Indemnity: Book Two: Covenant of Trust Series

by Paula Wiseman

  “All your brothers?” There was no way Shannon could know about Jack.

  “Joel and Brad. I can’t thank God for just one of 'em.”

  “Of course not. Goodnight, sweetie.” Bobbi kissed her, and then pulled the covers up as Shannon scooted down in the bed. “Sleep tight,” Bobbi said as she turned out the light.

  All her brothers ... No, Shannon had two brothers. Two. No more. The sooner they settled that, the better.

  When she returned to the kitchen, Chuck was wrapping up details of his convoluted adventure through the public records.

  “Wait a minute,” Brad said, raising a hand. “She gives birth using her real name, files a fraudulent birth certificate, then drags the baby to Massachusetts to change his name. Then she comes back, running the risk of being found out.”

  “For the express purpose of being found out, I think,” Chuck said.

  “She’s nuts,” Brad said. “It makes no sense.”

  “That’s what I said,” Bobbi agreed. She hadn’t prompted or primed the boys at all. Chuck couldn’t claim she influenced them.

  “Crazy like a fox, maybe,” Joel said. He pushed back from the table, and walked over to the counter. “She couldn’t hold down a job if she was really insane. She’s either a sociopath, or there’s an explanation behind it that makes sense, at least to her.” Joel poured a second cup of coffee for himself and refilled Bobbi’s.

  “What’s a sociopath?” Bobbi asked as she slid into the seat at the table.

  “No morals, no conscience,” he answered dryly and began rummaging through the cabinets, finally settling for a bag of pretzels.

  “I think that just about sums her up,” Bobbi said.

  “What’s next? What are you gonna do?” Brad asked his father.

  “Go to court and make her give proof of paternity.”

  “What about custody?” Brad asked.

  Bobbi watched her husband shift in his chair. “Well, Chuck?” She leaned forward, her elbows resting on the table. “What about it? Are you going to sue for custody?” He couldn’t lie to her now. She’d asked him point blank, in front of their sons.

  He looked at Brad and then Bobbi and without any hesitation in his voice, he said, “Yes.”

  Bobbi dropped her head and waited, but there was no indignation, no shock, not even a question. Her boys said nothing. “You guys are okay with this?”

  “Mom, what else can he do?” Brad shrugged, and shook his head. “Deny the boy’s his?”

  “What happened while I was upstairs? Weren’t you the one who said he had no proof? That Dad was just acting on speculation?”

  “Mom, first of all, I didn’t say speculation. I said worst-case scenario. Based on the public records’ manipulations she went through, I don’t see how the kid’s not Dad’s. Besides, what kind of damage would that do to him if he found out his dad didn’t want him.”

  “What about the damage this is going to do to your sister?”

  “Bobbi, this is not going to hurt Shannon at all,” Chuck said.

  “How can you say that? You don’t know!” She stood and paced across the kitchen. “Joel? Your dad has an illegitimate son he wants to bring into our family. This doesn’t faze you?”

  Joel poured the last of the pretzel crumbs from the bag directly into his mouth, and chewed until he could manage to speak. “It’ll take some getting used to, but I think once we get to meet him—”

  “Meet him! Have you lost your mind?”

  “Mom, he’s our brother.”

  “No, that boy is the ‘son of the bondwoman’!” Bobbi’s eyes flashed, and she pointed a finger at Joel.

  “Bobbi, what are you talking about?” Chuck asked.

  “This is what I read this morning!” She whipped around to face him. “About Abraham and Sarah. He had Ishmael with Hagar, and Sarah told Abraham to throw them both out. And he did.” Bobbi clenched her jaw, and stared at Chuck, daring him to reply. “God told Abraham to listen to his wife!”

  “I don’t think that applies,” he answered quietly.

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t read that story in a long time, but it can’t be the right thing to do.”

  Bobbi jabbed at the kitchen table with her index finger. “Then you tell me how it can be good and right, to bring a living, breathing reminder of your affair into my house!” Bobbi said through clenched teeth.

  “You already have one,” Chuck said softly. “Shannon Hope Molinsky.” Bobbi’s chest tightened at the mention of her daughter’s name. “No affair, no reconciliation, no Shannon. You can’t separate those.”

  She had no argument, no rebuttal. He’d done it to her again, cutting her off from anyone who might agree with her, leaving her isolated and speechless.

  Her boys ... They betrayed her. They jerked all the supports out from under her and left her twisting in the wind. Struggling to maintain her composure, and her dignity, she turned, and without another word began loading the dishwasher.

  After a long awkward silence, Brad made an excuse about needing rest, mumbled a goodbye and slipped out as quietly as he came in. Maybe he was feeling guilty. Bobbi hoped so anyway.

  “Mom?” Joel carried his cup over, and placed it in the top rack.

  “Joel, there’s not anything you can say right now that won’t make it worse,” Bobbi said without looking up.

  “I’m not choosing Dad over you. It’s nothing personal.”

  Bobbi rolled the dishwasher rack back in and slowly raised her head to look at her son. “It is absolutely personal. I thought you, of all people ...” Her voice was low, controlled, but fury lay just below the surface. “You and Brad are something else. For you to sit here and self-righteously disapprove of me ...” She rolled her eyes up to the ceiling and swallowed hard before continuing. “You have never been married, have never been cheated on. You don’t know what you’re talking about, Joel. How dare you ... How dare you suggest that this boy ... that he’s just like you, or just like Shannon ...”

  “Bobbi, don’t take this out on Joel.” Chuck crossed the room to stand in between them, and nodded toward the doorway. “Son, why don’t you go on up to bed.”

  “Mom ... I never ...” Joel’s eyes darted between his parents as he lingered for a moment. “I love both of you, you know,” he said, then shuffled out of the kitchen.

  “I’m the one you’re upset with,” Chuck said.

  “Upset doesn’t begin to describe it,” Bobbi said, jerking the dishwasher door closed. “You haven’t given me the slightest consideration in this.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “It is! You’ve backed me in a corner and you’re forcing this on me.”

  “I am trying to face my responsibilities and undo the damage I did to another innocent person.”

  “At what cost? Your marriage?”

  He stood straight, his fist clenched tightly.

  “Why are you getting defensive? You’re completely right, and I’m completely wrong.”

  “Bobbi, I never said that!” He took a long slow breath, his lips moving as he did. Was he counting? Reciting a Bible verse maybe? “Honey, that little boy shouldn’t have to pay for what I did.” He spoke calmly, his voice softer. “The way he was conceived is not his fault. He deserves a dad.”

  How could he? He knew what she went through. How could he put this boy ahead of his own family’s best interests? What was he thinking? Was he thinking, period?

  “We have to be able to discuss this,” Chuck said.

  “There’s nothing to discuss. Neither one of us is changing our minds, so unless we have some divine intervention, you may as well go on to bed, Chuck.”

  “Are you coming?”

  “No.”

  “I love you.”

  “I’m sure you believe that.” It came out sharper, more sarcastic than she meant, but she was tired of fighting him and everyone else he lined up against her.

  “With all my heart,” he said, and then shu
ffled toward the stairs.

  Finally, he quit arguing. If it’s not Ishmael, then what is the solution to all this? Bobbi sighed deeply. She put the empty pretzel bag in the trash, checked the back door and turned out the kitchen light.

  Was she overreacting? Was it wrong to protest Chuck trying to wedge that woman’s son into her family? She went to the study, pulled her Bible from the desk and collapsed on the love seat. She revisited Psalm 142, which became her heart’s cry in the aftermath of Chuck’s affair. She needed something like that now. Her eyes drifted to the next psalm.

  Hear my prayer, O Lord,

  Give ear to my supplications!

  In Your faithfulness answer me,

  And in Your righteousness ...

  For the enemy has persecuted my soul;

  He has crushed my life to the ground ...

  Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me ...

  Cause me to hear Your loving kindness in the morning,

  For in You do I trust;

  Cause me to know the way in which I should walk,

  For I lift up my soul to You.

  Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies;

  In You I take shelter.

  Teach me to do Your will,

  For You are my God;

  Your Spirit is good.

  Lead me in the land of uprightness.

  Revive me, O Lord, for Your name’s sake!

  For Your righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.

  In Your mercy cut off my enemies,

  And destroy all those who afflict my soul;

  For I am Your servant.

  “I don’t necessarily want her destroyed,” Bobbi muttered. “I just want her to go away.” She read the psalm again. So what’s he really asking for? She pulled her notebook out of the back of her Bible and began listing David’s requests. He wants God to hear him, not abandon him, deliverance, show me what to do, teach me.

  She shifted in her chair to get more light on the page. “Cause me to hear Your loving kindness in the morning.” That’s a good one. Tomorrow morning would be good, Lord. Then she read the next line. “For in You do I trust.”

  “It’s the trust thing again,” she said, shaking her head, and then she read the psalm once more.

  Father God, You are good and faithful, but this terrifies me. Chuck isn’t as strong as he thinks he is. This woman ... she’s evil, and she’s up to something, but Chuck refuses to see it.

  She sighed and shifted sideways, then drew her legs up under her.

  I hate feeling like this, being at odds with my husband and with my boys, and I’m afraid of what You might be asking me to go through.

  What if Chuck left her this time?

  Help me let go and give this to You. I need Your peace.

  CHAPTER 5

  ACQUIESCENCE

  Saturday, August 4

  Chuck sensed the daylight before he opened his eyes, and stretching his arm out, he felt the cool pillow on Bobbi’s side of the bed. She never came upstairs. He hurried down to the kitchen as quickly as he could.

  Bobbi was in her usual morning place at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee. She wore yesterday’s clothes, and looked up at him with the bleary eyes of a long night.

  “Did you sleep?”

  She took a long sip. “Not really.” Tired fatalism replaced the combative edge in her voice.

  “Bobbi, I’m sorry. I don’t want it to be like this.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t want this tension between us.”

  “Then you’re ready to listen?”

  “I’ve been listening.”

  She shook her head and gulped from her cup. “Never mind.”

  “Stop building this wall, please. I cannot go through this without you.”

  “You’re doing just fine.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “You left before I woke up yesterday, never bothered to call me, and spent the day researching Tracy Ravenna.”

  “I explained all that.”

  “You’ve shut me out, Chuck.” She pushed back from the table, widening the distance between them. “From the moment that woman walked through the doors of the law firm, she had your undivided attention. And now here she is again and you’ve dropped everything else to focus on her.”

  “Because I want to get it resolved quickly.”

  “There will never be a resolution,” she muttered, then finished off her coffee, and set the cup down on the table hard, a preface to rendering her verdict. “You feel this passion about what to do, so I’m going to take for granted that it’s God leading.” Chuck smiled slightly. “I’m not convinced, but I can’t seem to get any other answer from Him.”

  Chuck slid into a chair beside hers. “Honey, how could God tell me one thing and tell you another?”

  “He couldn’t. One of us is wrong.”

  “I’m not wrong. Not now, not on this.”

  “Of course you aren’t,” Bobbi said.

  “So you’re giving me a green light?”

  “A very yellow light.”

  “Fair enough,” Chuck said. No one could have changed Bobbi’s mind like this except for God Himself. “I’m going to file papers Monday acknowledging paternity and asking for DNA testing to prove it.”

  “I know.”

  “Then I’m going to ask for joint legal custody.”

  “Which means what exactly?”

  “Jack will still live with his mother, but we have to make any major decisions together.”

  “Together. That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  Sunday, August 5

  “Any sign of Brad, yet?” Bobbi asked Shannon when she bounced into the kitchen.

  “Nope.”

  “It shouldn’t take him an hour to get from church to the house.” Something was going on. Work, or school coming up. Or maybe he just didn’t want to spend the afternoon in the same house with her and Chuck. After Friday night, she couldn’t blame him for that one.

  “He said he had to get gas.” Shannon pulled a raw carrot off a serving dish.

  “It doesn’t take an hour to buy gasoline.”

  “That’s what he said. Can we eat anyway? Grandma and Uncle Rita and Aunt Gavin just got here.”

  “Uncle Rita and Aunt Gavin?” Bobbi questioned, as Shannon collapsed in giggles.

  “I mean Aunt Rita and Uncle Gavin. They’re all here. I just saw 'em.”

  “We’ll give Brad fifteen more minutes, and then we’ll start without him. Think you can last that long before you faint from hunger?”

  “Maybe, if I have three more carrots.” Shannon inched the vegetables from the tray. Bobbi winked at her, so she took one extra carrot and skipped back out of the kitchen. Moments later, Bobbi heard Rita’s voice.

  “Shannon, is Mommy in the kitchen?”

  “Yep.” Shannon’s answer was muffled by at least one carrot in her mouth, probably two or three.

  “The roast smells wonderful,” Rita said as she came through the doorway, carrying a casserole dish. “You sure hash brown casserole is okay?”

  “It’s perfect,” Bobbi said.

  “I don’t know how you do it.” Rita set the dish on the counter.

  “Do what?” Bobbi asked. She sliced the roast beef, and carefully arranged it on a serving platter.

  “Get everything ready so fast.”

  “I did most of it last night. You’re actually getting a warmed over lunch.”

  “It’s better than my options at home. Oh, Gavin’s bringing in the pie. That is, provided he makes it past Joel.”

  “I better come up with a plan B then.” Bobbi rinsed the carving knife, and then dried it on the dishtowel draped across her shoulder. “I’ve been to the grocery store already since Joel got home. Honestly, I don’t believe Brad ever ate like that. Brad’s not here yet, is he?”

  “No. Ann pulled in right behind us though.”

  “Shannon said she was here.”

  Rita glanced o
ut in the hallway, and then stepped close to her sister. “So is there any more news?”

  “Not really. Chuck’s going to file paternity papers Monday.”

  “What about custody?”

  “That’s the next thing.”

  “Do you think that’s wise?”

  “No, but I don’t have a good argument against it. I was up until about four a.m. Saturday morning going over it and over it, praying, studying, trying to find some kind of answer.”

  “And that was it?”

  “I feel like God’s saying, ‘Bobbi, I told you to trust Me. Now, I’m not answering any more questions.’”

  “How are you and Chuck?”

  “We’ve had some ... frank exchanges of ideas,” Bobbi said with her eyebrow arched.

  “Chuck should trust your instincts.”

  “I’m not sure I trust them.”

  “Has he considered what’s going to happen when Daddy’s little girl has to share some of that attention? What kind of long term impact is this going to have on Shannon?”

  “I haven’t even begun to worry about long term effects,” Bobbi said, pulling a pan of hot bread from the oven. “Thanks.”

  “I’m sorry,” Rita said. “I have more free time than you do, so I worry more. How did the boys take the news?”

  “They were surprised, but not shocked or outraged. They think I’m completely unhinged for having any kind of worries. Besides, after the affair, what’s an illegitimate child?”

  “Well, I think it’s a pretty big deal,” Rita said, crossing her arms. “So does Gavin.”

  “Chuck neglected to mention Gavin disagreed with him.” Was Chuck holding back anything else?

  “I don’t think Gavin told him.”

  “See, this is already causing problems,” Bobbi said, shaking her head. “Ann called yesterday afternoon and she’s inclined to pursue a custody arrangement with Jack, but she’s very concerned about Tracy.”