Read Online A Father's Love by David Goldman - Free Book Online Page B

from Bruna, and she says she’s not coming back and she is going to keep Sean with her. She wants to stay in Brazil. And she says that she is not coming back.”
    As I drove to my parents’ home, the abhorrent situation nearly overwhelmed me. Divorce was unheard of in our family. My grandparents stayed together all their lives; my parents had been together for more than forty years; my sister and her husband had been married for more than a decade. To think that Bruna would simply up and leave was beyond comprehension. And that she would take our son, the joy of my life, without even discussing her feelings was more than I could possibly understand. Didn’t she love me? Didn’t she want to live in the United States? Hadn’t her parents loved New Jersey so much they’d purchased property there? We were a loving family. Bruna’s actions made no sense.
    A few hours later I called my friend Gene Quigley. Gene and I had been buddies since our teenage years. When I told him that Bruna had left with Sean and had no intention of coming back, he tried to calm my fears. “Maybe she just needs some time away,” he suggested. “Don’t worry. She’ll calm down. She’ll come to her senses. Give her some time, and she’ll be back.”
    I appreciated Gene’s attempt to console me, but he hadn’t heard that voice on the phone. It wasn’t Bruna; at least not the same Bruna to whom I had been happily married for more than four years, with whom I had created a beautiful child, and with whom I had made love two nights before she departed for Brazil.
    Â 
    Â 
    BRUNA AND I talked by telephone several times over the next few days. The conversations usually began in a friendly tone, but quickly degenerated because the content remained the same. She urged me to come to Brazil. At times she attempted to play on my love for Sean. “Don’t you want to see your son?”
    For my part, I continued asking her to come home, but she wouldn’t hear of it. Agonizing as it was, I waited patiently each day to hear from Bruna, clinging to every opportunity when she allowed Sean to get on the phone with me. From the beginning, I resolved not to let on to Sean that anything was amiss, that his mom and I were having problems, or that I was overly concerned about seeing him. I gave no indication that he might not be coming home after the vacation. I wanted him to know that I loved him and that I missed him terribly, but I kept my part of the conversations upbeat.
    When Bruna allowed Sean to talk, I could hear the excitement in his voice. “Hi, Dadda!”
    â€œHey, Sean. I love you and I miss you. When you guys come back, I’m going to give you the biggest hug and kiss, and pick you up on my shoulders. We’re best friends forever. My heart beats for you.”
    â€œDadda?”
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œI love you forever.” Sean’s innocent, heartfelt words thrilled me and crushed me at the same time.
    I gathered my composure. “I love you forever, buddy. We’re best friends. Who’s your best friend?”
    â€œYou are, Dadda.”
    The phone conversations shredded me emotionally, but they were my only contact with my son, so I cherished every moment of them.
    Â 
    Â 
    OUR FRIENDS WERE shocked at the news that Bruna had run off with Sean. Nobody could understand what might have motivated her to leave me, much less take Sean away from his doting father. Michelle and Dan Langdon knew Bruna well. The Langdons have a son one year older than Sean, and the boys enjoyed playing together. Michelle expressed her sense of betrayal at Bruna’s actions. “She called me and asked me to clean out some supplies from her classroom,” Michelle later told me, “but I didn’t think anything of it. I was just glad to help. We worked together every school day for two years, and I never saw or heard a thing that gave any indication that she