My Wife and Father's Secret

My father was shaking with rage. "You ungrateful little bastard! If it weren't for Linda, I'd be at the bottom of that channel right now. You divorce her and you can get the hell out of the Sutton family!"

Everybody in the village called Linda a saint and called me heartless.

I still wanted the divorce.

Linda dropped to her knees in front of me. "Jack, it happened so fast. I could only get to one of you. That was your father!"

I pulled my arm out of her hands and looked at her.

"He's your father. He isn't mine."

...

"I want a divorce."

I hadn't even dried the seawater off me before I walked into the county clerk's office and put my petition down on the desk.

Before Dale Ferris could get a word out, Linda came through the door with my father, Frank Sutton, right behind her.

Linda went white. She dropped straight down onto her knees.

"Jack! What do you think you're doing?"

I didn't look at her. I kept my eyes on Dale.

"That's a divorce petition. Are you taking it or not?"

Linda crawled over and got both hands around my soaked pant leg.

"Have you lost your mind? I saved your father! I just saved his life!"

"There was one life jacket and the boat was coming apart. Was I supposed to stand there and watch him drown?"

I looked down at her.

"He's your father. He isn't mine."

My father spoke up behind her. "Jack, are you trying to put me in the ground?"

My stomach turned over. I jerked my leg free of her hands.

"I want the divorce."

She stared up at me like she'd never seen me before.

"Jack, what kind of man are you?"

Dale finally came back to life and slapped his palm flat on the desk.

"What is wrong with you? Your wife saves your father's life and you come straight in here to divorce her?"

I wasn't going to argue with him. I turned toward the back offices, looking for somebody with the authority to take the petition.

Linda scrambled after me and caught my sleeve.

"Say something, Jack! Your father's an old man. Those waves were huge. I could only reach one of you!"

Her crying pulled people in from every corner of the building. Inside a couple of minutes the lobby was packed three deep.

"Isn't that Frank Sutton's boy? Didn't they just come off the water?"

"That's him. His wife saved his father and now he wants to leave her."

"God above. What kind of man does that?"

Thomas Sutton, my father's uncle, pushed through the crowd on his cane. His hand shook when he pointed it at my face.

"Your mother died young. Your father raised you with his own two hands. Do you have any idea what that cost him?

"Your wife saved his life. You can't even thank her, and now you want a divorce?

"How did this family produce something as rotten as you?"

His spit landed on my cheek. I left it there.

"This marriage ends today."

"You—" Dale snatched the petition off the desk and threw it at my face. "You're a disgrace, Jack. This office is never approving that."

The paper drifted down onto the muddy floor.

I bent, picked it up, and brushed the dirt off it. Then I turned and looked at every person in the room.

"I'll be back tomorrow."