Daddy was flying home tonight, just two days after his arrival, and Rachelle was glad they had this brief time alone.
She needed to talk with someone about the volcano churning inside of her, from questions about her husband’s supposed infidelity to her unresolved anger at the role her parents played in the death of her marriage to Troy.
This evening, over dessert at a local café, Rachelle tried to keep it real. Over the summer, she had grown impatient with social niceties that only served to maintain artificial boundaries and relationships. She was realizing that only the truth allowed a person to have deep and authentic connections.
Life was messy—Aunt Irene’s situation had proven that. But in taking responsibility for her actions, her aunt had opened the door for healing with her family and with her victim’s parents, and she had made peace with the fact that she couldn’t recover by herself. She needed help.
So did Rachelle, especially from her father.
She told him about her visit with Jillian and her struggle since that time to sort things out.
“So you’re having an early life crisis?” he asked, sounding very much like Gabe.
Rachelle sighed. “Call it what you want, Daddy. Maybe I’m finally facing the truth about myself and about the way I’ve lived my life—mostly to please others, including you and Mom.”
Herbert’s eyes widened. “Where’s all this coming from?”
She shrugged. “I won’t get into all of it tonight, but I’m wrestling with a lot of things, Daddy. I’m angry at how my marriage to Troy ended, and I feel like I was pressured into leaving him by you and Mom. That wasn’t right.”
He sat back in his wooden seat and folded his arms. Rachelle could tell he wasn’t angry, just surprised.
“Okay. Why is this the first time I’m hearing this?”
“Because I’ve never had the courage to tell you before.”
“What else is there?”
Rachelle took a deep breath and looked him in the eyes. “I believe Gabe is cheating on me, with one of his nurses, and I’m not sure what to do.”
This one made Daddy angry. “That no good—”
Rachelle raised her palm to silence him. “Wait a minute now, this is the man you and Mom chose for me, remember?”
Her father leaned onto the table and glared at her. “We may have considered him the best match for you as a husband, but that didn’t give him free rein to treat you like nothing.”
“So you think I should leave him?”
That question cooled his fire. “Take it slow, Rachelle. I’m angry because I’m your father, and I don’t want to see anybody hurt you. But I don’t know all that goes on in your house. Is he putting his hands on you?”
Rachelle shook her head.
“Alright, as long as he’s not hitting you or abusing you in some way, you’ve got to look inside and figure out whether this marriage is worth saving. He seems like a good man to me, but I don’t live in Houston. I see him at his best whenever we’re together. You just be assured that whatever issues you have with me and your mother, we love you. We are here for you, and you are never trapped in a situation you can’t leave and survive.”
Rachelle left her seat and went around the table to hug him.
“Thank you, Daddy.”
“You’re welcome, baby.”
If Jillian and Aunt Irene were right, that God’s love was deeper and wider than that of any earthly father’s, she was going to be more than okay.