Free With the Father by Jenni Moen Page B

something?”
    He lowered his head
and exhaled heavily.
    “Right. You can’t
tell me that.” I shook my head, exasperated.
    “People don’t come
to confession like they should. The people who need it most are the ones I
never see.”
    My head snapped up.
“But you’ve been here for almost two and a half years.”
    “I have.”
    “And he never came?
Not even once?”
    “Had it been going
on that long?”
    I raised my
eyebrows in answer. “For at least a year that I know of.”
    He shook his head
sadly. “It’s hard, but it’s not our place to judge. Even now.”
    I knew he was
right, that I had no business sticking my nose in this mess, but I didn’t care.
Besides, though he was saying one thing, his guarded and murky eyes told me he
was thinking something entirely different. “I didn’t view their marriage
through her rose-colored glasses, but I’m still incredibly disappointed. And
angry.”
    Paul steepled his fingers over his bowl. “Marriages are rarely what they seem, Kate. They all
have their ups and downs, and what goes on behind closed doors is usually
pretty surprising.”
    “If something had
been wrong, she would have told me . They were happy. She was happy.”
    He was quiet for a few
seconds. A few seconds too long. “I thought so, too.”
    “I’ve known
Jonathan for more than ten years. A third of my life. And I didn’t always like him, but I never thought he’d do something like this.”
Paul remained silent.   “And now I
can’t help but wonder what other secrets he was keeping. I’m doubting
everything he ever did.”
    “You think there
was more going on than an affair?” he asked.
    “I don’t know. I
can’t really put my finger on it, but I’ve been going through the stuff in his
office and things don’t smell right. Something makes me think that this is just
the beginning.”
    He unsteepled his fingers and leaned back in his seat. Staring
at his lap, he said nothing. I would’ve thought that seeing someone else take the
news as hard as I had would make me feel better, as if I weren’t alone in all
of this. However, when Paul looked up, the misery and anguish on his face
shocked me. It compounded everything I was feeling. It was almost as bad as if
I’d just told Grace the news about her husband.
    Paul wasn’t taking
the news as hard as I had. He was taking it harder. It was more than the
reaction of a priest who was worried for a member of his congregation. It was
more than the reaction of a concerned friend. This was the reaction of a man
who had a vested interest in at least one of the parties involved.
    He pushed away from
the table and stood to leave. “I’m sorry, Kate, but I need to go.” His words
were broken and labored. His green eyes, no longer sparkling.
    He turned away and
took several steps before I found the courage to say it. “When did you realize
that you were in love with her?”
    He paused but
didn’t turn back to deny it, effectively confessing his own sin. Father Paul
was in love with my sister.
    It was just one
more secret in a town full of them.

REVELATIONS

 
    Grace

 
    I pushed the eggs around the pan, waiting for them to harden. For me,
they were perfect, but my dad didn’t like runny eggs. I checked the foam carton
to see if there were two more to make for myself.
    “What’s on your
agenda today?” my dad asked from the table.
    I laughed because,
after the past five months, the thought of me having any kind of agenda was
exactly that – laughable.
    “Could you put some
flowers on your mom’s grave while you’re at the cemetery?”
    I froze where I
stood at the stove as it dawned on me that I hadn’t gone to the cemetery
yesterday. For the first time in months, I hadn’t gone. What’s more, I hadn’t
even thought to go. Guilt washed over me. How could I have forgotten? I scooped
the eggs onto a plate and mentally ran through what I’d done the day before.
    Flowers.
    Coming back from
the dog park, I’d stopped mid-step in