Jessica tried everything she could think of to pierce the barrier Jack had erected, but he would relent only in bed. And it seemed that any communion they achieved while making love counted for nothing. As soon as it was over he left her, and in the morning he was his usual hostile, withdrawn self. His attitude worked a change in Jessica, too. Usually she wanted to talk out her problems and would press for communication, but with Jack she, too, retreated into silence. She was not going to apologize for something she hadn’t done, and she wasn’t going to be his doormat. Because she cared so much, her self respect was on the line, and not even for Jack would she sacrifice it. So it was that, on a morning in mid-December, she went with Maddy to visit her father in the nursing home, worn out and sick at heart. She had thought that by this time things would be better with Jack, and seeing her father always depressed her. He was improving, but listless and disinterested, a far cry from the man who had ruled the Portman Mill—and her—with a will of iron.
