She was full of sadness, soberly contemplating life choices and how difficult some of them were. Nobody had known how bad her marriage to Charlie was at the end. Nobody but her and Charlie. Even her sister hadn’t known. When her phone rang, she picked it up off her purse to see it was her sister.
“What the hell just happened?” her sister asked.
Daniela groaned. “What are you talking about?”
“The conversation you just had in that grocery store.”
“Well, that didn’t take long. Who told you?”
“A school friend,” she said. “She saw you there and heard the conversation.”
“Of course she did,” Daniela snapped. “And, of course, gossip travels faster than the speed of sound, doesn’t it?”
“Not quite.” Davida’s tone was grim. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Daniela gave a bitter laugh. “Because I was going through enough shit at the time without listening to more.”
That stopped her sister cold. “I wouldn’t have given you shit about it,” she said slowly.
“Yes, you would have. You would have made sure I left him or argued every day about me leaving him.”
“It was bad enough what you went through,” her sister said, “but to think he had an affair with Trudy?”
“Trudy was one of eight,” Daniela said, her tone grim, as she decided there was no point in keeping secrets anymore. “When Charlie got ill, he switched personalities. I don’t know if it was the medications, his mental illness or what, but he became a completely different person. He was verbally abusive, and then he started having affairs. It was as if he was desperately eager to sample everything he hadn’t sampled so far and was running out of time.”
“And the sampling was with other women?” Davida asked incredulously.
“Yes,” Daniela replied, “among other things.”
“Like?” her sister asked cautiously.
“Getting drunk to the point of puking, waking up with a heavy hangover every day. Doing a lot of drugs, and not knowing where he was from one moment to the next,” Daniela said quietly. “He even tried staying up for three days in a row because he didn’t want to miss a single moment.”
“Jesus,” her sister said.
“No way I could tell you,” Daniela said. “The questions would have been endless, and there was nothing I could do but push it all down. Once Sari came into my life, I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize her life. You know that.”
“And I suppose that perfect husband of yours made some deal with you, about you staying by his side, didn’t he?”
“Maybe,” Daniela said, tiredly reaching up to rub her temple. “None of it matters now though, does it? He’s gone. I’m still here. I’ve got Sari, and life is good.”
Another long silence came before her sister let out a slow, deep, modulated breath. “I guess it’s probably a good thing you didn’t tell me before,” she said, “because I’m vibrating with so much anger right now that I probably would have killed him before he could kill himself.”
Daniela laughed. “You think I didn’t want to do the same? But I didn’t because I knew his life would come to an end pretty quickly anyway. I did my best to understand what he was up to, but that got to be pretty hard too.”
“You’re a better person than I am,” Davida said. “I wouldn’t have stayed.”
“No, but when I married, it was ’til death do us part, and I already knew that the death sentence had a termination date. Everybody could see he was failing rapidly. I would stick by my part of the bargain until his death. If he hadn’t been terminal, I would have left.”
“Are you okay now?”
“You mean, after his death or after the grocery store?”
A brittle laugh escaped her sister. “Both?”
“I’m fine,” she said, suddenly very tired. “I’m heading home with Sari.”
“And Sari’s father?” Davida’s voice changed, suddenly becoming brisk. “Is he still here?”
“Not right now. He got a rental truck and is doing some work. I’m heading home from the store.”
“Is he looking to move here?” Davida asked. “Are you sure you want to open that door?”
“That door was opened when he found out he was her father,” Daniela said, not wanting to sit here and argue with her sister on this front too. “He’s staying for a time to resolve a work issue at least.”
“If he has a job, that’s a plus,” she said. “You should get some child support out of him.”
Daniela snorted. “That is not why I contacted him.”
“Maybe it should be,” her sister said. “God knows you could use the money.”
“That’s got nothing to do with it. I’m doing fine, and you know it.”
“Doesn’t matter if you’re doing fine or not. This guy has a job, and you’re looking after his kid. Meanwhile he’s getting off scot-free. That’s not fair either.”
“It’s hardly scot-free,” Daniela said. “He didn’t even know Angel was pregnant, and he didn’t find out about Sari until after she’d already been adopted.”
“So he says,” her sister snapped.
“Look. I can’t deal with this right now,” Daniela said. “I’ll talk to you later.”
With that, she hit the End Call button on her phone and tossed it into her purse. She’d listened to this conversation with her sister enough times to know that, for Davida, it always came back to money. Daniela knew it was concern on her sister’s part, but that didn’t make it any easier. Daniela would bend over backward to make sure Sari was fine, and she also was a little concerned about Angel being out there somewhere. It would be a whole lot easier if she wasn’t. But then again, that was a horrible thought after having gone through Charlie’s death.
She drove home, her mind consumed with her problems, but, when she finally pulled in, she realized just how exhausted she was. She climbed out, turned toward the back seat and saw Sari had fallen asleep in her car seat. Smiling, she grabbed the groceries and took them to the front door, then came right back and opened the truck’s back door and unbuckled her little
