Secrets in the Marriage Bed(9)

Vicki narrowed her eyes, in no doubt as to why Lara had called. It was  the same reason why any of his family ever called. She was acquainted  with all three members-Caleb had never hidden his roots. Before they'd  married, he'd taken her to the run-down neighborhood where he'd grown up  and introduced her to his family and friends.                       
       
           



       

She knew that Max was a sculptor and Caleb's mother, Carmen, a poet.  Unfortunately, neither had achieved professional success. To Victoria,  Max and Carmen had always seemed sanctimonious in their assertions that  they were sacrificing for their art. What they'd sacrificed was their  children's welfare. Caleb rarely talked about his growing-up years, but  from what he had let slip, she'd guessed that he'd sometimes gone  hungry.

Unlike Caleb, his sister, Lara, hadn't left the family fold. A  struggling singer with two kids by two different men, she'd never  wavered from her belief that her parents' way-poverty and suffering as  the only path to creative genius-was the right way.

"What did she want?" Vicki asked when Caleb hung up the phone and came to stand beside her.

He sighed, staring blindly into space. "What she always wants. Money.  Since I sold out to the capitalist regime, the least I can do is help  her out now and then." His tone was flat, as if the call had drained all  emotion from him.

Vicki recognized the familiar refrain. She'd heard it enough times from  Lara's own mouth. Previously, Vicki had remained silent, reasoning that  she had no business interfering with Caleb and his family. Now, seeing  the pain revealed by her husband's bowed head, she decided it was very  much her business.

Turning slightly, she pushed at his chest until he looked at her. "Why  do you let them treat you this way?" Instinct told her there was  something fundamental she didn't know. The political rhetoric the  Callaghans spewed simply couldn't explain the antipathy Vicki sometimes  felt emanating from them toward Caleb. What wasn't he telling her?

She knew she didn't yet have the right to push for that information.  They'd barely started talking about repairing the fissures in their  marriage. Until those wounds had healed, she had to tread softly. But it  didn't mean she had to remain silent.

He shrugged. "They're my family."

"No," she said. "They abandoned you when you dared to be different." She  knew he'd left home at sixteen and scraped by on his own, working  multiple jobs while going to school. His parents had kicked him out when  he'd dared argue with them about what he wanted from life. "They've  never been there for you."

A bleak look appeared in his eyes. "They're all I've got."

She shook her head, furious at them for always causing him such pain. "We're your family, Caleb. Me and our baby."

"But you might be divorcing me." It wasn't a challenge but a reminder of  their precarious situation. Before he could blink it away, she glimpsed  an incredible anguish that had nothing to do with Lara or his parents  and everything to do with her.

A crushing knot formed in her heart. God, but the man was proud. Proud  and stubborn. Not once in those two months of separation had he ever  hinted at the depth of his pain at the way she'd asked him to leave.  Then again, neither had she ever told him how badly he'd hurt her when  he'd taken Miranda to his bed. They were both too good at keeping their  emotional secrets.

But that, she thought with a new spurt of determination, was in the  past. It was the future that was important-a future built on trust,  shared burdens and hope. Maybe asking for a separation had been the only  way she'd known to get him to pay attention to their marriage, to her,  but they'd gone beyond that now.

This was it. Time for action. Despite her fear that she'd do the wrong  thing and their truce would go bad all over again, she nonetheless shook  her head. "No. I'm not. I told you I want to be married to you. You're  my husband, my family. I don't have anyone else, either."

He hauled her into a tight hug, saying with his body what he couldn't  say in words. For so long, he'd spoken with his body but she hadn't been  listening, hadn't known how to listen, but now she intended to hear  every single whisper.

"It's Lara's kids I worry about. She can look after herself but what about them?"

Vicki had always been swayed by the same thought. "How about a trust  fund? For education and anything else the kids might need. Your family  doesn't get to treat you like an open checkbook anymore." It wasn't the  money that made her mad, but the way they acted as if it was Caleb's  duty to support them while putting up with their ingratitude.

She'd never been able to understand why her tough, powerful husband let  them get away with it. She knew that taking care of Lara's children  wouldn't even scratch at the surface of Caleb's problems with his  family, or tell her anything of the reasons behind the way they treated  him. But it was a start.                       
       
           



       

Caleb was silent for a moment. "If we were the trustees, we could ensure the money was used how it was meant to be."

Neither of them had to mention their fears that Lara might have  succumbed to drugs. But, so far, she'd never harmed her kids, apparently  being a devoted mother.

"Yes," Vicki agreed, then decided to say something that had been  bubbling up inside of her for quite some time. "Don't you dare let them  make you feel bad because you dreamed higher than they have the capacity  to imagine. Be proud." The Callaghans' motivations made no difference  to her. In her book, nothing could excuse the neglect and pain Caleb had  suffered because of them.

His chin dropped to rest on top of her head. "They'll always be in my life."

"And I'll never try to push them out. We both have relations we have to  deal with though we'd rather not. But they have to learn to treat you  with the proper respect." She refused to back off on this. Too many  times in their marriage, she'd stayed silent and it had torn them apart.  However, that particular dam had broken forever when she'd walked into  Caleb's room and bared her soul. "Next time one of them calls, I'll take  it. This is the last chance they'll ever have to hurt you."

Caleb was astounded by the cold fury he could hear in her voice. Vicki  had always been so gentle, so non-confrontational. But beyond his  surprise was the glow of hope. She was right. He was holding his real  family in his arms. Maybe their marriage was rocky but they'd made a  promise to see it through. The lack of ambivalence in Vicki's comments  gave him back the sense of stability he'd lost the moment she'd demanded  a divorce.

"I want to ask you something," he said, reminded of it by his thoughts  of the cool, non-combative woman he'd married. A woman in whom he'd seen  embers of passion-embers that their marriage had stifled instead of  nurtured.

"What?" Vibrant life in that single word.

A little of his guilt receded. "What did your grandmother tell you when  she invited me to that dinner party where she introduced us?" Lately,  he'd begun to wonder if Ada had lied to get Vicki to trust him enough to  let him court her. How else could he explain her faith in him from the  very start? Especially when his no-holds-barred personality must have  been immediately obvious.

Laughing, she tipped her head back to meet his gaze. "She said she'd  found the perfect man for me. He'd keep me in line because I'd need a  strong hand to ensure I didn't turn out like my mother. Oh, and he'd  make sure I was taken care of."

He winced, his theory in ruins. That was hardly likely to get a woman to trust a man. "Did she force you-"

"I fell for you about ten seconds after you started talking to me. She  saw a man who'd use his strength to crush. I saw someone who'd use it to  protect." She smiled. "You had so much energy, so much heart that you  made me feel truly alive for the first time. I couldn't bear to return  to the life I had before I met you."

Despite his decision to be honest, Caleb couldn't bring himself to ask  the question that continued to haunt him. What about now? Did the woman  she'd become trust him as that vulnerable girl had? Or had that love  crumbled after years of being trapped in a marriage that made her  desperately unhappy?

Instead of asking questions that might destroy him, he joked, "I'm glad because once I saw you, that was it."

"Good." Her laughter was a gift. After hugging him tightly once more,  she pulled away. "Come on, let's eat. I'm starving-our baby is a hungry  little thing."

"What does it feel like?" he asked, curious.