Necessary Heartbreak Read online

  THIS HAS TO BE A DREAM.

  The man in the embroidered robe stared sternly at Michael. “So you’re one of his followers?”

  Michael wasn’t sure how to answer. Then he weakly replied, “No.”

  “Good.” The man nodded approvingly, then added, “But your daughter has committed a crime.”

  “No, she hasn’t!” Michael said desperately. “My daughter and

  I were only trying to help this man. We didn’t know he was a

  murderer.”

  Michael looked over at Elizabeth. She was starting to weep again, and he felt powerless. She looked much smaller surrounded by as many as ten soldiers. I love you, Michael mouthed, causing fresh tears to roll down her face.

  A soldier stepped forward. “Your Excellence, what would you like us to do with these prisoners?”

  The man commanded his soldiers: “Bring me Barabbas!”

  “Michael J. Sullivan draws us quickly in . . . [and] provides the detail and heart that make us want to believe. There is real emotion here. . . .”

  —Eric Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Fireproof

  and Haunt of Jackals

  “Michael J. Sullivan is a born novelist. . . . This entrancing tale of mysteries both temporal and spiritual is sure to take up residence under your skin.”

  —Sam Hamm, screenwriter (the Batman movies)

  This title is also available as an ebook

  NECESSARY

  HEARTBREAK

  A NOVEL OF FAITH AND FORGIVENESS

  MICHAEL J. SULLIVA

  Gallery Books

  A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

  www.howardpublishing.com

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either

  are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance

  to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2010 by Michael J. Sullivan

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions

  thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

  First Gallery Books trade paperback edition March 2010

  GALLERY BOOKS and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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  Designed by Stephanie D. Walker

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Sullivan, M. J.

  Necessary heartbreak / Michael J. Sullivan.—1st Gallery Books trade pbk. ed.

  p. cm.

  1. Single fathers—Fiction. 2. Teenage girls—Fiction.

  3. Fathers and daughters—Fiction. 4. Time travel—Fiction. 5. First century, A.D.—Fiction. 6. Jerusalem—Fiction. 7. Faith—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3619.U44N43 2010

  813’.6—dc22 2009044471

  ISBN 978-1-4391-8423-3

  ISBN 978-1-4391-8425-7 (ebook)

  TO MY WIFE DEBBIE, MOM AND DAD, AUNT RUTH AND UNCLE ED,

  AND BROTHER LEO RICHARD,

  FOR GIVING ME LIFE IN FOUR DIFFERENT WAYS

  1

  INTO THE

  TUNNEL

  “Let’s save each other some time today, Elizabeth. What are you wearing?”

  “In a sec, Dad.”

  Michael sighed and looked in the mirror. His head was pounding from a few glasses of pity wine the previous night, and he noticed a web of inflamed capillaries spreading across the corner of his left eye. I look awful, he thought.

  Disgusted, he retreated to his bedroom and pulled open the top drawer of his worn dresser. A thin layer of dust was across the top, and absentmindedly he brushed it away. He stared down sullenly into the contents of the drawer and pushed aside a few pairs of socks. There it was at the bottom—a simple gold band. He turned it sideways to read the inscription: I’M GLAD I FOUND YOU. LOVE, VICKI.

  Michael sighed and rubbed it gently against his T-shirt. He rarely wore it, except when he wanted to prevent any awkward encounters with unattached women. One look at the ring and they would be sure to leave him alone.

  He slipped the ring on his finger and rubbed his stomach, uncomfortably aware of how his belly was gaining a foothold over the worn elastic waistband of his pajamas. He was beginning to understand why women complained about feeling bloated all the time. Adding to his misery was the humidity of the April day, so he chose a simple white T-shirt, light gray sweats, and a pair of his favorite old sandals. He pulled the sweats above his belly and sighed. Now I look like Fred Mertz.

  He dressed conservatively these days even though he was just forty. With his daughter now a teenager, he believed he needed to set a good example. Michael had seen what the kids wore at the local middle school, where Elizabeth was in the eighth grade. She was becoming a young adult, and sometimes he felt alone against the world in protecting her. No matter how hard he tried to be open, there was no way he could agree with belly rings and low-cut shirts.

  I hope she doesn’t come down in another skimpy tank top. He was well trained by this point. She would wait upstairs until they were miserably late, with no time to spare. Then it would be a last-second struggle: he would barely see her run past him on the way to the car, leaving him time to register only the most horrific thing she was wearing.

  Today, though, he felt ready for the dress-code war.

  His determination was swayed by the startling ring of the phone. “Elizabeth, are you going to get that?” Michael shouted upstairs. He chided himself for waiting for an answer; her friends called almost exclusively on her cell, meaning that she wouldn’t waste time picking up the house phone.

  He ran into the living room and saw the phone out of its holder, along with the empty wine bottle sitting on the side table near his recliner. He bent down and dug furiously along the cushion of the chair. “Got it,” he muttered. He noticed the caller ID said unknown. His stomach lurched and he threw the phone back onto the recliner. Probably the bank again. Why can’t they leave me alone?

  Elizabeth, sandals on her feet, T-shirt tied up to her navel, and oversize shorts hanging low on her waist, sprinted down with the upstairs phone in her hand. “Sure, he’s here, hold on.” She glanced up and saw her father scowl. “Oops,” she whispered as she handed it to him.

  “Hello?” He paused, looking annoyed. “Yes, I understand my financial obligations. I’m working as hard as I can and as fast as I can to keep up. I need a couple more weeks. My boss cut my salary in half, sir. So I’m trying to find other ways to make it up. Can you give me more time?”

  Elizabeth stood motionless on the stairs, watching her father’s brow furrow. For the first time, she noticed some strands of gray hair peeking through the sides of his head, near his ears.

  “Good-bye.” Michael sighed. He clicked the phone off and looked down. I really need to clean this carpet, he thought randomly.

  “Everything okay?” Elizabeth asked, noticing the shiny gold ring on his finger.

  Michael gazed at his growing daughter, undeterred.

>   “No. Change the shirt.”

  “Why, Dad?”

  “Change the shirt. Change it or we won’t go.”

  In this rare case, Michael knew he held the upper hand. She needed him to take her to this event to receive the proper credit for school. Every student in the honor society needed a certain number of community-service points, and she was still short.

  “Oh, fine. Whatever.” Elizabeth rolled her eyes dramatically but then scampered up the stairs back to her bedroom.

  Michael was aware that Elizabeth was gradually becoming less attached to him, which meant that the most positive aspect of his life was slowly eroding. He tried hard not to think about it. But on this Saturday morning, he didn’t mind the power-broker role for, if nothing else, it kept her with him.

  Elizabeth walked down the stairs in an oversize, faded-white Springsteen concert T-shirt. Michael was slumped in the recliner, still clenching the phone and staring off into space. She smiled, trying to cheer him up. “Hey, Dad, does this shirt go down far enough?” The shirt fell past her shorts, well below her knees.

  He looked up. “I see you were in my closet. Did you ask?”

  “No. I wanted to pick out something you would approve of.”

  “So you took one of my favorite T-shirts?”

  “Bruce wouldn’t mind, right?” asked Elizabeth as she flashed an angelic smile.

  Michael smiled weakly. “Bruce isn’t your father, I am. But this time I approve. C’mon, let’s scoot.” He slapped his knees before standing up.

  Opening the front door for her, he was happy to see that the rain had finally stopped. “Who’s my baby?”

  Elizabeth didn’t answer, knowing from experience that it would only encourage him to ask it again.

  Michael smiled as they climbed into the car, deciding it was probably best not to tease her more. He had finally upgraded to a Camry a few years back because it gave Elizabeth more room in the backseat to keep her video games, DVDs and CDs. However, Elizabeth had now taken a liking to sitting in the front. He still couldn’t get used to it. He watched as she put in the white earbuds and began playing with the iPhone. Michael once again felt a mingled sense of pride and worry as her fingers rapidly began moving.

  “Who are you texting?”

  “My friends.”

  “Boy? Girl?”

  She looked at him. “Both.”

  “What’s the boy’s name?”

  “Matt.”

  “How old is he?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “You’re not sure?!”

  “Okay, okay, he’s a couple of years older than me. So?”

  Michael grimaced and took a deep breath. “Is that perfume?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where did you get it?”

  “Mommy’s drawer. You said I could have anything in there.”

  He glanced over at his daughter and noticed how much she had grown up over the past year. Her hair was neatly brushed, the once girlish curls now straight and pulled into a tightly wound ponytail wrapped in a simple green elastic band. The smell of sparkly nail polish filled the car.

  “You’re not meeting him here, are you?” asked Michael.

  “He might be here later. Do you want to meet him?”

  “Um . . . no . . . ah, yeah, yes . . . I don’t know.”

  Elizabeth laughed. “Well, which is it?”

  “Let’s just get through this day first, okay? I can only manage one crisis at a time.”

  Boys, he thought as he turned onto Ocean Avenue, watching a few teenagers pushing and shoving each other playfully on the adjacent street corner. Michael remembered he used to be one of them, though he had been quiet and shy when he was fourteen, not outgoing like Elizabeth. Plus, when he was young, there was none of this texting immediacy in getting a girl to like you: you spent days, months even, trying to figure out how to bump into her in the hall, or to find the right friend of hers who would deliver a note for you. At that age, it was all about trying to be alone long enough to just kiss a girl. Well, one special girl.

  He shook his head, thinking of her again. I wonder if Valentina is married, he thought, remembering his first true love back in elementary school. He drifted off briefly, only to be distracted by Elizabeth’s feverish texting. Her phone chirped and she giggled as she read the new message.

  Michael nudged her shoulder with his hand. “Who’s that?”

  There was no response. Unfazed, Elizabeth kept swaying to the beat of My Chemical Romance. It was so loud Michael could hear every lyric that leaked out through the tiny earphones. The scary thing was that he couldn’t be sure exactly what they all meant.

  He could see in the far distance the boats docked side by side in the harbor. The wind had stopped its howling and a shaft of sunlight struck the cross atop the old church, casting a long shadow across Main Street. Children were pulling their parents into the local toy store, where another birthday party was about to begin. Old men and women were rummaging through the contents on an outdoor table, searching for the best bargains at Perry’s Five and Dime. Just another ordinary Saturday morning in Northport.

  “Elizabeth? Elizabeth Ellen!” Michael gently lifted his daughter’s chin upward while she kept up with her digital connections.

  “What, Dad?” Elizabeth asked, pulling out one of the earbuds.

  “We’re here.” He scowled to himself in the rearview mirror, for this was the last place he wanted to be.

  Michael parked the car near the corner of Main and Church Street. From there he could see scores of young kids and adults pulling food off trucks parked awkwardly on the sidewalk in front of Our Lady by the Bay Church. They were all there to help organize the food-drive donations.

  The next thing he knew, the passenger-side door swung open and Elizabeth threw her phone back onto her seat before jumping to the curb. “Elizabeth!” Michael said as he climbed out quickly. “Wait . . .”

  Elizabeth was already across the street heading toward her best friend, Laura. He sighed as he locked the car. “Always following, always following . . .”

  “Hi, Laura!” Elizabeth squealed.

  “Hey, Liz! Ah, hi, Mr. Stewart.”

  “Hi, Laura. Hey, Liz, remember you’re here to help out and get your community-service credit for school.”

  “Only my friends can call me that.” Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

  Wow, Michael thought, that’s two eyerolls for today; the day’s getting off to a great start!

  He watched her turn to Laura and whisper, “Fun killer.” Elizabeth had been using the phrase more often lately. Despite some residual hurt feelings, Michael had become resigned to it.

  “Hey, Mike!” shouted a woman in a pretty blue dress from across the street, startling him. “I tried calling you last night. Were you out?”

  He smiled as he walked over to give the woman a quick kiss on the cheek. “Susan, you know me better than that.”

  Michael couldn’t help but notice how her light reddish brown hair touched her bare shoulders. “You look great today, Sue.”

  She looked quizzically at him, casting a quick glance at the ring on his finger. “My, Mike, did you have a hard time getting out of the chair again?”

  He nodded. “I’ve had a rough week, Sue. There are so many things changing in my life. I’m not adjusting at all.”

  “Well, call me then. Or come by and we’ll talk.” She rubbed his right arm gently. “I know what you’ve been through.”

  “Believe me, I know you know. I appreciate your kindness.” Michael meant it, too. Of all his neighbors, Susan Horn was the only one he considered a true friend. Ever since her husband walked out on her almost ten years ago, Michael and Susan had spent many hours talking about everything from child raising to life without a spouse.

  Susan smiled. “I guess we’ve got some work to do today, right?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “Isn’t that why we had kids?”

  She laughed and tapped his forearm a couple of
times. “Good one.”

  Susan walked back to the front of the church. Kids and parents were already going back and forth up the steps that led to the three big open doors of the church. To the far right stood Father Dennis, watching his flock work like little bees, and chatting with volunteers.

  Oh, no, Michael thought, I’m going to be spotted.

  As if on command, Father Dennis immediately saw Michael in the crowd and waved to him. Michael cringed. He hadn’t been to mass in over a decade. It seemed as if every time Father Dennis saw Michael, he would ask, “Where have you been?”

  As Father Dennis approached, Michael quickly grabbed a carton of food and ran up the stairs two at a time. “Hi, Father!” he said as he passed the priest.

  Father Dennis smiled. “Good to see you working so hard for the church, Michael.”

  “Glad to help out.”

  Michael moved past the holy water sitting on the table near the entrance of the church, quickly dipping his fingers inside the bowl. He touched his forehead with it. Inside the building, it was cool and dark, with only four lights illuminating the lip of the altar. Michael could see the gleaming figures of Jesus in the center of the altar, Mary on the left, and Joseph on the right.

  Michael knew his way around a church. As an altar boy, he’d helped serve mass four or five times a week. Sometimes Michael would do a mass, funeral, and wedding all in the same day. He liked weddings the best. Everyone was happy, and he would get a big tip from the best man. Michael knew the words from the mass by heart. When he graduated from Holy Child and his life as an altar boy ended, part of him was extinguished, too.

  Today the church created in him mostly feelings of fear and pain. He and Vicki always used to go to church together. She felt that she had to pray for those who needed help because someday they might need some.

  Ha, Michael thought, what help did I get?

  To him, church was filled with a bunch of phonies who sat inside an air-conditioned building on a wooden pew without ever really hearing a word of the mass itself. Then the same parishioners went out on the street gossiping about each other and their neighbors. He didn’t need or want any part of it.