The Missing Puzzle Piece

Every word my daughter spoke pierced my heart and soul with truth. The missing puzzle piece to my jigsaw life was found. I have seen puzzles that are actually two-sided. There is a different picture on each side of the puzzle but you only see one side at a time. I had been living and teaching and raising my children with a picture in mind of what I hoped for us, and all the time on the other side of this picture there was a dark, ugly, painting of the truth, and that missing puzzle piece of truth and knowledge was now put into place and I was able to see why...why this man I was married to was so hateful, so manipulating and so controlling.

I spoke with my daughter at length and this is what I learned. She had recently been having nightmares and flashbacks that disturbed her. She did not feel comfortable telling me about these things but, thank goodness, found a safe refuge in a neighbor next door to us. She confided in Kristy all of the things that had been troubling her and Kristy advised her to find out if my younger daughter was being molested. So on that somewhat course changing Sunday that my husband and I had driven to the mountains, my daughter played a game of Barbies with her younger sister, Emily. She pretended that the doll's daddy was doing things to her and when Emily played along and describe that her doll's daddy did the same things to her, then my daughter knew that she would tell me about the abuse. That is how it all came out, Jessi would not disclose her abuse to me because of what she felt it would do to our family, but she would do whatever it took to stop the abuse for her little sister.

After I spent some time with Jessi and we comforted one another, yes, my daughter who had suffered so many terrible things comforted me, she went to bed leaving me alone with my thoughts. Surprisingly, I was very calm and the knowledge of what I needed to do came clearly and direct to my mind. I felt no fear or doubt and from that night onward I have never faltered in my course.

The phone rang and when I answered it, Jack, told me that he had the chance to work over-time that night and would be home in the morning. I told him "you need to come home now, I talked to Jessi and I know everything," and here is the surprising part, he said, "okay, I'll be right home." I have reflected on this little scene many times. He did not question what Jessi said, he did not ask me what I knew, he just said "okay." Had he been waiting for this to happen someday? Did he have a plan? Had he been living on pins and needles knowing that someday the roof would cave in?

For the next 30 minutes I thought and I prayed. I was still feeling calm but I believe that I was in shock.