to find out, man.” Peering at his car parked outside the gas station, he could hear the cars on the freeway zooming by. He was eager to get on the road. “I have to go. I’ll let you know what I figure out.”
Driving into Spokane, he used his phone for navigation to the address for Linda. Each street he turned onto brought his pulse up a tick higher. Arriving at a dumpy neighborhood, his heart dipped into his stomach. The situation he was getting himself into seemed worse by the moment.
Seeing the Rescue Mission, he hurried his glance over to the phone’s GPS only to realize it wasn’t the destination. Another few turns, and he arrived to what appeared to be an old hotel converted into apartments. A grimy baby-blue exterior and a few boards on some of the windows gave Ryan the chills. He almost turned his car around and left. But he didn’t.
Getting out of his car, he locked the doors and took the metal stairwell to the second floor. Each step felt heavy.
Then he arrived at the door.
1307.
Rapping his knuckles on the door, he took a deep breath and exhaled, waiting for someone to answer.
The door opened a fraction. A chain latch kept it from opening all the way. On the other side was a young lady about Elizabeth’s age.
“Hi. I’m looking for Linda?”
The guarded teenager looked him up and down. “Who are you ?”
“I’m a friend of hers.” Thinking quickly, he added, “From the Rescue Mission.”
The girl nodded to her right. “Three doors down.”
Quickly, the door shut.
Walking further down the walkway, he came to the door and knocked.
A muscular, large man with a shaved head and a scar across his cheek answered the door. His voice was deep. “What?”
“Um. Is Linda here?”
A woman cursed from deeper in the apartment and said something unintelligible. The man adjusted his footing, revealing an older woman sitting on the couch in the dimly lit living room. Ashtrays, smoke, and a smell of something old filled the air, wafting out from the apartment. “I don’t know who it is. I just answered the door, Linny.”
The woman snubbed out a cigarette in the ashtray on the coffee table and came walking over to the door. “My daughter just texted me. She said you’re from the Rescue Mission?”
Lifting his hands, he took a step back as he sensed hostility. “I’m not actually here for that.”
Linda furrowed her eyebrows. “You lied to my daughter? Piss off, guy.”
She swung the door shut, but Ryan caught it with his foot before it shut. “I’m Frank’s son.”
Fury lit in her eyes. “You know where Frank is? That son of?—”
Ryan interrupted her. “He passed away in March.”
Every ounce of life went out from her face in that moment, including the anger. She turned toward her friend, her tone now delicate and soft. “I need to talk to this guy. I’ll be back.”
The woman stepped out and pointed. “We can go across the street. They have somewhat decent coffee.”
Stopping at the crosswalk, Ryan watched as her hands trembled lighting a cigarette. Pushing the smoke out from her lips, she shook her head as she sniffled lightly. “He left this world without even saying goodbye. How could he do that?”
“It was a heart attack, so he didn’t really have any goodbyes.”
“Oh.” She took another drag as they crossed the street to the diner. Flicking her smoke out into the parking lot, they went inside. There weren’t very many patrons in the diner, so they were seated right away.
“Thanks, Doris.” Linda nodded to the waitress as she finished pouring her cup of coffee.
“You’re welcome, Linny. You work tomorrow?”
“Yeah.”
“And sir, did you need any creamer?” she inquired as she filled a mug for Ryan.
“No, thanks.”
As the waitress left their table, Ryan opened his hands on the table. “I’ll come right out with it, Linda. Why was my father transferring $2,000 a month into your bank account? Were you two . . . having an affair?”
Eyes watering, she folded her face into her palms and sobbed.
Ryan was quiet. Her grief stirred a measure of empathy inside him. He didn’t understand why he felt compassion for her, but he did. “I know it’s hard . . .”
“Wait.” She stopped crying and wiped her face. “This is why the transfers stopped. Isn’t it?”
Ryan saw the anger from the apartment across the street return to her. He lifted a hand. “Right. He’s not around anymore, and we didn’t know where the money was going.”
She shook her head and slammed her fist on the table. “You understand that’s what my daughter and I live on?”
“How do you know my father, Linda?”
“You have some nerve showing up here just to let me know I don’t have any more money coming in other than the few hours I get at this dump!” Wiping her tear-soaked face, she shook her head as she glared across the table at him.
“I’m sorry you depended on the money, but it wasn’t right for him to send it.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about, kid.”
Standing up, she headed for the door.
“Wait. Where are you going?”
Ryan chased after her, catching up at the crosswalk.
“I want to know the nature of your relationship with my father, Linda.”
She looked him up and down and smirked. “Why don’t you ask Roni?”
Ryan froze. How did she not only know his mother’s name, but her nickname? And did this mean his mother knew her?
Walking away from him, Linda crossed the street and headed back to the apartment complex.
Ryan did not try to go knock again. It was time to leave. And leave is what he did, but he left with more questions than when he had arrived.
Wrapping a plate of food with tinfoil from dinner that evening for Ryan, Emily set it in the fridge and started on dishes. Pausing as she set a plate into the dishwasher, she felt a wave of longing for Ryan invade her heart. She missed her husband, and not just because he was working late again. He hadn’t been the same since they lost Frank. He had changed, and the worry that he’d never go back to the man she married grew with each passing day.
Hearing the front door open at just after eight o’clock that evening, she stopped folding laundry and set the towel in her hands down on the bed. Exiting the bedroom, she went to go greet him.
“Don’t start with me, Emily. Today isn’t a good day.”
“When will it be a good day, Ryan? Huh?” She grabbed his arm to stop him from going into the kitchen. Her eyes filled with tears. “My words don’t seem to carry any weight with you anymore.”
He sighed and moved out of her hold. Then he proceeded into the kitchen, Emily following close behind him.
“I talked to you about being home for dinner, and it’s like what I say just doesn’t matter to you anymore! I’m sick of it!”
Ryan slammed the fridge door shut, sending magnets crashing to the floor. He turned toward her. “And I just told you today wasn’t good for me. My words don’t seem to matter, either!”
Tilting her head, she looked at him. “What happened?”
He shook his head and touched his forehead. Each moment felt like an eternity, and she felt the distance between them grow by the second.
Then suddenly she had enough.
“I can’t do this, Ryan . . .” Walking away from him, she started to cry as she went out into the living room.
Seeing the front door, she longed to leave, to escape.
Walking over to it, she paused with her hand on the doorknob.
Silence invaded the moment, lingering. She wanted Ryan to stop her, but he didn’t.
Then she went out.
Walking down the steps and into the yard, she stopped and leaned over as she tried to catch her breath.
She began to pray.
“ God . . . ” It was all she could say in the moment. Tears flowed as she looked up at the night sky and raised a fist. “I need something. Anything, God!”
Just then, Ryan opened the front door.
Lowering her fist, she turned and saw him sit down on the front steps.
Sensing that he wanted to talk, she wiped her eyes and walked over to him. She sat down beside him.
He started to talk but struggled. “I . . .”
She turned toward him. “Just tell me, Ryan. I’m your wife. You can tell me anything.”
He folded his face into his palms and shook his head.
She moved closer, wrapping an arm around him. “What’s wrong, Ryan? Why won’t you talk to me?”
“I met her.”
“Who?”
“The woman my father had been supporting.”
“What?” Emily stood up and positioned herself in front of Ryan. “What are you talking about, Ryan?”
“The bank transfer. I didn’t tell you the details I figured out, but that transfer was to a woman. My dad was sending her money. She lives in Spokane, and I went to see her today.”
Weakness brought her back to her seat beside him. “Really? Frank did that?”
Wiping his tears, he let out a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “What’s even more messed up is the fact that she knows my mom.”
“How? What?”
“I don’t know how. But she called her Roni . That nickname isn’t even common knowledge.”
“That is strange. Did you tell Jason?”
“No. He looks up to our dad so much . . . I didn’t want to break his heart. I told him on my way home that it was just the Rescue Mission bank account.”
“Why can’t you be honest?”
“I’m scared. I don’t want it to change Jason, change the way he saw our dad. And this town would freak out. If this got out it would soil my dad’s name and legacy.” Ryan composed himself as he shook his head and stood up. He turned toward her. “Don’t talk to anyone about this, Em. You got it?”
“I won’t. What are you going to do?”
“There’s nothing to do. It was a manual transfer, so I just never did another one.”
“So, you’re okay with keeping it secret from everyone? Even your own siblings?”
“I don’t know. I’m still in shock. What I do know is I need to talk to my mother.”