Her fingers touched her belly. “When I was in the hospital, they gave me a blood test. Yaakov, I’m pregnant! That maniac who ran me down? He could have killed our baby!”

He undid his seat belt, looking at her in horror and wonder. “Is the baby all right? Did the doctor check?”

She nodded, smiling. “The baby is fine. I am fine.”

He looked into the back seat to make sure the children were fast asleep. Then he moved toward her, enfolding her gently in his arms. “Then God has answered all my prayers.”

She, too, looked over at the children. Satisfied, she lowered her voice to a whisper. “And there is something else. Something I’ve been afraid to tell you.”

“You never have to be afraid of me. Ever.”

“Yaakov, I can’t stand not touching you two weeks every month! Not sitting next to you. Not handing you anything. It makes me feel shunned, dirty, ugly. I know this is the halacha, but I just can’t.”

“The halacha is that I can’t make love to you while you are menstruating and for seven days later, until you’ve been to the mikvah. All the rest are fences around the law.” He reached out to her, holding her hand. “We will find a way to climb over the fences together without falling off the cliff.”

They smiled at each other, tears of joy streaming down their cheeks as they felt the warmth and familiarity of the precious, permanent bond they had formed that would last until the day they died, a bond which had truly made them one.

“It won’t be easy. We’ll be starting from scratch,” he whispered.

“Not easy. But not impossible. Going back is impossible.”

He nodded, a joyous, completely unexpected sense of freedom making him suddenly laugh. Yes, Yaakov thought, putting his seat belt back on and starting the car, moving his little family on to the open road. Despite all the difficulties and hardships that awaited them, he felt nothing but happiness, realizing he, too, couldn’t go back. He also didn’t want those clients, those coworkers, that boss. Instead, the two of them would begin again, in a better place, taking their children, their love, and the God of their fathers with them. For the first time in many years, he felt confident that the future held blessings.

EPILOGUE

THREE YEARS LATER

“Did the plane land on time? When do you expect to be home? How are they? Tired? Well, at their age…” Leah smiled as she spoke, pressing the phone against her shoulder with her cheek as she held her newborn son.

“Mommy, Tikva Sarah won’t get off the swing, and Mordechai Shalom wants his turn.”