A Beautiful Sin (12 page)

“We can wait outside,” Haven said.

“No, it’s fine. Dr. Wallace is finishing up and they were just talking,” the nurse said.

Haven took hesitant steps through the door, and that’s when Kathy spotted her.

“Haven? Is that you?” she asked in a weak and breathless voice.

“Yes, Aunt Kathy.”

“Come here right now.”

She went to the bedside and the two women hugged for a long time. I glanced around the room and was happy to note Kent wasn’t present. I reached out my hand to the doctor and introduced myself.

“I’m Father Canaan Sullivan.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Father. I’m Dr. Wallace, Mrs. Frederick’s pulmonologist. We were just talking about Haven. Mrs. Frederick was telling me about her talent as an artist.”

“Yes, I’m not an art connoisseur, but I visited the gallery where her work is displayed and it’s captivating.”

By that time, the women had stopped hugging, and Dr. Wallace introduced himself to Haven. Then the three of them began discussing Kathy’s condition. Haven asked him a series of questions, after Kathy gave him permission to answer.

“Aunt Kathy, you never even told me you were ill,” Haven admonished.

“I didn’t want to worry you.”

“But this is even worse. I need to know these kinds of things.” She turned to the doctor. “Dr. Wallace, how long will she be in here?”

“We are testing out some different medications to see if we can stabilize her pulmonary and cardiac function. As it stands, she will have to be on oxygen, but hopefully we can get it to the lowest concentration possible. She is progressing very well and I’m pleased with her response.”

As he was speaking to her, the doctor’s gaze swept over Haven in a non-clinical way. I’d been on the receiving end of those looks and knew he found her attractive. And why wouldn’t he? She was a beautiful, young woman.

“Doctor, are you saying that her condition is stabilized and her disease progression is halted?” Haven asked.

“Yes and no. But we’re getting there. Our goal during this hospitalization is to get her controlled on the new medications we’ve put her on.”

“I see,” Haven said.

Their conversation was interrupted by Kent when he entered the room.

“Ah, Mr. Frederick, your wife is doing much better this morning,” Dr. Wallace said.

“Good morning, Kent,” I said.

He nodded to both of us and then his eyes settled on Haven. “Well, look who’s come to pay a visit,” he sneered.

The doctor, who was oblivious to the interchange, kept smiling at Haven, even though she had stiffened and her lips pressed into a thin line.

Dr. Wallace’s phone buzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket, and read a message. “Duty calls, but Haven, I understand you have an art showing somewhere. Maybe I’ll get a chance to come and see it.”

She turned, grabbed his arm, and led him out the door. I imagined it was because she didn’t want Kent to hear what she had to say.

Kathy said, “Kent, Dr. Wallace believes I may be able to go home in a few more days.” It was hard for me to believe because right now she looked terrible.

“Good. That’s good.” His tone and expression told a different story. He kept a watchful eye on the door.

It was time to do what I came here for. “Kathy, would you like for me to pray now?”

“I would love that, Father.”

My prayers were concluding when Haven walked back into the room. Kathy smiled, but Kent didn’t. He eyed Haven in a scornful manner while being quiet for a moment before he commented, “So, you decided to return home, huh?”

“No, not permanently.”

“How long are you here for?” His lips curled in disgust.

“About six months.”

He rubbed his chin, as if he were thinking about that. “You got yourself a fancy gallery showing, do you?”

“That depends on what you would consider fancy.”

“I’m surprised anyone would be interested in your stuff. From what I can remember, it wasn’t much of anything.”

“You can’t remember because you destroyed everything I drew,” Haven snapped as her nostrils flared.

“Haven…Kent,” Kathy pleaded.

Kent ignored his wife. “So what’d you talk to that doctor about? You know Kathy’s health information isn’t any of your business now with those HIPPA laws.”

A tiny muscle in Haven’s cheek twitched, but she didn’t say anything reactive. “I realize that, but Aunt Kathy gave the doctor permission to speak freely to me.”

“Kent, let it go, please,” Kathy begged.

It was an awkward position for me and I thought I needed to diffuse it, but what happened next floored me.

“What’d you do with that doctor out there? Were you acting like a slut, just like your mother? Following in her footsteps?”

Haven deflated as her mouth opened and closed several times before she clamped it shut. But then it was as though a fiery ball of anger lit her from inside. She lifted herself up to her fullest height and balled her hands into fists at her sides. If I hadn’t been paying close attention, I would’ve missed the slight tremble in her lips. Then her reaction came right as I attempted to speak.

Between clenched teeth, she gritted, “How dare you speak of my mother that way? What are you going to do next? Pull off that belt and beat me bloody like you used to?” Even though her words dripped with hatred, her eyes couldn’t hide the fear she tried so hard to conceal. She reminded me of a hunted animal the way she peered about wild-eyed. As a man of the cloth, even I found it difficult to find fault with what she said, may God forgive me.

Once again I opened my mouth to interject something, but before I could utter a word, Kent stormed out of the room.

“Good riddance,” Haven muttered as she rubbed her arms.

“Haven,” I whispered. My voice caught her attention and I jerked my head toward the bed. One look at Kathy and she rushed to the bedside. Tears streamed down her aunt’s face, and Haven did her best to calm her.

“I’m so sorry you had to witness that, Aunt Kathy. I swore to myself I wouldn’t do that, but damn it, look at me. I’m the worst. One minute with that man and there I go mouthing off.” Haven blinked her eyes furiously as though she were pushing back tears she didn’t want her aunt to see. I could understand why she might be so hurt with the cruel things Kent had said to her.

“It’s okay, and how can I blame you? Sometimes I wish I wasn’t married to him anymore, but what can I do? If I leave, I don’t have health insurance, and with my situation now, I could never afford my medications, much less my hospital and doctor bills. I’m too sick to work.” Then she broke down and wept.

Haven held her until her sobs quieted. It was not my place to interfere during this moment. When Kathy was done crying, Haven said, “Aunt Kathy, I can help you financially.”

“You? How can you help?”

“I have money, and you don’t have to worry about that. I’ve wanted you to leave him for years. We can hire an attorney, and maybe he or she can figure out something with the insurance. I don’t know about those things. But we can talk about this when you’re feeling better.”

Kathy shook her head. “I can’t. The church.”

“What about the church?” Haven asked.

“They don’t condone divorce.”

It was time for me to offer my assistance. “Kathy, the Catholic church allows divorce. You could go to church and take communion without a problem. Your divorce would become an issue with the church if you ever wanted to remarry,” I explained. “In that case, you would have to obtain an annulment. And it wouldn’t be a problem if extenuating circumstances existed, such as abuse.”

Haven’s head jerked around and her deep frown warned me of the impending storm. “What? So let me get this straight—she would have to have some sort of special committee or whatever put their stamp of approval on her divorce and label it an annulment in order for her to remarry? Do I have that correct?” Haven asked.

“I guess you could word it like that if you wanted to, but yes. Once that’s done, she can remarry and receive communion,” I said.

“That’s utterly ridiculous. She’s been in an abusive marriage for years. She should be able to get out and remarry and take communion if she wants. See? This is just one more reason I think religion is over-the-top crazy. All those obtuse rules and such. That makes no sense to me whatsoever.” Haven’s arms flew all over the place as she spoke.

“I can see why you might feel that way, but the church takes marriage very seriously, and that’s why they have each couple go through marriage preparation classes. It’s a way for them to come to an understanding that marriage isn’t an easy path for anyone to take.”

Haven huffed, “I find that odd.”

“Why?”

“How can an unmarried priest be knowledgeable about marriage?” she asked.

“I can certainly understand why you’d say that, and he’s not,” I assured her. “But these classes aren’t created by priests. They’re created by professionals, and priests are only the moderators, if you will. So to get back to your original argument, Holy Matrimony is one of the Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church, and because of that, it simply can’t be voided. That’s why it must be annulled by the church. As in divorce, you have to go through a process. Am I making sense here?”

“I suppose so,” she said, though it came begrudgingly.

“I guess we’re back to the original problem then, aren’t we?” I asked.

“Yes. Aunt Kathy, if you want to leave, I’ll bend over backward to make it happen.”

Kathy fiddled with her blankets and sighed. “I know you will, but let me get through this hurdle first. Okay, honey? I need to build my strength before I do anything.”

“You’re right. What’s wrong with me? I wasn’t thinking.” Haven hugged her aunt.

Kent walked back into the room. “How long are you planning to stay?” he asked. I didn’t know if he was referring to Haven’s hospital visit or her stay in Chicago. I decided to keep my mouth shut.

Haven hugged her aunt again and it looked as though she whispered something in her ear. Then to her uncle she said, “I’d stay all day if you weren’t going to be here.” She leaned down and hugged Kathy again. “I’ll call you before I come back again, but let me know if you get out of here first.”

“I will and thank you for coming. And thank you too, Father.”

“Just call me if you need me, Kathy. I’m always available, and I mean that. You have the parish number and it goes directly to either Father Cernak’s or my phone after hours.”

“Yes, I know. Thank you.”

We headed to the elevators and as soon as the doors closed, Haven said, “The doctor says she’s actually doing a lot better and that she looks worse than she is. Her oxygen levels are coming up and the new medication they started her on seems to be doing its job. He was really pleased. He thinks she’ll be out of here within the week.”

“That’s great news. When I saw her I was shocked because last week she looked so much better.”

“Yeah, so was I. It’s been a while and I almost didn’t know what to say. I’m glad the doctor was there. But I need to get her out of that house and I hope I can do it before I kill Kent. What an asshole.” She gave me a sideways glance. “Sorry, not sorry.”

I could only shake my head at that. “Let’s take this one step at a time. We have to make sure it’s what Kathy wants after she’s feeling better. This may be one of those things she’s saying now because she’s sick.”

“I want her out of there yesterday. Canaan, he’s a devil. I know because I lived under that roof for years. If she said she’s ready, I need to act. I should start looking for a place for her to live.” Her strides were so long and fast I had to hurry to keep up, and I was a tall man.

“Let’s think about it a minute. She’s still in the hospital. Maybe you should wait for her to get out and then have this talk with her.”

She stopped and faced me. “Then what happens if she changes her mind?”

“Then she never wanted to leave him in the first place,” I answered.

“What if he hits her when she’s ill?” she snapped.

I didn’t have a satisfactory answer for that. “Do you think he’d do that?”

“Yes, I do. Matter of fact, I know he would.”

“Then I’ll talk to him. Priest to parishioner.”

“And you think that would solve everything?”

“Not necessarily. But it may set him on the right path.”

“Canaan, he’s a bully and has always been one. Worse, he’s a power hungry cop. He could cause trouble. Your little talk would be like pouring gasoline on a fire.”

“He won’t cause trouble. Not if I intervene. And it may be that I don’t even have to have that conversation.”

Her body reminded me of a steel post she was that tense. “You don’t know him. I trust Kent only as far as I can throw him. I have to get to work. Thanks for the ride.” Her clipped tone told me she didn’t have any faith in me or my abilities.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“To the bus stop.”

“Let me take you to the train station. I assume you’re headed back downtown?”

“Yes,” she said, “but I’m fine.”

“It’s no trouble at all.” I didn’t give her the chance to say anything else as I lightly touched her elbow and led her to the car.

After seeing how Kent behaved around her, my guilt over what I had done grew exponentially. Kent wasn’t a nice man at all. And I had sent that defenseless young girl right back into his home where he inflicted all kinds of pain on her for years. How would I ever find a way to make amends?