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“You’ve got that right. According to this, Mr. Chavez didn’t see any need to assist her in caring for the children.”
Chavez’s cold stare lingered in Alex’s mind. “Or maybe he found another way to help her out.”
* * *
Daniel clasped his hands in his laps, his fingers clenched so hard they hurt. Nicole sank onto the couch next to him in the pastor’s miniscule office. He’d almost given up. She was fifteen minutes late. Now she sat so close he could smell her fragrance, sweet jasmine. His legs felt shaky, and his head was swimming. It had to be nerves. Or the billowing anger he felt every time he imagined her kissing another man. Especially in their home . . . in front of their child.
Or maybe it was the stress of knowing Sunday had turned into Monday and still no follow-up call from Juice Morin. The kidnapper had either killed Benny and run, or he was still “deliberating.” Daniel tried not to think about which it was.
Ray was monitoring the phone and they would put the call through to Daniel if it came while he was at the counseling session. He had debated coming at all, but he couldn’t take the chance that Nicole would show up and find him absent. Not when this new threat to their marriage had taken his place in their home and at his wife’s side.
Too much was riding on this—his marriage, his family, his life.
Nicole leaned toward him slightly, her face anxious. “No word on Benny?”
He shook his head, afraid to trust his voice.
“I’m sorry.” Her hand touched his for a second, then she withdrew before he could react.
“Are we ready?” Pastor Wilson smiled the same gentle smile he displayed at the beginning of each session. The accusations, the shouting, the bitter recriminations, none of it seemed to faze him. He just kept smiling and nodding. Sometimes Daniel wanted to punch him to see if he would react. “Daniel, let’s start with you. Did you give some thought to how you would approach your marriage differently if you and Nicole were to reconcile?”
Daniel sucked in air, willing the anger to subside. It grew instead. “I don’t think reconciliation is what Nicole has in mind. I think she’s already moved on. I think this whole counseling thing is a bust. She’s just doing it to make her boyfriend happy.”
Pastor Wilson slipped his silver-rimmed glasses from his face with maddening calm. He snagged a tissue from a box on the corner of a cluttered oak desk and wiped his lenses. “Nicole, is here some new development in your life that impacts the conversations we’re having here?”
Nicole’s face reddened. She glared at Daniel. “It’s not like it sounds—”
“Yes, it is. It’s exactly like it sounds,” Daniel broke in. “The man was in my house. Kissing my wife.”
“Have you been spying on me?”
The outrage in her voice fueled Daniel’s own fury. “No. I didn’t have to. You couldn’t be bothered to conceal your affair. You made out with your boyfriend in front of my son. My twelve-year-old son. He wants to come live with me now. I think he should . . . I think—”
“No! Stop!” Nicole’s face crumpled. She burst into tears. Her sobs cascaded around him. She jumped to her feet and faced a wall of books, her back to both of them. After a second, she whirled around. “I didn’t know Christopher was in the room. You have to believe me. I would never do that to him. I didn’t kiss Joshua. He kissed me! There is no affair.”
Daniel stared up at her, his heart racing. At moments like this, her effect on him only multiplied. “He kissed you. You kissed him. There’s no difference and that is an affair in my book—in God’s book.”
Daniel tore his gaze from Nicole and looked at Pastor Wilson for confirmation. The pastor’s compassionate gaze was on Nicole, not him. “Isn’t that right, Pastor Wilson?”
The pastor tapped his pen on the desk in a slow, deliberate stroke. “Why do you think Nicole sought the company of another man, Daniel?”
No way. “So this is my fault?”
“No fault is being laid. No blame assigned. I’m asking you to examine the cause behind the effect. The relationship between a husband and wife is a complicated dance. Some times we forget the steps. Or we decide to sit it out without realizing it. Doing nothing has consequences.”
“So you’re saying it’s okay for her to cheat—because I checked out for too long.”
“No, I’m not saying it’s all right to cheat. I’m saying let’s understand your wife’s need for attention and affection—something she says she wasn’t getting from you. Let’s see how we can repair the damage.”
Daniel stood. Pastor Wilson wasn’t helping. He was giving Nicole the ammunition she needed to make this split permanent. She already had a replacement lined up. “Fine—”
“Sit down, Daniel.” Daniel had heard Pastor Wilson preach a few times. He could command. Daniel sat.
“Nicole, you came here today. That tells me you’re still trying. You haven’t made up your mind. That’s good. Have you been talking to God about this new development?”
Daniel glanced sideways. Enough to see her face. It was soaked with tears. Her chin shook with the effort to control her sobs. A bizarre desire to comfort her blossomed inside him. No matter what she did, he couldn’t stop loving her. She raised her head and spoke directly to the pastor. “I don’t think He’s talking to me anymore.”
Pastor Wilson chuckled, a dissonant sound in the midst of so much tension. “Oh, He’s talking. Are you listening?”
