CHAPTER 2

Carrying a mug of hot tea, Leanne walked into the sunny patio of the cottage on the Cape.

Sitting that day on the patio, she found herself wondering, was it my fault? When had the change in our lives come? The questions spun around in her mind like a top that would not stop spinning.

Never in her life had she thought of herself as being weak or needy, but after twenty-five years, a husband’s unexpected request for a divorce would have thrown even the most unflappable, well-put-together woman. Surely, she thought, there are limits to being a rock.

She took a sip of her now-cooled tea and glimpsed a cardinal flying by her window, a streak of crimson reminding her that spring had arrived and that the world had not stopped spinning despite the unfathomable turn her life had taken.

She took one last sip of tea and set down her teacup, closing her eyes and resting her head against the back cushion. Thinking of the cardinal made her recall her children’s reactions when Don called the family into the living room.

Both children had been wary, suspicious that something was amiss when they gathered together.

“Come in, come in,” Don said as he took a seat in his favorite chair. Curtis and Jane joined their mother on the couch, one on either side of her.

Donovan had cleared his throat before speaking. Surprising herself, Leanne had inexplicably felt sorry for him. Where had that feeling come from?

“Curt, Jane, you know I love both of you, and I’m tremendously proud of you. I’m sorry to have to tell you this, I know it will be a great shock and surprise…”

“Dad,” Jane interrupted, “are you sick?” She knew how hard her father worked. “Do you have cancer? Are you dying? Oh, Dad!” she reached out to him. But his next words caused her to sit back as if someone had knocked the wind out of her.

“I’m fine, sweetheart, but I’ve asked your mother for a divorce.”

Curt’s anger had been fierce and forceful as he had railed at his father.

“You bastard! How can you do this to us, your family?”

Curtis was the firstborn and was very close to his mother.

Jane, at twenty, was close to her father, a real daddy’s girl. She had turned to her mother and demanded, “How could you let this happen? You just didn’t love Dad enough!”

Curtis in turn had berated his sister with a vengeance.

“Mom did everything for all of us and you know it!” he had protested, glaring at his father with his fists clenched at his sides.

Leanne reached for her son’s hand. Seated between her children, she knew Curtis had been stunned, was beyond belief at his father’s admission.

Already a senior at Brown University, he was planning for a career as a lawyer. Jane was a sophomore at Tufts University, expecting to pursue a teaching career.

This fateful weekend at home was one they would never forget.

Leanne had felt the tension that mounted in her children: Curtis, with his fists clenched, and Jane, whose widened eyes manifested her disbelief and horror.

Leanne knew then that somehow she had to help her children get through this ordeal, and most importantly keep a strong, loving relationship with their father, no matter how difficult it might be. Don would always be their father.

* * *

Driving across the bridge over the Cape Cod Canal, Leanne recalled the happy times the family had shared there. But her mind went back again to so many months ago now, when her life changed.

“You never told me that you were unhappy…”

Don’s reply, “Well, I wasn’t unhappy…I mean, it’s just that I love…”

She interrupted him.

“Does she have a name?”

A wry grin on his face made Leanne want to slap him.

“There’s no need to be sarcastic, Lee. I thought we could handle this in a civilized manner…”

“You thought! You thought wrong! It’s not every day that one’s husband asks for a divorce! You come home tearing my life upside down…the children’s, too, and expect me to be civil! So, I ask you again, who is she?”

Don sighed. “Her name is Alisha Morton. She’s one of the nurses on my staff.”

“Have you slept with her?”

“Well, er, yes.”