Don't Write Me Off (Christian Romance)

Chapter Eight

Martha Albert was seated with her daughter, Tessy, at the dining table as they had dinner. Tessy had been sullen for the past few days and this disturbed her. She'd tried probing her about it, but all her efforts were futile. She was about to ask again when Tessy looked up;

"Mommy?"

"Yes, honey?"

"Why does Daddy always come home when it's very late?"

So, this was it. Martha had suspected this all along. Jack always came back late at night, and by the time he came, Theresa was usually asleep. She hardly ever saw her father.

"Daddy is very busy, honey. He has a lot of work to do."

"Would it be okay if I start following him to work?"

Martha was filled with ruth for her daughter's sadness.

"That won't be possible, sweetie. You have to go to school, and Daddy needs to concentrate on his work."

Tessy nodded.

Martha wished she could take all her sadness upon herself, just so she could be happy.

"You know Daddy loves you, right?"

"I don't think so." Tessy began playing with her spoon.

Martha knew she was on the verge of tears. She took one of Tessy's hands in her both hands. "Honey, your Daddy loves you so much. I'm very sure of that. Do you know he gives you a goodnight kiss every night while you're asleep? He always does that before he goes to bed."

"He does?" Theresa's eyes lit up.

"Of course, he does. He loves you so much. Cheer up, honey; eat up, before your food gets cold."

Tessy continued eating. Her smile warmed Martha's heart.

"Mommy, I have something to show you," Tessy said just as she finished eating.

"What's that?"

"I'll go get it." She ran in the direction of her bedroom.

Martha cleared the table where they had just eaten. She sighed at the sight of Jack's untouched food. She couldn't remember the last time Jack had dinner with his family. He always came back after dinnertime. Martha had started noticing this over a month ago; after their big argument. The argument where she failed to control her tongue. After that argument, she expected things to come back to normal as usual. But this time, it was different. Things didn't come back to normal. She couldn't blame Jack at all; she realized the gravity of what she said. If only she could turn back the hands of time, she would do things a lot differently. Now, her inability to tame her tongue was resulting in her crumbling marriage.

Martha couldn't count the number of times she pleaded with Jack to forgive her. But his response was always the same; he had nothing against her. But how was she supposed to believe that when he'd become a completely different person from the man she married. She fought back tears as she recalled those times when they were madly in love. There was hardly anything they couldn't talk about. But now they could hardly engage each other in a conversation. They'd fallen back to the level of 'hello' and 'hi' and this grieved Martha's heart. She remembered those times when Jack used to confess how he couldn't live without her; how he couldn't stop himself from staring at her. But now, he didn't even look at her. Despite all the extra efforts she put in to look beautiful for him, he never looked her in the eye. Even when she tried to start a conversation with him, just so he could look at her, Jack always looked everywhere but her eyes. Martha fought back tears as she cleared the rest of the table, leaving Jack's food. She'll microwave it when he comes back. At least, one thing she was grateful for was the fact that Jack always had his dinner at home, no matter how late he came.