Family Ties

by Hans M Hirschi

  * * * * *

  Darmstadt

  Helene’s mind was racing, her heart pounding. I’ve been such a stupid bitch, she thought. I have to fix this. She had made up her mind. She wasn’t going to let Mike slip through her fingers, no matter what her father said. She walked over to her closet and started pulling clothes from it, haphazardly. Where’s my suitcase? God, I need to talk to Mom. She can look after the kids. I need to borrow her car. Her mind was racing now, her marriage on the line.

  Within ten minutes, she had packed enough clothes for a two-week vacation, although she doubted that she would be gone that long. What time is it now? Just after eight. If I leave at nine, I’ll be in Zurich by probably two in the morning, and I’ll reach the house half an hour later. Are the kids going to be okay alone with their grandparents, or should I bring them along?

  Her mind was all over the place.

  No, Heinrich is already asleep, and Paul needs to go to school. I’ll leave them here. It’s only for a day or two, she thought.

  She raced downstairs, where her parents sat in the library, reading in front of an open fire. Her father gave her a disapproving glance when he saw her running into the room. “Mom, Dad, I have to drive to Switzerland tonight. Would you please look after the kids for me for a couple of days? I’ll call you in the morning, as soon as I’m there, okay? Please,” she pleaded, knowing what was coming.

  “What?” Her mother shot her a worried look. “Drive to Switzerland at this hour? That’s at least six hours, dear. Come here, sit down. What’s going on?”

  Her father’s mind was already made up. “You’re not going anywhere. You’re a mother, you have responsibilities to your children. Besides, no daughter of mine leaves the house at this hour to drive halfway around Europe in the middle of the night. No way.”

  “I don’t care. I have to see Mike. He’s my husband, and we have to fix this. I felt miserable enough today for not attending Anna’s funeral.” She was almost shouting. “We should have been there. It’s been going on long enough. I have to give my marriage another chance.” She stared at her parents, trying to convey just how serious she was.

  Her mother weakened. “I guess I can look after the little ones, but are you sure you want to go through with this?”

  Her father got up from where he sat, put down the book he had been reading, and walked over to her.

  “What brought about this sudden change? Why are you acting so rashly?” he demanded.

  “This isn’t a rash act, Papa,” she said. “I’ve been thinking, and when Sascha called, I just realized what I had to do.”

  “Why did that poof call you?” her father interrupted. “What’s he got to do with anything? Is Mike such a coward that he can’t even do his own bidding? This is outrageous, and I forbid it.”

  “Papa,” Helene said, “I’m married. I am a grown woman with three children. I’m no longer your little girl. I need to make my own decisions. I can’t, and I won’t allow you to run my life anymore. Either you finally get to terms with my being married to Mike and respect that choice, or you and I are finished. Is that clear?” Helene’s voice was calm, but determined. She looked her father straight in the eye.

  Before she could read his expression, he turned around and left the room, slamming the door to his study.

  “Honey, are you sure you have thought this through?” her mother tried again. “Your father loves you. He just wants to protect you, and he knows what’s best.”

  “No, Mom, he doesn’t. That’s the point. He only cares about what’s best for him, for his reputation, his standing in the community, and I’ve about had it with him.” Helene sighed. This was breaking her heart, and she didn’t want to lose both of her parents. “Please, Mom. Mike is my husband, the father of my children, and even though he acted like an idiot, I love him and I owe him, and us, a second chance.”

  “I know honey, I know.” Tears welled up in her mother’s eyes. “I know all too well.”

  She got up and hugged Helene, and it was clear she had been through something similar. She understood what Helene felt.

  “Listen, I’ll take care of the kids. You take my car. Here are the keys. It’s bigger and more comfortable than your Prius. Be careful, promise me.” She caressed Helene’s face.

  “Yes, Mom, I promise. I love you. Tell the kids I love them, too, and I’ll be calling in the morning, okay?”

  With that, Helene left her mother’s embrace, took the keys to the Mercedes, and left to pick up her suitcase. At the door, she turned around and looked at her mother standing in the middle of the library.

  “Are you going to be okay?” she asked.

  “Yes, we’ll be just fine. I know how to deal with your father. We’ve been married long enough.” She chuckled. “Leave him to me. Now go, and drive safely.”

  * * * * *

  Lotti and Paul

  Once she knew that her daughter was safely on the road, Lotti got up from the couch to check on the children, just in case they had heard any of the raucous exchange downstairs.

  In a way, she was happy that her daughter had finally stood up to her father, proud that Helene had done what she had never been able to. Oh, her younger daughter, who shared her name, never had to. She’d always get her way, pointing at whatever she wanted, but Helene always had to fight for everything.

  Trying to please her father, she often gave in to his will, way too often, Lotti felt.

  Luckily, all three kids were sound asleep, and Lotti went back downstairs to deal with her real challenge. She had met Paul at a New Year’s ball. Paul’s parents and hers had been friends, but Lotti had never been allowed to attend any of their parties until the year she turned seventeen.

  Paul was handsome and so confident he stood out, despite the many powerful people who attended the party. The young man had been perfectly comfortable, exuding an aura of tranquility that had mesmerized Lotti. He, for some reason, noticed the little girl in the corner, with her blue dress, nervous and not really fitting in.

  Two weeks later, Paul had shown up at Lotti’s house to speak to her father and officially asked to court her. They got married the same year, in late summer.

  Paul was still at university, and so they didn’t start a family right away. Helene wasn’t born until seven years later. By then, Paul had already started to cheat on Lotti, but she hadn’t figured that out yet. She was still living the dream, happily married, pregnant, a homemaker, just as the magazines of the time held up as the ultimate life for a woman.

  Helene must’ve been in her early teens when Lotti realized that her husband was having affairs, plural. She could smell the women on him when he got home from his office late at night. He didn’t even hide his activities. Indeed, he would almost flaunt his conquests in front of Lotti, humiliating her again and again.

  She never said anything. Never. Not once. She took it in stride, as did many women of her generation who were, like she, not strong enough to fight. Not until tonight. If Paul didn’t stop standing in the way of Helene’s and Mike’s happiness, she’d take appropriate measures.

  She walked over to Paul’s study and quietly knocked on the door. “Paul, may I speak with you for a moment?”

  Not hearing any response from within the room, Lotti opened the door to see her husband sitting at his desk, rustling through some papers.

  “We need to talk…” She didn’t finish the sentence, and she was pleased that her timbre made it sound slightly threatening. This time, I won’t let you off the hook.

  “There is nothing to talk about,” he said. “I won’t let that girl ruin her life, and if she believes she can defy me, she’s got a surprise coming her way. I just got off the phone with Helmut.” His voice was cold and hateful.

  “Why would you talk to your lawyer at this hour?” Lotti asked, although she had a hunch. Her husband was always scheming.

  “I’ll buy more shares in Walter’s pharmaceutical company. I’ll destroy that bug, crush him. By lunchtime tomorrow
, that Swiss won’t have a job to return to…” His voice trailed, the last words hissed more than spoken.

  Lotti couldn’t understand where the hatred really came from. Mike had done nothing to deserve that kind of wrath, and she was amazed, and impressed that he had survived for so long. He was a stronger, better man than she had ever given him credit for.

  “You’ll do no such thing, dear.” Lotti walked calmly around the desk, put both her hands on her husband’s shoulders, and began to rub them gently.

  Paul looked up at her in surprise. She had never defied him, never spoken up against him, and certainly never used a voice so cold and openly threatening to him. He was clearly stunned, and for the first time in what seemed forever, at a loss for words.

  “Paul, we’ve been married for forty years, and I’ve been a loyal wife to you all those years. I have been faithful, I’ve kept my mouth shut, and never once have I questioned your decisions. From now on, things are going to change in this house…” She didn’t finish her sentence.

  Although Lotti had an idea of what she wanted to do, the details of her plan were still forming in her head. Everything had happened so quickly when Helene had stormed into the library.

  “What?” Paul began, but Lotti cut him off.

  “You know, dear, all those indiscretions you’ve had over the years, all those secretaries, all those girls? I always knew. So here’s the deal.”

  His shoulders tensed up under her hands. Paul was still in shock, unable to say anything.

  “I’ll give you a choice, dear,” she said. “You can keep up this plotting and scheming of yours, but if you do, you’ll do it alone. I will move out in the morning. And don’t you, for a second, believe I’ll change my mind. I have the money from my parents. I’ll be fine, and I’ll make sure that everyone knows about your indiscretions. I have a hunch that many people in town might not be as understanding as I am about having their wives and daughters linked to you.”

  Lotti stopped, still rubbing Paul’s shoulders, letting her words sink in and do their magic. She knew Paul, and she understood that his standing in the community was more important to him than destroying Mike. She understood better than Paul did the implications of gossip. How Paul would hate to be the ridicule of Darmstadt’s high society, especially when many of them found out that he had banged their wives or daughters. Lotti smiled at the thought.

  She had dealt with his infidelity by finding out who he was seeing, trying to figure out what drove him, and so she had collected information about every woman Paul had been with over the past fifteen years. She knew of course that it had started a lot sooner, but back then, she had the girls to take care of, and didn’t have the time nor energy to follow him and to dig. When Lotti, her youngest daughter, had left to go to the university, it had become an obsession for her.

  * * * * *

  Paul

  Lotti had been shopping downtown that day, for an outfit for an event they were to attend that coming weekend, when she noticed Paul walking out of another store with a young girl she recognized from somewhere.

  Isn’t that the daughter of the local manager of Deutsche Bank? She wasn’t entirely sure. So many functions, so many people.

  She might as well have been a friend of one of Lotti’s daughters, although she looked awfully young. Instinctively, her eyes followed the two as they walked down the street where she noticed Paul’s Mercedes. When they both got in, Lotti followed them, all through town, to a deserted street near one of the city’s parks, where Paul stopped and parked his car.

  What came next had been etched into Lotti’s brain for the rest of her life. Although she couldn’t see everything from where she had stopped her car, she could see the girl going down on Paul as he was still seated behind the wheel. Her frame bobbed up and down, and Paul’s hand on her head, guided her motions.

  At the time, Lotti had nearly gagged. Nauseated, she felt her world spin out of control. Knowing her husband cheated on her was one thing; seeing it happen was another. Witnessing him getting a blow job by a girl that could’ve been a minor, was almost too much, and she considered driving away.

  But something stopped her. She was frozen in place, and so, she watched the two lovers, her husband and this girl, as they got on with their business. Eventually, Paul drove off and dropped the girl off in front of her house, which confirmed Lotti’s suspicion.

  Yes, she is the daughter of our banker!

  In the coming days, she’d used her vast network among the ladies of the Darmstadt society to do a little digging, discreetly of course, finding out all she could about the girl, her age, and what possible connection she might have to Paul.

  She learned that the seventeen-year-old was applying for internships in various companies to increase her chances of landing a job after high school. Apparently, Paul had taken her interests to heart, because only a few weeks after the incident, she had gained employment at his office, working part-time while she finished school.

  Lotti had been furious, but having access to Paul’s computer and the HR records of the firm, she soon discovered a pattern to his behavior. It became a hobby, an obsession, and Lotti started to document every girl who passed through Paul’s life and what became of those girls eventually.

  After that first incident, Lotti had bought a camera to document the encounters. She copied HR records and filed them in a secret cabinet to which only she had the keys. Over the past fifteen years, she had amassed a sizable collection of documents about girls, several of them married with children today. This nuclear bomb of proof of Paul’s indiscretions, if ever set off, would most certainly destroy his reputation in town.

  Lotti had just never had reason to pull the trigger, until tonight, when her own daughter’s happiness was at stake.

  * * * * *

  Paul and Lotti

  “So, what do you say?” She moved closer to her husband, leaned over, and planted a kiss on his cheek, not once stopping her massage of his shoulders. She could feel his tension mount.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about, woman.”

  “What do you think Walter would say if he knew you’d banged his wife two years ago?” she asked. “Or what do you think Ulrich would say if he knew about you and his daughter Monika?”

  Paul’s body seemed to freeze under her.

  “I’ve told you, dear, I know everything, and I will use it, unless…”

  Beads of sweat appeared on his temples.

  “What do you want me to do?”

  Gotcha!

  “I love you, Paul, you know that, and I won’t throw away forty years of marriage unless you force me.” She tried to soften the tone of her voice, to let him know that there could be another way. “But my daughters, their families, and their happiness come first.”

  “Okay, just tell me what you want.”

  “Tomorrow morning, you’ll resign as president and CEO of the company and announce your retirement. Put Rudi in charge. The boy’s earned it. Besides, I want to spend the rest of our lives with you, traveling, enjoying what we have left of it. I also want you to get off Mike’s case. You have no idea how hard the man has tried to please you over the years, how hard he’s worked to provide for Helene and the kids. You never gave him a chance.”

  “But…”

  “No buts, Helene has chosen to spend her life with Mike, and it’s time you accepted that. You’re a grandfather. Be one. Enjoy the fruit of your life’s work.”

  She knew he’d go along with her plan, probably knew him better than the old man knew himself. She understood that Paul wanted to live his life more fully, deal with less stress. He had suffered a lot, and he’d been dealt a lot of blows over the years. They had buried his real personality under the weight of power, influence, and monetary gain.

  “You won’t leave me then?” Paul’s voice cracked.

  “No, not if you do as I tell you.” Lotti let go of his shoulders and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Not as long as you start behaving.”
>
  “Why now?” Paul asked. “It seems you’ve known for a long time…” His voice trailed.

  “You know, dear,” Lotti said, “I’ve been thinking about this for some time now. You’ve heard the saying about the straw that breaks the camel’s back? I think your behavior tonight was that proverbial straw. Don’t get me wrong. This has been a long time coming, and much of it is as much my fault as yours. I realize that I should have said something a long time ago. Hell, I probably should have left you the very first day when I saw you and that girl, all those years ago. I was a coward, really.”

  “Lotti, I…”

  “I don’t want to lose you Paul, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not serious about this. We have more than enough money to last us a lifetime, and I’d much rather spend time with you, the girls, and the grandkids than watch you destroy your son-in-law. If you insist on that, I’ll move out and do just what I promised I’d do. Don’t ever doubt that. But what I really want to do, is to destroy all of that and spend the rest of my life with you. Make sense?”

  Paul remained silent. She knew he wasn’t sure what to respond. He was ashamed, not just because he had been caught, but because there was something deep within him that she knew regretted the actions he’d taken. Her husband was tired of fighting, tired of struggling, plotting, scheming, not just against Mike, but anybody who dared to stand up to him.

  He got up from his desk, turned around, took her face in his hands, and kissed her.

  “You’re right, of course,” he said. “But it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks. You may have to be patient with me, Lotti. And you know what? I’m glad, because I’m tired. I’m so very tired, and I think it will be great to get away from it all, even though it won’t be easy.” He hugged her and held her tightly against his chest.

  It was a start, a second chance, and something in Lotti’s heart told her that they would make it. Eventually, her family would be fine.