by Emma Easter
Keith put his hand on her forehead and turned to the other man. “She’s not warm anymore,” he said.
The man who Rachel guessed was a doctor nodded. “Apart from a slight runny nose and a cough, which I will give her medications for, she’s perfectly fine. She just needs to rest for a day or so and she will be completely okay. She’s actually lucky to have come to you in time because that rain last night was too heavy for anyone to be outside.”
Rachel cried out again, “Emily… my daughter.”
Keith gave her a small smile. “Your daughter? I’m sure she’s safe at home. But I will get word back to your husband that you are here as soon as the doctor leaves so that he can come and pick you up.”
Her eyes grew wide and she shook her head vehemently. “No, no, don’t do that. Don’t tell Mike where I am.”
Keith gazed at her with worry and surprise on his face.
The doctor said, “Don’t let her get too agitated.” He wrote down something on a piece of paper and then handed a package to Keith. “This is for her cough.” He smiled at Rachel and then faced Keith again. “Let me know if there are any new developments with her health. But I think she will be alright.”
The doctor started to leave the room and Keith thanked him. After he left, Keith came and sat down on the bed next to her. He reached out as though he was about to smooth down her hair and then drew back his hand again.
She said to him, “I have to get my daughter, Emily.”
Keith stared silently at her for a few minutes and then asked, “Why don’t you want me to contact your husband? Surely, you want him to know where you are so he can come and pick you up, and then you can see your daughter.”
She sat up and slowly leaned her back on the pillow. She gave Keith a tired smile. It was time she told him everything. She looked into his eyes. If only things had been different, were different, maybe she would express her interest in him. She remembered how he had carried her into the house last night and gently laid her on his bed. He had vacated his bed for her and she did not know where he’d slept. She said in a tired voice, “Thank you for what you did for me yesterday.”
She suddenly remembered the two strangers who had saved her life and said to Keith, “The two men who brought me to your house, do you know who they are? I’ll have to visit them soon and thank them for what they did for me.”
Keith frowned. “What two men, Rachel?”
Rachel stared quizzically at him. “The two men who brought me to your house,” she said. “I was hopelessly lost yesterday and who knows what would have happened to me if those men had not come along and helped. I thought you saw them?”
“I didn’t see any men,” Keith said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Rachel. I am pretty sure.” Keith looked up and then turned to her again. “That is really weird.”
Rachel frowned and then shrugged. “I guess they left before you opened the door.” Remembering the strangers who had helped her reminded her again of her daughter. She had to get Emily out of Mike’s house and bring her here. And in order to do that, she had to tell Keith everything. If not, she would have nowhere to go, nowhere to stay, and nowhere to bring Emily. She was going to ask the pastor for a huge favor and the least she could do was tell him about her whole life; everything she feared, no matter what he would think of her afterwards.
“Keith, I have something to tell you. It’s something really hard for me to say, but you have to know.”
Keith gazed at her and said, “What do you have to tell me?”
She took a deep breath and pushed through her reluctance. “Keith, Mike is not my husband.”
Keith’s eyes grew wide, and then he shook his head. He didn’t say anything for some seconds and then he spoke. “I am so sorry. I just assumed that you were married, especially since I saw you in the house together. But you have children together, don’t you?”
She said slowly, “We have a child together, but Mike has two other children from his wife; his real wife. I am Mike’s second wife,” she said, and then added quickly, “but not his real wife.”
Keith arched his brows. “I don’t understand.”
“Where I come from, the men marry more than one wife. Since it’s not legal, they marry additional wives in a ceremony they call a spiritual union. That’s why I said I am not really married to Mike. However, I am considered his second wife.”
Keith’s mouth fell open and he stared at her. She shut her eyes, unable to look at his face anymore. He looked so confused, so put off by what she had told him. She was sure he had never have imagined such a thing. She knew she had to press on, to make him understand. And then maybe he would not think so badly of her as she was sure he did right now.
She began to tell him about her childhood, how she and her brother grew up free until their mother ‘got converted’ by the man she later married. She told him about their move to Fallow Creek and the indoctrination into the new religion. She talked about the life at Fallow Creek, how women were treated as property with very few rights. She told him about the lack of freedom she had faced, how she had met and then married Mike, and how she had always wanted to escape. She talked about the day she’d finally tried to, before being caught by the security squad. She spoke about how she had given birth to Emily, about pitying and continuously feeling guilty about Olivia because she was living with the woman’s husband even though she had first lied to herself that she was truly married to Mike.
Finally, she told him about the Restoration House, how Mike had arranged for them to run away and how they had come to Destiny. She said to him, “I couldn’t bear it anymore, Keith. I couldn’t bear the guilt and the shame, the loathing I felt for Mike every time he touched me, and the loathing I felt with myself for continually living in that situation.”
She told him how she had left the house and tried to escape with Emily, but had not been able to because Mike had taken her to his room. She talked about how she had wandered aimlessly and hopelessly in the darkness until the two mysterious men had come to rescue her. She finally said, “You were the first person I thought about when I decided to escape because of how kind you had been to me.” She smiled. “Actually, you are the only person I know here.”
He was looking at her with wonder and confusion and something else she could not place. She took his hand instinctively and watched him stare down at their joined hands. “Please, Keith,” she said. “You understand now why I don’t want Mike to know where I am and why I have to get Emily out of that house as soon as possible.”
Keith said nothing for a long while and then he finally nodded his head. “Wow! I would never have imagined that you have been living in such a difficult situation, Rachel.” He reached out and this time he tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. He smiled at her and said, “I promise I will do everything I can to help you bring your daughter here.”
An overwhelming sense of relief ran through her as she looked at Keith’s face. He wasn’t judging her and he didn’t appear to think any less of her. He was such a good man.
He frowned again and said, “But Mike is Emily’s biological father, isn’t he?”
Rachel sighed and said, “Yes, he is.”
“And has he ever done anything bad to her?”
“No.”
Keith said, “It might be tough to get Emily from him.”
She nodded. “I know. Still, I want to fight for her to live with me. I don’t want her to grow up in a polygamous home with Mike. Even though I have left, I am pretty sure Mike will find someone else soon because it’s the way of the men in Fallow Creek. But I am sure he’s going to make my life a living hell before he finally lets me go. And I know that one of the ways he will do that is to try to keep me away from my daughter. But that cannot happen.” She looked into Keith’s eyes again, pleading with him to please help her.
“I will do everything I can to help you, Rachel,” he said. He touched her cheek gently and she felt a shock of electrici
ty run through her. “I’ll try to get your daughter to you, but it won’t be easy.”
Rachel placed her hand over the hand he’d laid on her cheek before he could withdraw it. “I know it won’t be easy,” she said, gazing into his eyes, loving how his hand felt on her cheek and how he was looking at her as if she were a rare treasure. “But I believe it can be done. Especially since this is not Fallow Creek.”
“The first thing I have to do is return the money Mike gave me,” Keith said, “or, at least, what remains of it. Unfortunately, a large chunk of the money has already been spent. But I need to return the rest to him. I would never have taken the money if I had known the sort of person he was.”
Rachel looked at Keith as he stared at the wall in front of him. He looked worried and she knew he was thinking about Destiny, about how he would rebuild the town, the church, and the other projects he’d told her and Mike about when he’d visited the other day. Mike had told him he would help rebuild the town and give whenever he was called upon to do so. But now that she’d told him all her problems, she knew he would not take any more money from Mike. Consequently, all the rebuilding would stop… all because of her. She immediately regretted coming here and telling him about her problems. How could she stand in the way of the town being rebuilt? She wanted with all her heart to leave Mike and have absolutely nothing to do with him, but she did not want to take away the chance the town had to come alive again.
“You look worried,” Keith said, gazing at her.
She said to him, “Now I wish I hadn’t told you all this about Mike and me. Maybe you should hold off on confronting and giving Mike back that money. I will find another way to get Emily out of the house.”
“No,” Keith said. “It would be wrong for me to keep the money after all I know about him now. I will return the rest of the money as soon as I can.”
“But what about the town and the church?” Rachel said to him. “It has to be rebuilt for the sake of the people here. I will not be able to live with myself if because of me, Mike withdraws his offer to provide the funds needed to rebuild the town.”
“I know it will be hard,” Keith said, “but the Lord will provide another way for the church and the town to be rebuilt.”
“But...”
“No, Rachel,” Keith shook his head. “Don’t try to convince me otherwise. You know it would be wrong to keep the money and then continue taking money from Mike. Besides, I think this might be a lesson from the Lord, His way of teaching me not to depend on any man as my provider. As the town’s provider. God is our provider, not Mike. He will provide all the funds needed for the church and the town to be rebuilt again.”
Rachel stared at him and desire began to grow in her heart. And it was not just desire for him, though it was there, but it was for the kind of relationship he had with God. She had always considered herself a Christian, but now she knew that she wasn’t much of one. In spite of her many excuses, she’d been living with a married man. She’d always wanted to be closer to God but somehow, it had never happened. But Keith sounded like someone who was close to God and trusted Him with everything. She wanted that.
“We will go to Mike’s house tomorrow and tell him you want your daughter.”
She shook her head. “I can’t go back there,” she said. Fear built in her heart as she thought about going back to Mike’s house and getting trapped there. “I don’t ever want to be with Mike again.”
“You’re not going to be with him,” Keith said. “This is not Fallow Creek, Rachel. This is Destiny. He has no right anymore to try to entrap you or force you to stay with him. You don’t belong to him and, actually, you never did.” He looked deeply into her eyes and smiled. “The Lord will make a way, somehow, so we can get your daughter to you. We will have to go to court.”
She wanted to believe that she could actually win a custody case over Mike, but she had so many doubts. She said, “I don’t have a job right now and I have no home of my own. Mike is wealthy. I doubt that any court would give me custody of her now.”
“Then we will wait, Rachel. We will get you a job and then a home, and then you can fight to get custody of your daughter. For now, you need to confront Mike. We will go to your house together and do that. And then you will tell him firmly that you want to see Emily. She’s your daughter. He cannot keep her away from you.”
Rachel wished it would be that easy. But Keith did not know Mike. He hated when something he believed belonged to him was taken away and now that she had left him, he would be enraged. Especially if she showed up with Keith. He would definitely go into a jealous fit and her chances of seeing Emily anytime soon would be nil. “I will go alone,” she said to Keith.
“No, I don’t think that is a good idea.”
She smiled weakly and said to him, “You just said I am no longer in Fallow Creek. I am in Destiny and here, I am a free woman. I don’t belong to Mike and he has no right to me anymore. I think it would be a good idea to go alone, but I will let him know that I have told others about him and what he is capable of. I will warn him that if he tries to hold me against my will in the house, he will have the whole town to answer to.”
Keith shook his head as he gazed tenderly at her. He said softly, “I still think I should go with you.”
“No, Keith,” she said. “If you go with me it will make Mike mad with jealousy. He hates seeing me with any man and it might make things worse. It would be better for me to go alone and try to reason with him and then get him to let me see my daughter.”
Keith did not say anything for almost a full minute and then he nodded. “Okay, Rachel. Let’s do this as a compromise. I will go with you, but I will not enter the house. I will stay some distance away while you go into the house so that I make sure you come out safely.”
She couldn’t resist and took his hand again in hers. “Thank you so much. I’m so glad that we are friends.”
He suddenly looked downcast and she wondered why. He opened his mouth to say something and then closed it again. He gave her a curious smile and squeezed her hand. “Yes, I am glad we are friends, too.”
He stood up with their hands still joined together and she pursed her lips. She did not want him to go and held onto his hand. He looked down at her and smiled again and then gently pulled his hand away from hers. He said softly, “You need to get some rest now, Rachel. Tomorrow, we will go to Mike’s house.”
She began to tell him that she was strong enough to go today, but he firmly told her that she had to rest. “We will go tomorrow.”
She watched him leave, feeling slightly uncertain. She had said something that hurt him, but she wasn’t sure what exactly it was. He turned around at the door and beamed at her, and her concerns melted away. She smiled back at him and then thanked him again for everything.
“You need to stop thanking me for taking you in, Rachel. It’s what any decent person would have done.” He turned around and then left the room, shutting the door slowly.
She shut her eyes and lay down on the bed again. She inhaled deeply as she covered herself with his duvet. The bed and the duvet smelled of him — spicy cologne, soap, and a scent that was distinctively him. She inhaled deeply again and smiled. She felt so at peace anytime she was with him and even lying on his bed right now, taking in his scent. He made her feel like everything would be alright, no matter what was going on in her life.
She whispered, “Lord, thank you for bringing him into my life.” And then she added, “Please, Lord, Keith has a beautiful relationship with you, and I want it too. With all my heart.”
She suddenly felt a deep peace come over her as she felt God’s overwhelming love surround her, covering her like a warm blanket on a cold day. And then waves and waves of love went through her, melting away all her shame and guilt. For the first time since she was a child, she felt no iota of guilt or shame. She smiled as joy filled her and then she began to feel sleepy. Before she drifted off, she whispered a prayer of thanksgiving to God, and then closed h
er eyes and fell into a peaceful sleep.
Chapter 13
Mike Cadwell ran his fingers over his hair again and again as he paced his living room floor. He looked down at his first wife, Olivia, who was sitting on the sofa with Emily in her arms and asked for the hundredth time, “You’re telling me you don’t know where Rachel went? Did she just disappear into thin air?”
Olivia looked up at him, her eyes pleading. “Please sit down, Mike. Rachel is an adult. I am sure she is fine.”
Mike glared at her. “She’s been gone for almost two days now. I wouldn’t be so worried if she hadn’t left Emily. How could she have just upped and left?” He snapped his fingers. “Just like that?” He would have gone to the police if he didn’t loathe them so. His brief experience with them in Fallow Creek had showed they only brought trouble.
“Have you asked around town to see if anyone has seen her?” Olivia asked.
Mike narrowed his eyes in anger and glowered at her. “Really, Olivia? I have been gone the whole morning asking people in this town if they have seen her, and yet you are asking me if I have been asking for her around town?”
Olivia didn’t say anything for a short while as she burped Emily. After that, she said, “I think the fact that Rachel did not take Emily with her means that she’s okay and will definitely come back. There’s no way she would leave permanently without her daughter. She loves Emily way too much.”
Mike stepped away from Olivia and went to look out the window, as if the action would cause Rachel to appear outside. If Olivia was right, Rachel had run away again. But at least he knew she would have to come back because of Emily. Still, he couldn’t bear the thought of her being somewhere other than here at his house where she belonged.
He turned around and went to the mantel near the TV set. Grabbing the keys to his BMW, he turned around and said to Olivia, “I am going to look for her again.”
Olivia sighed but said nothing. Mike strode out the front door, got into his car, and drove out into the road.