“No, I won’t wait. I love you, Heath. I have always loved only you and apparently that is my misfortune. It may interest you to know that during the eleven years we were apart I never made love with another man. I was faithful to you, not only during this marriage, but all the time before when the mere memory of you made the presence of any other man pale by comparison. You have been my one and only lover, but I know that nothing I can say will convince you of that. You seem determined to drive me away on one stupid pretext or another, and this time you have finally succeeded.” Ann stepped into a pair of slacks, zipped them up and grabbed her purse with one hand and the overnight bag with the other. When he blocked her path, she stopped short.
“Get out of my way,” she said through gritted teeth, her body rigid.
“Listen.”
“I have listened. I have listened to more nonsense from you than I have ever heard from another human being, including my late and unlamented father. I have had enough. Now, are you going to move, or are you planning to chain me to the bedstead and post an armed guard? Because the second you leave me alone I’ll be gone.”
He stepped aside and she breezed past him. She paused in the doorway and looked back at him. “You know, I was worried about telling you I was pregnant because of your less than enthusiastic reception to the topic last Christmas Eve. I didn’t know the reason for your negative response, of course, but it never occurred to me that you would accuse me of having another man’s child. Your opinion of me must be even lower than I ever imagined. Goodbye, Heath.”
Heath stood staring after her, the finality of her last words ringing in his ears.
* * * *
Ann had planned to drive to the airport and leave her car in the lot for Heath to pick up later, but she only got halfway there before a reaction set in that forced her to pull over to the side of the road. She was shaking uncontrollably, her knees vibrating like windshield wipers, and there was a tightness in her throat that refused to explode into tears. She had left Heath. Her beautiful dream was over, and it had happened in a matter of minutes.
She sat in the car, her arms propped on the steering wheel and her head bait, until a police car cruised past and slowed, its occupant regarding her curiously. Ann straightened and glided out into the traffic lane; all she needed was to be picked up by the cops now. But she suddenly felt incapable of driving the rest of the way to the airport, and then remembered that the Jensens lived only a couple of blocks away. She drove there slowly, her heart pounding. She left her car at the curb in front of the house, which was dark. They were probably asleep. She almost turned around and went back. But the thought of getting into that car again, alone, was too much.
Ann bit her lip and pressed the doorbell. Nothing happened for a long time.
She pressed it again. When there was still no response she turned to go and was halfway down the walk when the porch light snapped on. Joan Jensen, belting a cotton bathrobe around her, yanked open the door.
“Hi, Joan,” Ann said, feeling utterly ridiculous.
“Annie, is that you?” Joan said, peering nearsightedly into the darkness.
“Yes.”
“What on earth are you doing here at one o’clock in the morning?” Joe asked, towering behind his wife. “Are you all right?”
“Uh, not exactly. I’ve left Heath.”
Husband and wife stared at her with identical expressions of astonishment, which under other circumstances would certainly have been funny.
Joe recovered first, pushing his way past his wife and extending his hand to Ann.
“You poor lamb, come right inside and sit down. You look like the only survivor of a plane crash,” he said, leading Ann to the plaid sofa in the living room. His wife hovered, fishing in the pocket of her robe for her glasses.
“What happened?” Joan asked.
“I can’t believe this,” Joe added. “You were just here tonight and everything was fine.” He sat across from Ann in an armchair, his expression baffled.
“Everything was not fine,” his wife corrected him. “I knew Ann had something on her mind.”
“You’re right, I did,” Ann said. “I’m pregnant, and I told Heath about it when we got home. He said the baby wasn’t his and accused me of having an affair.”
There was a stunned silence for several seconds.
“Why, I should whip that boy within an inch of his life,” Joe said first, rising from his chair.
“Settle down, Joe,” his wife said warningly. “Let’s hear the rest of this.”
“There isn’t much more to tell. He said that he’d had a vasectomy right after he got out of the navy and so he couldn’t possibly be the father.”
“Well, that does sort of change the picture, doesn’t it?” Joe said, his brow furrowed.
“Don’t be silly, Joe. If Ann is pregnant of course Heath’s the father. That he could think otherwise is disrespectful of Ann as well as their marriage,” Joan said.
“I told him he should go back to the doctor who did the procedure. But regardless of what he hears I can’t live with a man who would think that of me. He didn’t consider for a moment that the pregnancy might be accidental. He immediately assumed I had been unfaithful. I’m tired of walking on eggshells, wondering when he’s going to find fault with me again.”
“What you need, young lady, is a good shot of brandy,” Joe said, going to get it.
“She’s pregnant, Joe, remember? There’s some herbal tea in the kitchen, would you put the kettle on to boil?” Joe left the room and as he did Joan turned to Aim and said, “What are you going to do?”
“I was planning to catch the next flight to New York and go back to my old apartment. But I only got this far and came here. I couldn’t seem to drive any farther.”
“We’re glad you did, honey. You certainly shouldn’t be wandering around at this late hour in your present state of mind,” Joan said.
Ann let her head fall wearily to the back of the sofa. “I thought Heath and I were past all of our troubles but I guess I was wrong,” she said dispiritedly.
“He should have told you about the vasectomy,” Joan said. “He must have known you wanted children.”
“Well, we got married under rather unusual circumstances, ” Ann replied.
“I thought it was kind of sudden,” Joan said cautiously.
Ann sighed. “I guess I’d better tell you all of it. It might make all of this drama a little more understandable. I’m sure you must think Heath and I are both certifiable by now.”
Joan waited.
“Heath blackmailed me into marrying him,” Ann said. “My brother was in horrendous trouble as a result of a gambling habit, ScriptSoft was bankrupt, and everybody in the world was suing Tim. He was about to be prosecuted and stood to go to jail. Heath said he would bail Tim out of the mess if I married him.”
“Why did he want that?”
“Revenge.”
“Revenge?” Joan said.
“We had planned to run away together that summer we were in love. I pulled out of the plan at the last minute, left Heath waiting for me. He thought it was because I couldn’t give up the high life I enjoyed as the Talbot ingenue.”
“But that wasn’t it?”
“No. My father found out about our plans and said he would have Heath arrested for statutory rape unless I left town and never saw him again.”
Joan gasped. “Did you tell Heath this?”
“Yes. But he didn’t believe me until the story was confirmed by a retired cop who was on the force at the time. The cop knew that my father had investigated bringing charges against Heath.”
“It sounds like your husband doesn’t have much faith in you,” Joan said softly.
“You’re right, and that’s the root cause of our problems. He just can’t trust me. Maybe he can’t trust any woman. His mother abandoned the family. What happened between us when we were teenagers didn’t help, even if the damage I did was unintentional. But it seems he just can’t get past it.”
Joan nodded somberly.
“He reads the papers, he watches the news,” Ann said, gesturing vaguely. “He must know that vasectomies aren’t always foolproof. I’m sure his doctor told him that at the time he had his. But he leapt to the conclusion that I had been unfaithful, because it’s what some part of him wants to believe. I’m tired of trying to overcome that presumption of guilt every day of my life. If something inside him has to spoil our happiness, then he will have to live alone.”