Page 56 of Mail Order Bride

“How did you know? How did you know it would turn out like this?” I ask between sobs.

My father shrugs. “Because I’m a man and because you’re my daughter.”

He slumps down in his easy chair. “Oh, Gina. Is this a typical marital spat, or am I going to have to kill him?”

I look up and meet his eye. “You were right. I should have never married him. I should have never come here.” The tears just keep coming, like a storm cloud gathering. It's unexpected even to me; mere months ago I couldn’t have imagined feeling this way. The last thing I wanted was to be married off, and now it feels like I’m losing everything.

“I think I’m going to die,” I say, clutching my chest. “I mean, it physically hurts.”

Mona brings a tray of food into the living room, and I can tell by the look on her face that she has something serious to say. “A broken heart can do that,” she says. “But you're not going to die. At least not physically.”

“Why would anyone want to feel like this?”

She glances over at my father and then looks at me sideways. “You’ve never had your heart broken before, have you?”

I think it over for a moment and then I shake my head.

“Gina’s always had a good head on her shoulders,” Daddy says.

“Well,” Mona says. “Let us have it. What'd the son of a bitch do? Only a couple of things I can imagine that’d have you this upset. Another woman. Or some sort of other addiction. Which is it?”

I tell them everything, starting with Joel’s moods and his controlling behavior and sure, maybe I embellish a little, but at the moment, it all feels exactly as I describe it. Then I tell them about going to the bank and what I found at the motel. Joel and another woman. A prostitute. How the motel clerk said he was a regular. How he works all the time, and how now I have doubts about everything.

“This is bad,” Daddy says.

“Worse than I thought,” Mona agrees. I realize how much I appreciate her. How she’s always been here for me, how her love is unconditional. How she’s always been like a second mother to me. Besides my father, there’s no one else, and this makes me terribly, terribly sad.

Daddy hands me a tissue and I sniffle, trying not to cry in front of them. “Can I stay here for a while?” I ask, my voice breaking.

“Of course,” my father says. “As long as you want.”

“Yeah,” Mona tells me. “Give the bastard some time to think about it. He’ll realize what he’s done.”

“I’m going to divorce him,” I say confidently.

“You’ll have to prove he was unfaithful,” Daddy says.

I stare at my father. “How do I do that?”

“You’re gonna have to catch him in the act,” Mona says.

“And even then,” my father adds, “it ain’t guaranteed the judge is gonna believe you.”

“God,” I say. “That sounds like a nightmare. Airing my dirty laundry for all the world to see…”

My father nods. “You’d be better off killing the son of a bitch.”

Chapter Forty-Three

Joel

The animals are acting strange. Somehow, they’re always the first to know. They can sense her moods better than I can, and trust me, I’ve gotten pretty good. This seems to be one of her manic phases. Not my favorite of the moods; I’d rate it just slightly above the deep lows. Those are tough, but at least then, unlike now, she’s not making trouble.

“Smells amazing,” I tell her, strolling in to the kitchen like I own the place, because I do. I plant a kiss on her cheek.

I notice her hands shake, but for the most part, she pays me no mind. It’s the silent treatment again, but I’m used to it by now.

I’m well aware of her plan. We finally had it out last night, after nearly two months of petty arguments—little earthquakes, tremors, all that stuff that happens before the big one hits. I told her I knew about the feelers she’s been putting out, the agents she’s been pursuing, that she’s really serious about a life in California.

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