Chapter 40

“So you talked to Sam,” said Owen.

“Yes, like you commanded me to,” said Abigail. Her look was almost something, maybe accusatory.

“And,” he said.

“He appreciated my honesty, like you said he would. Oh, and he made sure I understood that he did not hate me,” she said. She still had the look.

“Okay, anything else?” he said.

“And he no longer has any respect for me and he doesn’t like me anymore, his exact words,” she said. “Oh, and he said he and I are done forever and on all levels.”

“Oh my,” he said.

“He did say that he wanted to talk to you. What you tell him will determine if he has anything to do with any of the rest of you forevermore,” she said.

“Christ! I just don’t know what to do, say, think. Abigail, from now on please...” he said, his frustration clear.

“Okay, yes, I will be following orders from now on,” she said.

“No, that’s not what I mean. I mean that you have to start recognizing his fatherhood, not just his sperm donorship. He is their father. The girls of course are adults now, so the game changes to some extent, but Ronnie isn’t always going to be a kid either. His dad, and I mean Sam, needs to be there for him and, if I dare say it, for you and me too. Sam is a good man. He is a dumbo when it comes to dealing with reality, but a good dumbo. You need to get that. Hell, you were married to the man for a long time. I’m stunned, shocked, confused that you don’t seem to get it,” he said. She sighed.

“You’re right. Right on all counts. The only dumbo bigger than Sam is me. Hell, he and I are a pair for damn sure. But, Owen, I am so damn proud to be your wife. I guess that truth is why I am so protective of your fatherhood of the children. Am I over the top in this stuff, probably. I don’t know. I do want the man to be in their lives, and it looks like he’s going to be regardless of my protectiveness of you. But, well, I guess maybe now it’s too late for me. If I could do it over again, I would. But well, I can’t so it is what it is,” she said.

“We’ll see,” he said. “And I will say, I am very appreciative of the fact that you see me the way you do; it’s important to me.”

He sought me out not me him. That said, it was me had the first word.

“If you want to talk to me fine, but she is not to be mentioned, not today,” I said. He nodded. It was clear that he knew the score. He wasn’t happy about it, but he knew what had gone done that was certain.

“So?” he said.

“I thought you were okay with him being up there on the stage with me,” I said.

He nodded. “I was. I wanted him to be,” he said. I believed him. “Sam your fatherhood is recognized by me by everybody.”

“And so is yours by me. I guess this is where we turn the corner. I mean if what you say is the straight of it,” I said.

“It is. But Sam, I do need to talk about the untalkaboutable,” he said. His look was—sad. I narrowed my eyes and I snorted; but I shrugged my okay, my reluctant okay. There was a long pause, a couple of minutes. I just waited.

“Sam. The woman loves you, she loves me too and me more than you; but there is not the slightest shred of doubt that you have her heart too,” he said.

“Yeah right,” I said as sarcastically as I ever said anything.

“Sam you’re a strong man. You are a man with a faithful and loving heart. And I know for a blood-mortal fact that you still love her too. Are you angry? Of course you are, and I have to say so am I; I mean about her keeping Ronnie from coming onto the stage for the TV thing. She promised me that she was bringing Ronnie to the show.

“But, as the program progressed and I didn’t see her or him, I began to think that she had lied to me. Did you see me waving at you from the gallery?” he said.

“Yes, but I didn’t know what that was about,” I said.

“I was trying to signal you that she hadn’t shown up yet, that something must have happened. At the time I didn’t know anything, none of us that were there did. But, the fact was she was there, just not sitting with us and she was way in the back which I discovered after the fact. She’d decided to keep her word to me, but—and this unilaterally—to not allow Ronnie to be up on the stage. She thinks that you have undermined my relationship with the children, my claim to fatherhood. She did not and does not want you to be seen as their main father let alone their only father. The irony in that? She has no patience with the truth that the kids will make up their own minds about things of that kind regardless of what we do, any of us,” he said.

“As much as I hate to admit it, Owen, I do finally realize that you do deserve to be the father of the children, all of them, too. I still think of myself as the main dad, not just the biological one, but I also realize that fatherhood is not biology only. You’ve done an outstanding job raising them as you have. And as the woman has, on so many occasions been at pains to inform me, me not so much. But, Owen, I love those babies all of them. In my mind they are mine, no matter what anybody says,” I said.

“Yes they are and mine too,” he said.

“I agree,” I said.

“Too bad we couldn’t have come to this place a dozen years ago,” he said.

“Yeah, too bad,” I said.

“You might be interested to know that Harriet is angry with Abby too. She thinks she screwed up super bad by denying you and Ronnie your moment in the sun together. Harriet told me that herself,” he said. I snickered.

“Yeah, well maybe she’ll take a moment to reflect on things in the future,” I said.

“She will, and it won’t be long in the coming of it either,” he said.

2017

“Yes sir,” said Devon Williams. “They’re new, but they are approved and are even used for actual double amputees. Mister Bradshaw can use them.”

“Devon, this is very good news. You’ve done a good job. I need you to do a couple of things for us now. One: follow up on this and order the things. I’ll see to it you get you the numbers you need; I mean his stats and all. Two: you need to see Alex White in personnel; your job title will be changing,” said Owen Cord.

“Yes sir,” said Devon.

“You say that he’ll be able to walk! No more wheelchair?” said Abigail.