The Wonder of Your Love - By Beth Wiseman Page 0,62
believe in God? What proof do you have that He exists?”
Martha took a deep breath, clicked the television off, and faced Danielle. “How much time you got?”
Thirteen
LUCY STARED AT TINY BENJAMIN IN HIS INCUBATOR in the preemie nursery at Lancaster General Hospital. He was small but healthy, and Lucy missed Ivan now more than ever before.
Ivan, we have a beautiful baby boy.
Leaving him to go home would be the hardest thing she’d ever done, but the doctors had told her that he would have to stay in the hospital for at least two more months until he was closer to full term. He looked like Ivan with his big eyes, and like Lucy with his small pug nose. He was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen, and she wanted more than anything to be a good mother, even though she and Ivan had never really discussed having a family. Ivan always said that if it was God’s will, it would happen.
Lucy wondered what she could do to get on good terms with God. She’d never really had much to do with Him prior to her affair with Ivan, but she was sure God disliked her even more than she disliked herself. She’d been praying every day, asking for forgiveness and begging that God would show her how to be a good mother. She thought about Katie Ann a lot, sure that Ivan’s wife was a wonderful mother. Lucy wondered if she and Katie Ann might have been friends in another life, but she knew the answer. Katie Ann was a good person. Lucy wasn’t. But as she gazed down at the tiny miracle before her, she had this feeling that maybe there was hope.
MARTHA CLEANED UP in the small bathroom in her hospital room, moving slowly, but not in too much pain. Just glad to be alive.
Thank You, Lord.
She was brushing her teeth when she heard a nurse talking to Danielle. She turned off the water and pressed an ear to the door.
“Danielle, we have to discharge you today. We’ve let you stay an extra two days. Is there someone I can call to come pick you up?”
Martha held her breath and waited. No answer. The nurse started speaking again.
“Honey, are you sure you don’t want to visit with that policeman who was here a few days ago? Are you sure you don’t know who did this to you?”
Silence again. Martha scowled. That girl had to know who had done this to her. She listened as footsteps exited the room. She needed her butterfly clip from her small suitcase. Shuffling across the floor to her bag, she glanced up at Danielle. She was sitting up in bed, but staring at the floor. Martha had talked to her about God for almost three hours, and even told her some incredibly personal tales about her own faith journey, stories that would have made the average gal shed a tear or two. Not Danielle.
And when Martha had finished baring her heart in an effort for this lost soul to see the Lord for the hero He could be for her, Danielle had merely said, “Is that all you’ve got?”
Martha had fallen asleep in prayer, telling the Lord that she’d tried her best.
She located her clip and headed back to the bathroom. It took her longer than usual to secure her hair, since it hurt to lift her arms very high. She needed some help and wondered where Katie Ann and Arnold were. She thought they would have been here by now.
As she hadn’t completely shut the bathroom door, she went to push it closed when she saw movement in the room. Peering through the tiny crack, she watched as Danielle tiptoed around Martha’s bed. She kept watching as Danielle eased the drawer to the nightstand open. It didn’t take her long to find Martha’s wallet. Instinctively she opened her mouth to tell the little thief to step back, but she didn’t.
Danielle had closed the drawer and was back in her bed in less than a minute, and Martha figured it wasn’t the girl’s first rodeo. She also figured Danielle probably needed the sixty dollars in Martha’s wallet more than she did, but lies and thievery irritated Martha more than anything else. She wasn’t sure how to handle this.
Once she finally had her hair semi-secure with the butterfly clip, she smoothed the wrinkles from her pink blouse. If she’d known Arnold was coming, she would have brought her matching pink earrings and necklace,