An Exchange

Chapter Fifty-Three - Preston's Secret

Ryan

Dad met me in the parking lot just after nine a.m. For the first hour, we rode in silence. I felt pretty sure he had changed his mind about telling me his secret. Then, he suddenly pulled out his phone and called Mom. His voice seemed startling after just listening to music for so long, and he spoke with a hint of emotion.

"Selena, I need you to help me tell Ryan." He listened to her for a moment before he plugged his phone into my speakers.

"Ryan?" Mom said.

"Yeah, Mom. I'm here."

"You need to listen without saying anything, okay? This is hard for your dad and me to talk about, so you need to just let us say it without interruption."

I glanced at Dad holding his forehead. I sighed. "I can do that."

"Preston?" Mom said. "You need to start this."

Dad rubbed his eyes and took a long breath. He then stared ahead out the front window and began to speak. "It was my senior year of high school. Mormons are scarce in Texas, so I didn't know much about them. I was on top of the world, just like you. I was captain of the football team, I had several colleges wanting to sign me up with them, my grades were good, and I started dating this incredible girl. Her name was Amelia, and she was a Mormon. She was beautiful, but that kind of beautiful you don't notice at first, it takes talking to her and seeing the way she smiles and looks at you to make you notice it. The same way Penny is with you; she has that same thing about her.

"Anyway, we were together most of the year and I was in love with her. When I was offered Texas State, I wanted her to come with me. She thought about it too, until she received a full scholarship to BYU. So she went there. We tried to keep our relationship going but it was difficult, and she became distracted by the young men around her who could offer her that temple marriage the Mormons are so fond of. So she broke it off with me and I was… I was…"

He stopped and held his face.

"Your father was heartbroken, Ryan." Mom continued for him. "I didn't meet him until about a year later during my second year. He had moved on by then and was charming and all the girls wanted to date him. I had a huge crush on him, but strung him along for the longest time, but it was worth it, and we were married just before he went into law school and was recruited by the Cowboys. That first year he was gone and busy most of the time, but we made it through and, just after our anniversary, I fell pregnant with you. We were so happy, everything seemed to be going so well, and he was so proud when he first held you and told you you were going to be a football star just like him."

"But then…" Dad said in a deep, pained voice. "Then I heard from one of my high school friends that Amelia was on the streets. I couldn't believe it. Last I'd heard she was happy and doing well. So, after an away game, I flew to Utah to find her. It took me several days but I did, and what I found was devastating. She wasn't on the street, but she had three small children and she was battered by her husband. I was furious that she was being treated that way. She deserved better than that, and I convinced her to go to the hospital to be seen to.

"While we were there, I begged her to leave him, but she wouldn't. She said she had to stay for the children and she had to work it out with him because their marriage was eternal. I couldn't believe that her church would teach things like that to their congregations, so I found her bishop. He too was concerned for her well-being, and helped me with trying to protect her from her husband. He would spend hours counseling with him and had all kinds of marriage counselors trying to help them."

"Meanwhile, I hadn't heard from him in weeks," Mom interrupted, with a hint of tension in her voice. "And I was very concerned. I thought something had happened to him, but when I saw him still playing his games, I thought I had done something and he had left me. So I contacted his mother who told me she didn't even know he had gone. So I tried to hunt him down to figure out what had happened. Eventually I found the high school friend who had told him about Amelia, so I headed out to Utah with you in tow to find him."