“Of course. It’s a full family session today.”
She sighed and headed for the shower. She’d go wet headed and hungry if she had to, but she’d be ready. As the spray pelted her back, she prayed for guidance. If she could remember the way God intended marriage to be — with the man thinking so highly of his wife that he would literally give anything to protect her, and the woman being a close partner with the man, working to carry through the vision he set for the family, then maybe their marriage had a chance.
But did that idea hold a place in today’s modern world? Or was that an ancient ideal that didn’t translate to the 21st century?
It started with her, that much was clear. She needed to do her part as an exalted wife who deserved to be held in such high esteem. Then maybe she could get Tom to understand the error in his thinking. And she’d have to do a lot better than storming into their home first thing in the morning with anger and accusation on her mind.
She sighed. Help me, Lord.
They made it to the counselor’s office with a few minutes to spare. Marianne’s damp hair was in a ponytail and she’d eaten a protein bar in the car. They sat in the waiting room and after a brief pause, Stephanie welcomed them into her office.
“Full family session today,” Stephanie said.
Tom and Marianne nodded.
“Let me start by asking Stella a few questions.” She turned to Stella, who smiled up at her. “Stella, how are you doing?”
“Fine.”
“Are you sleeping well?”
“Yeah.”
“Nightmares?”
“Nope.”
“Sweetheart, do you ever think about that man who put you in the car?”
Stella shrugged.
“You know he was a bad guy and the police got him and put him in jail, right?”
Stella nodded.
“He can’t get close to you again.”
“I know.”
“You know your mommy and daddy keep you safe?”
She nodded again.
“Do you ever get scared to be at home around the guests at the Inn?”
“No.”
Stephanie reached over and patted Stella’s hand. “Do you have anything you want to talk to me about?”
Stella shrugged and shook her head.
“Do you want to go play with the toys in the corner?”
Stella gave her a big, beaming smile and jumped to her feet.
“I’d interpret that as a yes. Of course, I’m a paid professional. Go ahead, honey.”
Marianne watched her daughter race to the corner and make herself comfortable to explore all the new toys. God had answered their prayers. Stella had come out the other side of this disaster without blemish. She was going to be fine. She reached over and squeezed Tom’s hand. He startled at the contact, looked over at her and the corners of his lips upturned.
“Mom, Dad, you have a very well-adjusted five-year-old.”
“Seriously?” Marianne asked breathlessly.
“Yep. I see no further reason for her to attend counseling. Keep an eye on her. If she develops nightmares or any anti-social behavior around the guests that is abnormal for her, feel free to call me to make an appointment. But you guys are obviously doing a good job of making her feel safe and secure. She seems fine.”
Marianne let out a breath of relief. She put her hand back on her lap.
“So, how are you guys doing?”
Marianne dropped her head, stared at her lap and wondered if Tom was going to open up and be honest, or whether he would brush their troubles away like they didn’t exist. Without looking at him, she answered, “Not good.”
“Okay. You’ve been through a traumatic family event. I’d be surprised, honestly, if your response was anything else. Now, why don’t I get someone to take Stella to play in another room, and you can tell me what you mean?”
She glanced over at Tom. His head was lowered, his jaw tight, his forehead creased. She nodded.
Stephanie pushed a button on an intercom near the door. Soon, a young woman entered the room and focused on Stella.
“Hey Stella, my name’s Grace. How about you and I go check out some new toys and Stephanie will talk to your parents a little while?”
Stella glanced over at Marianne, and she nodded with a big smile. “We’ll be done in just a little while, sweetheart.” Stella took Grace’s hand and followed her out the door.
She could feel tension emanating from her husband. She looked up at Stephanie who was looking at them both intently. “We disagree over where to place the blame for this incident, and how to move forward from it.”
Stephanie nodded. “Go on.”
“Tom thinks this is my brother, Jeremy’s fault. As a result, and due to his need to protect our family, he wants to cut Jeremy completely out of our family. Of course, I can’t do that.”
“I think I understand Jeremy’s connection to the kidnapper. But why would the kidnapping itself be Jeremy’s fault?”
Marianne looked over at Tom, who didn’t appear to feel compelled to answer. “My brother served ten years in jail for bad business decisions he made with my family’s contracting firm. The kidnapper, Mr. Slotky, was one of the workers who got laid off when the company went bankrupt. He held a grudge.”
Stephanie nodded slowly. “Okay. So Tom, tell us your thoughts on this matter.”
Tom cleared his throat and straightened a little in his chair. “Jeremy, whether intentionally or not, put my daughter in danger. Jeremy has made decisions in his life that I don’t want Stella to have any connection to. He has to pay the consequences for the error of his ways, but that doesn’t mean that my daughter or my wife have to pay as well.”
Marianne clenched her mouth shut.
Stephanie continued, “So you’re saying that Jeremy, because of his past contacts that he made as a result of his crime and his stay in jail, is putting your family in danger.”
“That’s right.”
“No, that’s not right,” Marianne said. “Jeremy has worked very hard, both during his incarceration and since he’s been released, to be a model citizen. He made mistakes over ten years ago. He deserves a fair shot to live a normal life. Tom wants to completely disown him. But I love my brother and refuse to do that. Jeremy deserves my help and support.”
Tom swung his gaze from her to Stephanie and shrugged. “And that’s where we’re at. I can’t change my position and she can’t change hers. We can’t compromise.”
“I see. Are you guys arguing frequently on this topic?”
“I would say, we used to. Now we’ve reached an angry impasse. There’s no use arguing about it anymore and beating a dead horse. We’re not going to come to an agreement.”
“Would you say that Stella is aware of the tension between you?”
Tom said, “We make the effort not to raise our voices in front of her. The last thing we want is to make her feel unsafe or unloved. But certainly there have been changes in our home that she’s picked up on.”
“Like what?”
“Several nights, we haven’t shared a bed.”
Stephanie looked over at Marianne. “He slept on the couch one night, and I slept in a guest room last night.”
“Did she ask either of you about that?”
Tom answered, “She asked me this morning where Mommy was. I just told her she was in one of the guest rooms.”
“Did she seem upset about it?”
“Not particularly.”
Stephanie nodded. “Tom, I’d like to delve a little deeper into your position on this. You want to shut Jeremy completely out of your family’s lives?”
“Yes. I think it’s in the best interest of my family, and particularly Stella, if we no longer have contact with him.”
“I don’t see that Jeremy intentionally put Stella in danger. I think what happened with Mr. Slotky was nothing that Jeremy could’ve prevented. You do realize, of course, that life hands us a lot of situations that we have n
o control over.”
Tom clamped his mouth shut, then said, “We all take risks in life. But as Stella’s father, and the head of the household, I want to limit the amount of risk we take. I’ve seen situations where the father kept allowing bad things to happen because he didn’t want to make the hard decisions to stop it. As a result, the family unit was harmed.”
“Can you tell us more about that?”
Tom sat quietly for a moment. “My brother was troubled. He never really fit into our family. To call him a black sheep is an understatement. He caused problem after problem for my parents, and I remember so many times, my mom’s tears and my dad’s yelling. His escapades and his connections with other bad people put all of us in danger, time and time again. He caused so much heartache for all of us, especially my parents. Finally, my dad got tough. He legally cut ties with my brother. He’s no longer a part of my family.”
Marianne stared. She’d heard the story of Tom’s little brother Rod. But he didn’t speak of it often, and she’d never talked to her in-laws about it. Could this long ago event in his own family be a driving force behind his decision about theirs?
“Did you support your father in this decision to legally cut ties with your brother?”
“Absolutely. In fact, he let it go on way too long. I wish he’d done it sooner. Life got so much more pleasant in the family once we didn’t have to worry about my brother.”
“Have you ever been in contact with your brother since?”
“No. None of us have. He lives his own life, and we live ours.”
Marianne shook her head. She almost didn’t recognize this man sitting beside her. Tom was a wonderful husband, a top-rate father to Stella. He was her chosen life partner. But she was seeing him in a new light. Maybe he was only a fair-weather partner. When things were going well, he’d work hard and love her. But now that she’d introduced a little bit of adversity into their lives, in the form of her ex-con brother, he wanted to cut ties and run.
“Life is filled with twists and turns, Tom,” Marianne said. “You can’t plan every path, and you certainly can’t cut ties and run every time something happens that you don’t like.”
He looked over at her, surprise on his face. “I can make decisions to keep my family safe and sound within the boundaries of our life. I can control a lot of things, not everything. But if it’s within my control, and the path seems clear, I’m not afraid to make the hard decisions.”
They talked another half hour, but Marianne felt that no further progress was made. When Stephanie ended the session, she said, “I’m releasing Stella from further counseling sessions. But you guys might want to consider some couples therapy. I can refer you to a few colleagues of mine that I recommend.”
Marianne nodded. “Thank you.”
They checked out and left with several business cards in hand. The ride home was silent.
* * *
The rest of the day was consumed with Inn business and dinner. Back in their apartment after Stella’s bedtime, Marianne had a quiet moment to talk to Tom.
“So, do you want to go to couples therapy?”
He looked over at her, muted the television and sighed. “I don’t know, babe. My first impulse is to say no. We should be able to settle our own arguments and deal with our own problems. On the other hand, this is a big one; bigger than we’ve ever dealt with before. And we’re on opposite ends of the spectrum. Maybe an unbiased opinion would help.”
The thought of her life and the state of her marriage made her tired.
He reached over and took her hand. “I love you. If you want to go to counseling and try to heal our marriage, then I won’t say no.”
“I’m not saying I want to. I don’t know, Tom. I just don’t know what to do.”
“I’m sorry you’re not happy. But can you at least try to see my side of this thing?”
Marianne guessed she could see his point if she looked at it purely from a logical standpoint. But emotions held such a huge place in the situation. Love, loyalty, family. She couldn’t tolerate his ultimatum to disown her brother. She refused to honor it.
“Tom, I want to live a godly life, a godly marriage. But this just doesn’t feel right to me. What you’re asking me to do is not supported by the Bible. Will you pray with me? No matter what we do, whether we go to counseling or try to solve this ourselves, we have to ask God to guide us.”
He nodded. She prayed out loud, “God, we are in need of your wise counsel. We’ve gotten ourselves into a problem in our marriage and we can’t seem to solve it alone. I want to be the kind of wife you want me to be, and a good life partner to Tom. Tom wants to protect our family and keep us all safe. But we’ve hit an impasse on the ways to approach this problem. We need your help. Please pour your wisdom and love over us. Please help us to love our daughter and live our lives in a way that is pleasing to you. And please make your way clear so we both understand. Amen.”
* * *
The next morning, Marianne grabbed her stack of dinner theater materials and a notebook. Always a planner, she started making lists of tasks needed to make this particular dream come true. Tom walked through the great room. “Are you going to breakfast?”
She nodded. “In a minute. I’m in the middle of this and don’t want to stop.”
He stepped over and looked over her shoulder. “What is this?”
She looked up. “It’s my To Do list for the dinner theater. I’ve already come up with two pages of tasks and the ideas are still coming.”
He was quiet a moment. “You’re pursuing that idea?”
“Yes.” She jotted down, ‘Talk to Leslie about directing,’ then looked up at him.
“I thought we’d decided it was too expensive and too risky.”
She put her pen down. “No, Tom. You decided it was too expensive and too risky. I decided to move ahead with it.” She held her hand up, interrupting his protests, “I’ll have regular checkpoints with you. For now, it’s a lot of talking to people and deciding how we can make it work. I’m not going in blind, you know.”
He frowned and hesitated. Finally, “So, you’re saying you’re still checking it out, and if it’s clear to both of us that it is a risky investment, you won’t do it?”
She smirked. “Way to put a positive spin on it, Tom. How about this? I’m still checking it out, and if I can find a way to be successful and meet our financial goals, we’ll do it.”
Glass half empty, meet glass full.
“Fine.” And with that, he left.
The next few days were filled with busily scratching one item after another off her To Do List. By the end of a week, these decisions were in place:
The community theater in Myrtle Beach would partner with the Inn to sponsor the dinner theater. They would provide costumes and props for free and Marianne would advertise them heavily in their program.
The play was too long to perform in its entirety in the dinner theater format. Emma, who was a professional journalist and was talented in creative writing in many formats, would edit and streamline the script so it could be performed in 75 minutes.
Leslie would direct the production.
Her dad would build the stage and the sets.
Marianne would update the Inn’s website with audition information and eventually, webpages to advertise their show and sell tickets. She would also design and print the programs.
Stella would play one of the town children.
Emma would use her contacts at Seminal Magazine and the Myrtle Beach newspaper to advertise the show once they were closer.
Marianne had a checkpoint meeting with Tom and went over the progress made, the high amount of volunteer help, and the limited expenses they’d incurred so far. She had to smile when he reluctantly agreed that they should move forward with the project.
* * *
On Saturday, Marianne sat with Stella at the table in the Inn’s dining room. Her notebook containing her To Do List sat in front of her as she ate her grilled
cheese sandwich. To Do Lists were awesome for several reasons: they kept her on track, and they gave her that undeniably good feeling of crossing items OFF the list. She had just crossed off “Shop for the paint for the sets.” Her heart raced with pleasure. She was getting there. She was going to pull this thing off.
Then, Stella’s raised voice cut into her concentration. “Mommy! Listen to me! Right now!”
Marianne’s head darted up, then slowly around to see if guests were observing. Fortunately, none were. “What, sweetheart?”
“You’re not listening to me, are you?”
“Of course I am. I always listen to you.”
Stella looked like she was trying hard to resist an eye roll. Then she pulled out one of the tricks Marianne used with her on a semi-frequent basis, “What did I just say?”
Marianne took a sharp breath. Darn that kid using her own parenting methods against her. If she was this smart at age five, how would Marianne ever survive mothering her till she was a legal adult? Still, she took a stab. “You were saying you wanted to go outside and play in the sand.” It was a valid guess. Nine times out of ten, that’s exactly what Stella wanted to do.
Of course, not this time.
“No! See? You weren’t listening, now admit it.”
Marianne closed her notebook and physically pushed it away, out of her eyesight, out of her concentration. She folded her hands in front of her. “You’re right, sweetheart. I’m busy planning the dinner theater.”
“But it’s Saturday!”
Yes, one of seven weekly work days here at the Inn. You didn’t really get a day off when you owned your own residential business. However, she and Tom tried hard to make sure that Stella had a normal weekend filled with fun activities with her family and friends.
“You’re absolutely correct. Now, how about we do something fun? What would you like to do, Miss Stella?”
“You and me?”
“Sure, you, me, whoever you want.”
“Grandma Leslie?”
“Perfect. I’ll call her and see if she’s free. She might have plans, with this late of notice. Now, what do you have in mind?”
Stella tapped a finger on her lips. “I know! Remember Isabella’s birthday party?”
Pawleys Island Paradise boxset, Books 1 - 3 Page 57
