We arrived at the top of the landing of the hallway outside their door just as Mom went into the room. We stood in the hall holding on to each other. Rachael kept saying, “Please, Lord Jesus,” and Janet would say to her, “Just shut up,” every time Rachael said, “Please, Lord Jesus!”

I didn’t say anything. But I thought that if it took my whole life I’d hunt down Jonathan Edwards and kill him for telling. He had promised me he’d leave and not make any more trouble.

We all listened and kept waiting for screaming and yelling sounds and the sound of Dad smashing stuff or throwing things at Mom, but it was deadly silent in their room.

Janet said, “He’s strangling her. That’s why we can’t hear anything! He’s killing your mother!” And she looked at Rachael and me like we weren’t taking this seriously enough. Rachael burst into tears and Janet slapped her and said, “Get ahold of yourself.” We waited some more and then suddenly the door opened and Dad stomped out into the hall. He had his suitcase in his hand. And from behind him we could hear Mom saying, “No, please, Ralph, no!” But Dad kept on going anyway. He walked right past us without speaking a word. We stepped back to let him pass by us in the narrow hall. He walked down the stairs and disappeared without ever looking at us even though he had had to squeeze by us in the hallway.

We all ran into the room to see what he had done to Mother. She was fine except she was crying. Nothing was broken or even turned over in their room. Rachael blurted out, “Where’s he going?”

“I don’t know,” Mom said. She blew her nose and said, “It’s entirely my fault. I have destroyed our family and now you’ve lost your father. Can you ever forgive me?” She started to cry very hard and we all hugged her and cried, too.

When we were done crying we asked her more about it. Mom told us how Dad never said a word. Just finished reading the letter, dropped it on the floor, pulled down his suitcase from the top of the cupboard, swept all his stuff into it, and marched out. Mom went over to the place where the letter was lying and she picked it up and read it to herself and her hand shook. “He told him everything!” she said. I thought about how when I found Jonathan Edwards I’d make him suffer before I actually killed him.

I wanted to know what was in the letter but I didn’t ask and Mom wasn’t saying. She put the letter into her pocket and that was that.