Robert

My husband Robert came in and gave me a hug this morning, before he went off to work. He doesn’t tell me a lot about his work, he says he doesn’t like to bring the office home with him, that working at the office is bad enough. When he gets home all he wants to hear is about how my day went and how the kids liked school. I don’t go to work until a lot later then he does, I work in town at the real-estate office while he makes a commute to the city. That means that he has to leave pretty early. Meanwhile I get the kids ready for school and drop them off. One of them is seven and the other is five.

It was another boring day at the office. I sold one house, which was the good point of the day. I showed a couple around another house but the old owners hadn’t cleaned up very well and that didn’t look good. I doubt I’ll get that sale.

Because both my husband and I are working when the kids get out of school they go to after school programs. I picked them up around five and we stopped the grocery to pick up a roasted chicken for dinner. Usually Robert gets home around five-thirty and we eat at six.

It wasn’t until ten past six that I started to get worried. Robert wasn’t back yet; Robert had never not been back at this time. It was already half past when the phone finally rung and I practically ran to get it. I had already fed the kids but anxiety had been stopping me from eating myself.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Hey Honey,” said Robert’s voice on the other end of the line. I breathed a sigh of relief, at least he sounded uninjured.

“Hey, what’s going on, you’re usually home by now,” I said.

“Well, yeah, I won’t be coming home tonight Honey. I know this sounds crazy, please don’t panic, but I’m under arrest.”

“What?!” I don’t think I could start to describe how I felt at that moment. I fell into the seat next to the phone. “What for?”

“They say that I embezzled money from the firm. I don’t know what’s going on yet, but I promise you, everything will be fine. I’m totally innocent, there’s no way that they can say that I did this. They’ll have to let me go soon.”

“Should I come a see you? Where are you being held?” I demanded. “Have you talked to your lawyer?”

“Yes, I talked to my lawyer before calling you. It will all be fine. You don’t have to come into the city to see me. I don’t want the children to worry about me. If the children find out that their father is in jail, well just don’t tell them okay. Tell them that I had to go away on a business trip or something.”

“I could come when they were in school, I’ll take off from work,” I said. I was talking more quietly, the children were still playing in the other room and I didn’t want them to hear what I was talking about.

“I am already not working; we need to keep your income at least. Don’t worry about me; you go into work like always. We don’t want to draw more attention to this then will be already. Just keep acting like everything is normal, I’ll be home soon, and I love you dear.”

“I love you too,” I said, I wanted to cry. I could hear the click on the other end as he hung up the phone.

To be continued...