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In From the Storm

By Erin Stevenson

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CHAPTER 1
BEN

Ben Garritsen clicked the garage door opener and held his breath. As it lifted, so did his heart. There was Kara’s BMW, sitting in its spot. He had hoped she would arrive home ahead of him. But then came a flash of annoyance. Was she ever going to get Montana plates for her car? She hadn’t lived in California for over two years, since she married him. She didn’t want to give up her condo in Sausalito and stayed there when she was in San Francisco, where she was based. Kara worked as a pharmaceutical sales rep and traveled the entire west coast.
He walked in through the kitchen and saw her from behind, sitting at the dining room table working on her laptop and froze in his tracks.
Wait—where was all her hair?
“Ah—hi.” He squeezed her shoulders and leaned down and around to kiss her. “What happened to your hair?” Ben hadn’t seen her in a week. He’d flown to San Francisco and stayed at the condo with her over the long Independence Day weekend, then returned to Canadian Meadows.
“I cut it,” she grinned. “It’s summer, and I needed a change. You like it?”
Ben squelched down his disappointment. He loved running his fingers through her long, thick dark brown hair. It was still longer on top, but short on the sides and back.
“Well, it will take some getting used to,” he muttered. “How was your week?”
She kept pecking away on her laptop. “Busy. I was in Phoenix. Ugh. It was an oven there.” She typed for another moment, then closed the laptop and turned her dark brown eyes on him. “Tell me about your week.”
“It was good. I love summers. You know, educators only work nine months out of the year.”
A frown creased her brow. “But you work all summer.” Her voice held a hint of censure.
“Well, I’m the principal, honey. I love the energy my staff and students bring to the campus, but summers give me uninterrupted time to work on larger projects that benefit all of us.”
“I suppose.”
Ben reached for Kara’s hands. “Hey, I just spent a long weekend with you in Sausalito.” He inhaled her perfume and nibbled on her neck. “Mmm, I missed you.”
When he moved his hands down, she firmly took hold of his wrists. “Ben, I can’t,” she murmured.
He nipped on her ear lobe. “Yeah, you can,” he said in a low, sexy voice. “You just come with me into our bedroom—”
She wrenched away, and his hands stilled. Something was off. He did a quick calculation. It wasn’t that time. Ben leaned back, and she looked at him. He saw concern there, and his stomach twisted. Ben recalled their weekend in Sausalito. Everything had been fine—no, fantastic. What was going on?
He pulled up a chair next to hers and folded his hands in front of him. “What’s wrong, Kara?”
She closed her laptop and pushed it away, then reached over and caressed his jaw with one hand. “Ben—it’s okay. Everything is fine with us. I love you,” she said with emphasis. “But I need to tell you something.”
Please, God, no. All kinds of things rushed through his mind. “Okay.”
She pursed her full, lush lips and ran her hand through the waves on top of her head. Then she blew out a breath. “I had a procedure done last week. That’s why I can’t—you know. Not for a couple of weeks.”
Ben’s heart hammered. “Kara—honey, what? Are you sick?” His mind immediately tore down all kinds of terrifying paths.
“No.” She swallowed. “I, um—wow, this is harder than I thought.” She exhaled, and silent seconds ticked by.
“I had an abortion.”
What? Did she just say—Ben’s mind began to short-circuit. Surely his wife did not just say she had an abortion. She did not.
He drew his hand back. “What?”
Kara’s eyes didn’t quite meet his. “I—um, yes. I discovered it about two weeks ago, and I—well, I terminated it.” She twisted her hands in her lap.
Ben stood so abruptly, his chair almost toppled onto the floor. He removed his baseball cap and ran a hand through his hair. “Kara—I—you can’t be serious. You—you and I were—you terminated it?” Waves of terror rolled through him, and he thought he might be sick.
She looked at her lap. “I told you I didn’t want children.”
Ben knew this going into the marriage, but he had never pressured her. He hoped she would change her mind after moving to Canadian Meadows and experiencing firsthand the rich, family-centered quality of life. He began to pace. “I know, but—Kara, this was our, my—” a lump rose in his throat. He couldn’t even utter the word.
“The father doesn’t have to give consent,” she said evenly.
Ben knew that but was incredulous. “But you didn’t even discuss it with me! We could have talked about it last weekend.” His stomach roiled.
She lifted one slim shoulder. “I knew it wouldn’t solve anything, and I wouldn’t have changed my mind.”
Ben still couldn’t comprehend it. He thrust his hands on his hips. “Kara, you killed our—child!” he finally got the words out. Ben removed his cap and ran a hand through his hair. Hot tears gathered in his eyes.
She shook her head. “You know I don’t see it that way.” They’d had that discussion about when life began and had never agreed. But they had agreed that Kara would bear the responsibility of preventing a pregnancy, so in Ben’s mind, it was more hypothetical. But nothing but abstinence was a guarantee. What had happened? Ben couldn’t even form the words to ask her that now.
His wife stood and pushed her chair back. “Anyway, it’s done, and can’t be undone.” She looked at him, her dark eyes serious. “I thought about not telling you, but we always said we wouldn’t keep secrets.” Her voice softened. “Ben, I love you,” she implored. “I want to be married to you, forever. But it will be just the two of us.” Her steady gaze told him that she meant it. Nothing short of a miracle would change her mind.
Ben left and went into their bedroom. He sat on the bed and dropped his head into his hands. He wanted to pray but couldn’t form the words. God, help me, he repeated in his mind, over and over.
Then he threw some things into a bag and came back into the dining room, where she had resumed working.
Without a word, he grabbed his cap and his car keys and walked out the door.

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