“You were never one to make rash decisions. But once you made up your mind about something you were swift to implement it. Good for you, son. Good for you. So when do I get to meet my daughter-in-law?”
David praised God in his heart for working out things. His voice cracked when he said, “You can meet her as soon as this weekend, sir. She’s itching to join me. I’ll invite her up.”
Chapter 25
After all that David had told her about Darrell Jones, Ronnie hadn’t quite known what to expect, but this tall, thin man wasn’t it. He was a lot less imposing and intimidating than his photo and his reputation, and he was so…warm.
David’s sister was another matter.
Ronnie wasn’t sure, but she felt that Brianna would have been more impressed if David had brought home a wife who was more…black.
They dined together. David’s father was feeling a lot better and was able to join them in the dining room. As she looked around, she understood why David’s home looked the way it did. He'd been raised in the lap of luxury. It was his normal. She, like the apostle Paul, knew what it was to be empty and to be full. She had experienced both ends of the continuum and had come to realize that in the end the only thing that ever satisfied really was a person’s relationship with God. Not things.
“I hear Barbara and Dana Dickson are your sisters,” Darrell Jones said.
Brianna looked at her with renewed interest.
“Barbara Dickson?” she asked, “I’m a big fan.”
Ronnie smiled. “So am I.”
Brianna returned the smile. “I read somewhere that your father was black.”
Ronnie nodded. “Bi-racial, actually. My grandfather was a black Barbadian. My grandmother was Jewish-American.”
“Interesting cultural mix.”
Ronnie had a few questions of her own.
“I understand you teach gender studies at Howard.”
“I do.”
“What does that entail?”
“Well, basically it tells how gender is a human construct.”
“Really? I thought it was created by God.”
“No, one’s sex is.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Simone de Beauvoir said ‘one is not born a woman one becomes one.’ This proposes that gender should be used only to refer to the social and cultural constructions of masculinity and femininity roles. It covers such things as how we assume the roles society tells us to assume.”
“I don’t understand.”
Ronnie took a bite of her food and observed how David’s jaw tightened, and his lips thinned as he ate.
Brianna seemed to be excited to set her straight.
“Well, take, for example, how traditional roles have a man being the one who works while the woman takes care of the home and children. Suppose the woman wants to be the one who works while the man takes care of the home. What’s wrong with that?”
Ronnie glanced at David and noticed that his nostrils flared. Still, he chewed his food in silence.
“Do you find that it’s something men want to do? I haven’t met any men who would want to do that. I don’t think it’s in their genetic makeup. That’s not how God created them,” Ronnie said.
Brianna shook her head. “You say that. However, consider that a lot of these things are foisted on men. They are told from early that they are to be the bread winners. That’s a lot of pressure on a man. What if he can’t or doesn’t want to do it why–”
“Can we change the subject, please?” David interrupted tersely.
Brianna frowned at him. “Why? Does it offend you?”
“No, it disgusts me.”
“David…,” Darrell began.
“No, Dad. Someone needs to tell her that she’s talking hogwash. She has no respect for a man’s role in the home and is sitting here trying to feed my wife this garbage about a man staying home and keeping house like a woman.”
“You see? That right there. Stereotypes. Are you afraid that maybe your wife will be enlightened?”
“Brianna…,” Darrell said, hoping to bring peace to the table.
Ronnie wanted to interject that there was no danger of her sharing Brianna’s view of things. She was a firm believer in the man as the God-ordained head of the home.
Before she could say anything, though, David told his sister in no uncertain terms how he felt.
“I don’t know what happened to you. From the time you got back from the university you were spouting all this feminist crap, and you have failed to see how the enemy has trapped you into thinking submission is something vile.”
“Submission,” Brianna spat, “I’m not submitting to anyone.”
“Yeah,” her brother countered, “that’s why your husband found someone who…”
David seemed to think better of finishing his sentence. He clamped his mouth closed on the last word.
But it was already too late. Brianna’s eyes filled with tears and she got up from the table and left the room.
David took a deep breath and sighed. None of the remaining trio spoke for a spell.
Darrell Jones eventually broke the silence.
“Some things never change I see. You two are still at each other’s throat.”
David shook his head.
“I have little tolerance for people spouting nonsense around me, Dad. You know that. I wasn’t going to say anything. In fact, I tried valiantly to keep my mouth shut.”
Ronnie saw Brianna re-appear, but instead of returning to the table she went out on the terrace and sat down. She held a tissue to the corners of her eyes.
Nudging David, Ronnie whispered, “Maybe you should go and apologize.”
“No, trust me. I’m the last person she wants to hear from right now. You don’t know my sister like I do. She loves to nurse a grudge.”
Ronnie sighed.
You go to her, she heard the Holy Spirit say.
No, she argued. I don’t even know the woman. She might be very offended.
Go to her.
She took a deep breath and dabbed her mouth with the corner of a napkin. She pushed away from the table, hoping she was doing the right thing.
It’s just you and me God. Please go before me. Prepare her heart and mind.
She stood. “I’ll be right back,” she said to David and his father.
Darrell looked up at her and smiled gently. She smiled back.
Brianna Jones-Persaud was sniffling when Ronnie sat beside her. She looked at her brother’s new wife in surprise, and then she pursed her lips.
“If David sent you, tell him he’s done enough.”
“He didn’t send me. God did.”
“God?”
“Yes. Your creator and loving father.”
Brianna gave her a withering glance.
“You do believe in God don’t you?”
“What’s the big secret?”
“Pardon me?”
“You and my brother. He’s had girlfriends that he has happily paraded around here, around town, to functions. Now he marries you, and it’s like a state secret. Why is that?”
Ronnie felt heat flood her entire face.
She swallowed. God, please give me the words.
She straightened her back and tried with all her might not to take offense. She focused on God. She had nothing to be ashamed of. She was a princess, a child of the King. She was wrapped in God’s loving embrace. Nothing Brianna could say or do could change that fact. After several beats, she gave Brianna a gentle smile.
“Whether or not it’s public knowledge doesn’t change it from being true. David has his reasons for waiting to make an announcement. I trust him. I also trust God to work things out in his time.”
Brianna glanced away.
“Imagine him getting married to you and not inviting any of his family to the ceremony. That’s just plain indecent.”
“People elope all the time, Brianna. Ultimately, it’s not about anyone else except the couple, the o
fficiating minister, and God. It’s that couple who then has to live out those vows, who has to make the transition from engagement to marriage.”
Instead of another bitter retort, Brianna began to sob quietly.
“Why are you crying?”
She sniffed and didn’t answer for a long time. Ronnie was about to give up and walk away, but she heard the Holy Spirit say, Stay.
Brianna said, “I miss my husband. I miss him so much.”
“I’m sorry about your separation.”
“It was my fault. There was a time in my life when I was a young girl that I had a romantic view of life. I used to read those sappy romance novels, and I had this idealistic view of love. Then when I went to college, I fell for the first guy who poured on the charm. I thought he was the man of my dreams. He turned out to be the man of my nightmares. He was domineering and controlling and even though he never hit me he was verbally abusive. He eroded my self-esteem, but for some reason, I couldn’t leave him. He was like Doctor Jekyll one minute and Mr. Hyde the next. In the end, he was the one who dumped me for some new conquest. I was devastated. My self-confidence had been shot. Then on a friend’s advice, I started attending this women’s support group. The leader, a gender studies major and I became fast friends. She became something of a mentor to me. She told me that women were stronger than men in every way except physically and because of that we needed to bring them under emotional subjection, or they would have the power to hurt us. She told me that some of the most powerful women in history knew how to rule over men. That idea fueled my resentment from my last boyfriend, and I just ran with it. I determined that I would never give another man the power to hurt me again. I even began to feel as though my mother had somehow been shafted. “
Brianna dabbed at her eyes once more and then continued to pour out her heart to Ronnie.
“My mother was a career woman. She was a senator, but she was also a housewife. She took care of everything on the home front while all Dad did was deal with what happened at work. I concluded that women had hard lives and that there would be no equality with men unless we stood up for our rights, first in the home and then in the marketplace. I was determined to chart my own course. To turn things topsy-turvy. To have the same career as my husband but let him take care of the home. I thought, why should I submit to him? Why can’t he submit to me? After all, I’m equal to him, aren’t I? In fact, I was better qualified and making more money than he was. Now, I’m not so sure. The woman he left me for wasn’t even his intellectual equal. She was just some young girl in his office.”
Brianna cast a suspicious eye at her and Ronnie could swear she was going to say. ‘Like you.’
Mercifully, she didn’t. Ronnie wasn’t sure how much more cheek turning she could do in such a short space of time.
“When I confronted him about the affair he told me for the first time in his life he feels respected and valued. I was out of state then. I told him to move out of the apartment and not be there when I got home. He laughed and said he was already gone.”
“Are they still together?”
“It doesn’t seem that way. We had a long conversation last weekend. He said he doesn’t want to go through with the divorce. He’s willing to seek counseling. I don’t know if I want to. I’m afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“That it will be a waste of time. That I can’t change who I am, and we’ll end up back where we were.”
“Brianna, do you have a relationship with Christ?’
“Not really.”
“You need to do that. You need to make God the Lord of your life. If you submit to Christ first, then it will be a whole lot easier for you to submit to your husband because you will do it out of reverence for Christ, not because you are a lesser being than your husband is but because God has instructed you to. At the University you have a head of the faculty?”
“I’m the head of the faculty.”
“Okay, but there is a Dean?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you have to submit to their authority and leadership right?”
“Of course.”
“Yes. Even though there are times you don’t agree with him or her you still show them respect, right? You don’t tell them off, do you?”
“No, though there are times I’d sure like to.”
Ronnie laughed.
“Marriage is like that. Have you ever seen a two-headed goat?”
Brianna looked puzzled. “No.”
“If you did, how would it look?”
“Freaky.”
“Precisely. Marriage can’t have two heads. For order, God made the man that head. You are to help him along. But he is to be the head. You trust God that he knows what he is doing. Ephesians says let the wife see she respects her husband and let the man love his wife. I’m sure you wanted your husband to act loving, right? Yet, you weren’t willing to respect him.”
“The dean’s accountable to the board for the decisions he makes though.”
“And your husband is also accountable. Make no mistake, he’s accountable to God for being the right leader, for making the right decisions. You are accountable to God for submitting to your husband’s leadership. If you make your request known to God, the Bible tells us he will work situations out. Do you know that Jesus submitted to God? Yeah, it says right there in Philippians that Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but willingly submitted Himself even unto death. He is our example.”
Tears sprung to Brianna’s eyes.
“How could I have been so wrong?”
“Any philosophy that tells us that what God set in order is wrong is of the devil. The enemy’s goal is to destroy marriages just like yours, Brianna. All these destructive things decimate families. That’s what he wants.”
“What should I do?”
“Begin by accepting God as your Savior and then take it from there. You can’t do this in your own strength. You need Him to strengthen you.”
Brianna cried. “Will you help me do that? I haven’t really prayed for a long time.”
“It would be an honor. Just say after me…”
~*~*~*~
Later that night as Ronnie lay entwined in David’s arms she said, “I feel so happy that your sister has accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior.”
He was silent for a short time.
“You’re amazing. I’m so blessed to have you by my side. You know, I don’t think I could have told her what you did. I was the big Christian, yet I always judged her and viewed her with disdain. I didn’t speak to her in love or allow my words to be seasoned with salt. Galatians 6 springs to mind. ‘If someone is caught in sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.’ My Lord, if He wasn’t so gracious and merciful where would I be?”
“It’s a journey, baby, not a destination.”
“That’s true.”
“So, since your dad and sister know, I think it’s time I tell my family, David.”
He kissed her slowly, tenderly.
“Yes, sweetie, I agree. In fact, I was thinking we should announce it to them together. Perhaps over Skype or something.”
She propped up on one hand and played with his chest hair.
“I don’t think they’ll be too thrilled with that. It’s not like we’ve been dating and they know you. My mom, in particular, is going to be quite upset. I think I need to break it to her first. Alone. Maybe I should go to New York over the weekend and do that.”
He sighed. “After the last separation, I vowed not to let you leave my side if I can help it. I don’t know how I feel about you going to New York without me.”
“Hmm…I recall having the same discussion with you a few days ago and you instructing me to stay put.”
“I’ve learned from my mistakes. I missed you so much those few days I was apart from you I wondered how I ever survived before.”
Ronnie looked deep into David’s eyes.
“You say the
sweetest things. No wonder you’re a politician.”
“Well, it was either that or be a used car salesman. Speaking of which…what was the story between you and Fabrizi?”
Ronnie sighed. “Are you sure you can take it?”
David gulped. “No. I’m not sure. Forget I asked.”
She laughed. “I was just teasing. There was absolutely nothing between Giorgio and me. I told him I was in love with someone else. He took it gracefully. We’re friends and nothing more.”
“Gershon?”
Ronnie shuddered.
“I went out with him to make you jealous. It was foolish of me. I didn’t pray about it. I just did my own thing. And I paid the price. I had no idea he was so aggressive. I hope you don’t have any further business with him. I don’t want him around.”
“Don’t worry, sweetie. I feel the same way. There’s no reason for him to be in our lives ever again.”
~*~*~*~
As Ronnie landed at JFK, she felt both excited and apprehensive. While she was anxious to see her mother she was also scared about what her reaction would be. She could just imagine the hurt and disappointment. She prayed that God would prepare her mother's heart and mind for her confession.
The tall, immaculate blonde with the sparkling aquamarine eyes in conversation with the cowboy with ten-gallon hat didn’t immediately see Ronnie.
Before hailing her, Ronnie took a moment to study her mother. As always, she felt pride swell in her chest. As a child she always wanted her mother to pick her up from school just so people would know that the Michelle Pfeiffer look-a-like was her mother. She used to preen as her friends looked at her mother in awe. It didn’t bother her then if a few kids asked, ‘is that really your mom?’ It was only later it became an issue. Thank God she had passed that awkward stage and now saw herself through her Father’s eyes.
Ronnie observed her mother shake her head and with a laugh distance herself from the cowboy who, based on his gesture, heart over hand, pleading look in his eyes, had just been turned down.
Ronnie shook her head and chuckled. Not a day passed by when her mother wasn’t hit on by some male. As Giorgio had alluded, looking at Erin, it was hard to believe she was the mother of three grown daughters. Age had been good to her. She had always been beautiful, but now she was stunning. She would be fifty-six in October, but she could easily pass for forty-five. Her platinum blonde hair, always professionally cut and styled, with nary a strand out of place hung past her shoulders. Her face was perfectly made up, and her wide-set aquamarine eyes always seemed to sparkle like blue topaz.
A Case For Love (Royals Series Book 3) Page 29
