Free A Father's Love by David Goldman

was thinking of running away to Brazil.”
    According to her friends, Bruna had seemed happy and content. The only comment she made that expressed any hint of complaint to her friends was simply that we were not rich. When she first moved to New Jersey, she loved the town house I owned. Then when we moved to our new home, she was enthralled with that. But the area in which we lived was known for some fabulous mansions owned by extremely wealthy families, and we were not in one of them. Bruna had told one of her friends, “David will never be able to afford to buy me one of those.”
    Occasionally she would allude to her former lifestyle in Brazil, where she had lived in pampered affluence, complete with security guards at the gates to the family apartment and nannies and chauffeurs, as she was growing up. Sometimes she would brag to her friends, “Oh, in Brazil we drive around in bullet-proof cars.” Conspicuously absent from her descriptions, of course, was any reference to the need for security guards and bullet-proof vehicles. Bruna’s own mom and dad had gotten trapped in the middle of a shootout right outside their home one day when they went out for ice cream. On another occasion, her father was held up at gunpoint while riding in the back of a taxi. Once, as Bruna came out of a store, an assailant lunged at her with a knife. She escaped and fled in her car. In truth, life in Brazil was often not safe, but Bruna always put a positive spin on it.
    If Bruna was disillusioned with our simple, quiet lifestyle in one of the most picturesque parts of New Jersey, she never showed it or spoke of it to me. Apparently she was a much better actress than I had ever imagined.

6
    Reality Check
    A FEW DAYS AFTER BRUNA LEFT, WE RECEIVED A NOTICE IN THE mail that her official U.S. Permanent Residence status had been approved, based on our being married. We had gone through the process of obtaining her green card, and the permanent resident status was just one step below her gaining citizenship. She already held dual citizenship in Brazil and Italy, so she could come and go as she pleased from Italy to the United States, based on the Visa Waiver program, but she wanted American citizenship, too. I had thought she wanted U.S. citizenship because she was so in love with me and happy living with me in New Jersey.
    Less than a week or so after Bruna declared her intentions, our nanny showed up to do some housecleaning. As best as I could explain, I tried to inform her of what had happened and I asked her to stay on part-time to help me keep the house in shape even though Sean was not there requiring her care. She needed the job, and I appreciated the help, so she agreed to come once every two weeks to tidy up the house.
    The first day the nanny was there, she found some things that she knew belonged in Bruna’s closet. When she opened the closet doors, she couldn’t believe her eyes.
    â€œDavid,” she called to me downstairs. “Can you please come up here? I need you to see something.”
    I trudged up the stairs to the master bedroom, and when I looked inside the closet, I understood immediately what was so disconcerting. I hadn’t really paid much attention to Bruna’s closet since she left. Now I saw that, except for a few old, unwanted items that Bruna never wore, all of her valuable clothes were gone. All of her jewelry, belts, shoes, and other items of value were also gone. I realized for the first time that the four suitcases I had lugged into Newark airport the night she left were filled with the best of everything she owned.
    About that same time, I noticed that the second set of keys to Ray and Silvana’s condominium in Sea Bright was not hanging in its normal spot, on a key rack by our front door. We had our own set of keys to their condo so we could check up on it, make sure normal maintenance was being done, and use the condo while they were away. I looked all over the house,