The Earring

Book 5 Part 6

Faith flung the journal across the room. It landed with a thump on the loveseat under the window. Her heart had been slowly breaking while she read, but she'd been riveted, unable to stop reading. The reference to God carrying her mother finally broke the spell.

"Why?" She shrieked. "Why, Mama? You could have taken this family secret to the grave."

Tears poured down her face.

"And what about you, God?" she demanded. "Why didn't you stay her hand?"

"You asked her to write a family history."

"Well, I didn't know we had a bunch of skeletons in our closet."

"Most humans keep skeletons in their closets. You've read the stories in the Bible. Unfortunately, all of my children have flaws. I didn't try to hide that."

"Why not? It could have kept their families from the pain of exposure."

"Sometimes exposure is the only way to keep sin from escalating. Your father begged me to stop him. I tried other things first."

Faith put her head in her hands and sobbed.

"I keep hoping you guys will learn from the mistakes of your predecessors. It rarely happens, but I keep trying to teach you."

"I suppose this is what Mama was referring to when she talked about the inevitability of betrayal in a relationship. I thought she was just talking about the times she and Daddy almost lost their love. I should have gotten a clue that something more serious threatened their love when I read her opening quote about an earring being pulled from the sludge in a drain. But when they found out about Zach and Daddy shut down emotionally, I figured that was plenty of muck."

Faith left the journal where it had landed and went to bed. She tossed and turned while she watched time pass in red numbers on her ceiling. At 2AM she got up and searched through her medicine cabinet. The only thing she could find that might induce sleep was some Tylenol PM. She took some and went back to bed. The last time she looked up, her ceiling read 2:37.

She was awake at 7:30. She got up and forced down some breakfast. As soon as the courthouse opened, she went to gather statistics. After typing everything up and emailing it in, she took out her wedding "to do" list. She went to the florist. Then she decided to make the round of gift shops. She wanted something unusual to give her bridesmaids and groomsmen, not something blasé like a bracelet or a money clip. After hours of searching, she dragged home empty handed. Nothing suited her. She made a cup of tea and sipped it slowly. When Aaron arrived, her jangled nerves had been soothed. She had managed to stuff the skeletons into a closet in her mind.

When the four of them arrived at the home of the adoptive parents, they found two relaxed couples sharing lemonade by an indoor pool. A little boy splashed happily in the water, showing off his breaststroke.

Faith took in the palatial surroundings.

"I wonder if all this can take the place of a mother's love?" she thought.

She heard Teresa's soft gasp and looked over at the girl. Her eyes were as round as the inflated life preserver floating in the pool.

"She's thinking that there's no way they can offer their child the things this couple is giving their son," Faith thought. "I hope this meeting shows her that love is more important than material comforts."

The four of them sat down and politely accepted some lemonade.

The adoptive parents had met the birth parents when the girl was three months pregnant. They had shared the ups and downs of the pregnancy. They were in the birthing room when the baby was born. The birth father coached the birth mother through labor. When the baby was born, they each held him and told him they loved him before turning him over to his adoptive parents.