Chapter 32

“He’d never actually been to Perryville before, but now he had. It paid to have a lawyer who was in with some highly placed prison officials. Horace Hollins was that lawyer, and Rodney Barnes was about to speak to the head nurse at the San Pedro Unit. He was seated, and had been for the past half hour, in what appeared to be a kind of break room for employees and upper echelon guards.

Coffee dispensers, two microwaves, a few other things and three, round, four-seat tables.

“Mister Barnes!” said Emma, coming into the room. The man rose to greet her.

“Rodney, please,” he said, “you’re a friend.”

“Yes, yes,” she said. “Rodney it is. The warden said I had a visitor. And, just so you know, no visitor has ever been in this room before.”

“Oh well, I feel honored,” he said. She took a seat across from him.

“So?” she said, her look was a question.

“Emma, you probably haven’t heard, but Willa has left Adam,” he said.

“Oh my God!” she said. “He must be...”

“Yes,” he said. “Riley and I visited him. He’s hurt very badly. Well, and that’s part of the reason I’m here, today.”

“Okay? Wait, you’re thinking of maybe finding another woman for him?” she said. She knew for sure that that was what he was there for.

“In a word, yes,” he said. “And, the good news, if it is good news; is that he is onboard with us doing so. Well, he says he is.” The woman across from him was moving her head from side to side in disbelief.

“I know, I know, we couldn’t believe it either. But evidently, you and Horace, in the past have advised the man to unload all of the bad stuff and the bitterness, and to start living again. He’s says he is going to be taking your advice, and Horace’s, to heart. Finally.”

“Oh boy! Well, it is time; for sure it’s time,” she said. “And Rodney, I will see what I can do about finding as suitable match for the man. I don’t have anyone I can think of at the moment, but soon, well, maybe.”

“Good, good, that’s all we can ask,” he said.

“So, Emma’s onboard then,” said Riley.

“Yes. She doesn’t have a candidate at the moment, but sooner or later...”

‘It’s been more than twenty-five years since that bad day,” she said. He nodded. “I think it’s time.”

“Time?” he said.

“Adam, seems to be getting to the point of wanting to move on. He’s not all the way there yet, but maybe in the near future.”

“Yes, soon,” he said. “I think he will be ready to kinda truly make the change soon.”

“I believe, I mean I really believe, that there are two things that have to happen to getting him to come full circle,” she said.

“Full circle?” said Rodney.

“Yes, get over me and my betrayal of him, and actually become an active member of the family,” said Riley.

“Get over our betrayals. Not just yours,” he said. “But two things?”

“One, identifying a woman for him that he can trust and come to feel good about, even love at some point; that part is up to you and Emma, I guess. And the two older children...”

“What? I mean the woman yes, that will be our number one priority. But the children? What are you talking about?” he said. She just stared at him. He waited, not getting it. Then, he began to.

“Oh no, he will kill us. No, no!” he said.

“Rod, the kids, at least the older two, have been tolerating the man, maybe tolerating him with a smile, but really just tolerating him because of the fact that he is a convicted murderer which he should not be. The lie that he is a murderer is one that we have been perpetuating all of this time. Apart from us, only Horace, Leonard and Willa know the whole truth. All of this time, I mean since he got out almost six years ago, I have felt especially guilty and worried that somehow the children would learn the truth and hold it against me, and really you too. That they have been kept in the dark all of this time is not good. Rod, the lie has to end.

“It, the untruth, has colored the way that the children see him. Take for instance Briana’s wedding. They need to know what a hero the man really is. And I think that now is the time. I’m not sure I’m right. You may be right about him going off on me once he learns that the children, well, Briana and James, know everything. But I have a feeling that things will go the other way and, if I am right, the pressure will be off. It sure as heck will be off of me,” said Riley. “The truth and a woman: those are the two things that will fix everything else, well, in my opinion.”

“I don’t know, Riley. You could be right. I agree that the kids knowing would change the way they see him that is a flat fact, and in a good way. But it is the one promise that you made him that we have kept. To break it...”

“Yes, it is a risk, but given his newly arrived at way of looking at things; well, the timing seems to me to be right,” she said.

“Okay, she’s twenty-nine and he is twenty-five; they are adults. LeeAnn is eighteen...” he said.

“Too young, Lee Ann. One day maybe, but not yet. But the two older children are ready. They’re intelligent and good kids overall and smart. And...” she said.

“And?” he said.

“And I do not think that they will hold it against me that I let the man sacrifice himself for me. Well, I hope that they won’t. It’ll be more like they will hold it against me that we, me mostly, have kept the truth from them for so long,” she said.

“Yes, but as you are sort of suggesting, I will be sharing a lot of the blame for the latter right along with you,” he said.

“Yes,” she said.

“So when?” he said.

“No time like the present, well, tonight. We’ll ask Briana to come over for dinner. I know that Richard is working tonight, but she has it off. We will leave it to her to tell him or not tell him after the fact. And, though James is not married or even engaged. We’ll give him the same option when the time comes that he is,” she said.

“Okay, I’ll call Briana.” She nodded. “James will be here at the usual time from the office. I’ll make sure of that as well.”

“Good,” she said.

“Mom?” said James. The three of them had been sitting across from each the other for some minutes. Their mother seemed to come out of some kind of reverie.

“James, Briana,” said Riley, “What I have asked you to sit down for tonight is going to change the way you look at me, at your dad, at the world; but above all the way you see Adam Barnes.”

“Mom?” said Briana. “James and I get along okay with uncle Adam; we do. We know you consider him a good guy in spite of everything. We’re good with that. Aren’t we James—it was not a question.

“Yes, Mom, we’re good with daddy Adam,” said James.

“In spite of everything, you say, Briana,” said Riley.

“Yes,” said Briana.

“You mean in spite of the truth that he was convicted of killing three men,” said Riley.

“Yes,” chorused the siblings.

“Hmm,” said Riley. “Children, I have to say that you, the both of you, have done very good when it comes to dealing with Adam Barnes: your uncle, Briana, and your bio-dad, James. Very good indeed. But as I said minutes ago; your outlooks on things are about to change, hugely change, dramatically change.”