12 #2
“She’s in jail. She tried to get bail but she couldn’t.” He could see Mary didn’t want to know. “I don’t care anymore, I guess.”
“What? How can you say that?”
She had met Danbi once in Seoul at his office without understanding who she was.
Later, there had been other opportunities to meet her, but Mary hadn’t seen the point.
There was a brief call where Mary hung up because she didn’t know what to say.
She’d met the others before Danbi—all pretty, sexy, and young.
How could this one be any different? she’d figured, not expecting him to leave their marriage and sons.
“Danbi cheated with an elder from church. A younger man than me. Isn’t that funny?” he said without smiling. “He stole money for her. He was married.”
Mary frowned at the sordidness of it. Shin’s house was pristine, not a thing out of place. Little Anna. Her sons had a half sister they had never met. She didn’t want to think about her.
“The divorce agreement.” She glanced at the envelope between them. “I need to go home.”
“I asked you for a divorce and you always said no. Your religion wouldn’t allow it,” Shin said, sounding bitter. “And now you’re in a hurry. Are you still Catholic?”
Mary tried to think of her sons. In her mind, they looked younger than they were now—more like three little boys than the grown men who gathered at her house for dinner every Sunday.
“Please.” Mary stared at the envelope.
“I can lose everything I’ve worked for, and I don’t know who will care for Anna.”
Mary shook her head, understanding what he wanted.
“I cannot help you with Anna, too,” she said. “You need to call a friend. I cannot be your friend.”
“I’ve destroyed all the good in my life. I am sorry.” Shin tried to take her hand, but Mary pulled away.
“I am garbage,” he said.
She didn’t know what to do.
“He might listen to you,” Shin said suddenly. “You can call him. I need help.”
“Who?”
“Koh Yohan. He lives here. I told you.” He had tried to contact John several times, but he wouldn’t answer.
Mary had missed Helen’s funeral; she hadn’t been able to afford the travel. She thought of the man who had always been so decent.
“He’s an elder and everyone trusts him. He’s on the important committees at church. John knows I’d never steal—”
Mary stared at her husband, his eyes desperate and sad.
“Can you ask him to speak with me?”
“I cannot.”
“John would listen to you.”
“Have you lost your mind? After what Jung Danbi did to him, I was so embarrassed. If his wife hadn’t called me, I don’t know if I could’ve ever faced her again. She was such a good person.”
From the window, Mary’s rental car looked like a cheap toy in the green sea of dark cypress trees and lush, well-cut grass. Over the years, at her church, poor men and women her age had died of different cancers, and sometimes Mary wondered if hard work alone could kill people.
“John would feel sorry for you,” Shin said.
Mary couldn’t believe what he was saying.
What she had read in the newspapers about him and that woman, none of it made any sense.
These were the sorts of things that happened to bad people.
But her sons had explained that it was possible that their father could go to prison for embezzling insurance premiums even if he hadn’t done it, because as the CEO, he should have known.
He was lucky that the prosecutor hadn’t chosen to charge him yet.
“I have no one left,” he said. “I’ll sign the agreement if you can get John to talk with me.”
Every morning and night, Mary prayed to God to forgive him.
She wanted to be free from the hatred, self-righteousness, and hardening of her heart.
In her life, there were glorious beams of light—her church, her sons, and her work at the florist’s.
There’d been moments when she felt free of the humiliation, betrayal, and exhaustion.
But in this living room with the soaring ceilings and lovely afternoon sunshine, the silver-framed images of that woman who was unquestionably more beautiful and their adorable child, evidence of their love—she wanted him to suffer.
He was willing to hurt her again to save himself.
“I have no right to ask that good man to help you,” Mary said.
“I need to talk with him. I have to know what’s going on at church.
He would know. No one else will tell me.
I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said, and he watched her face crumple with disappointment because of course, he had done so many wrong things to her.
“I mean, I didn’t steal from my company or from the church. He knows me.”
Mary wanted to be back at work, doing something with her hands. When she arranged flowers, she felt useful. A kind of tension was released from her shoulders.
She held out the envelope. “Are you going to sign this?”
“If you get him to talk with me, I’ll sign. But please, please ask him. Our sons shouldn’t have a father in prison. Imagine how that’ll look if the boys ever want to get married.”
Mary looked up and realized that she hadn’t told him about Joey and Gracie. The wedding was in six months. Gracie’s parents had not connected that the Anaheim church scandal in the papers involved Joey’s father. Of course, they would have to be told.
She knew he hadn’t stolen any money. He was a terrible husband and father, but he had never been a man who was greedy for money.
He had been lustful about sex and vain about his appearance, but he would never take a cent that didn’t belong to him.
The splendor of this house and the expensive cars were not like him, either, and Mary knew that all of this must have been what Danbi had wanted.
“Please ask for me. Please. I’ll sign the agreement. I promise. You and the boys can throw me away. I won’t bother you ever again. Please help me. Please save me this one time.” Shin covered his mouth and wept. “I didn’t take anyone’s money. I’m the victim here. Who will care for Anna?”
Mary looked at him, then closed her eyes.
“We have to use your phone,” he said. His number would show up on caller ID.
Mary took her mobile phone from her bag, and Shin dialed the number for Rose Salon. Nari answered.
“Hello,” Mary said in Korean, and introduced herself as Helen’s friend. She asked to speak with Koh Yohan.