The Divine Appointment Read Online Free

children. It was growing harder to look into her eyes and say no. But he did. Time after time, he did. Their marriage was nearly perfect in every other way. They were regular attenders and faithful supporters of their church. They had no financial concerns. This one issue—whether to have children and when—was practically the only one on which they disagreed. Any other differences had been minor and were resolved without difficulty. This issue lingered.
    Sara didn’t bring it up often. It wasn’t as if she focused on it daily. But Eli knew how important having children was to her. Yet time and again he cut her off without fully discussing the issue…all the while knowing that his refusal to consider the possibility hurt her.
    “I don’t want to talk about this right now,” he said firmly. “I’m hungry. Let’s eat supper, and talk about this later.”
    Sara dejectedly spun away from Eli and placed the pasta Alfredo and the salad on the table. Eli had just closed the oven door when an image from the twenty-inch flat-screen television that sat on the kitchen counter caught his eye. He could barely hear the audio, but the image above the female news anchor’s right shoulder was that of Lady Justice. Below were the words Supreme Court . He took the remote control from the kitchen counter and increased the volume.
    “We have sad news to report tonight,” the female anchor announced. “After a three-month battle with pancreatic cancer, Supreme Court Justice Martha Doyle Robinson has died. Justice Robinson was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Mitchell eight years ago and has been one of the most liberal justices to sit on the High Court…”
    Eli decreased the volume and muttered, “That doesn’t happen very often.”
    “What did you say?” Sara demanded from across the room.
    “The news is reporting that Justice Robinson died today from cancer,” he said defensively. Then he softened his tone before replying further. He knew Sara was still in a combative mood, so why agitate her further? “And I said that it doesn’t happen very often that a new Supreme Court justice gets appointed.”
    Eli sat down at the end of the table and Sara sat to his left. The pasta was delicious, the iced tea refreshing, but the conversation between the two of them was nonexistent during dinner.
    After dinner Eli changed into blue jeans and a T-shirt. He sat in his leather recliner in the den, surfing between baseball games. Marlins versus Cubs. Twins versus Orioles. Nothing too interesting. His favorite team, the Atlanta Braves, had the night off. He switched to Fox News and viewed several minutes of a segment about Justice Robinson.
    Sara gave Eli the silent treatment all evening and retired before he did. When he finally went to bed after the late news, she was asleep. Her back was to him, but he could see enough of her face through her sleek, shoulder-length hair to notice the redness around her eyes. She had cried herself to sleep, he realized.
    He closed his eyes and sighed. A feeling of guilt washed over him. Am I being too selfish? They had argued over whether to have children on numerous occasions, but he had never known her to be this upset. He bent over and gently kissed her on the cheek.
    “I love you,” he whispered. “Everything’s going to be all right.”

    Avenue of the Americas, New York City
    It was nearly 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday. Stella Hanover boarded the elevator and pressed the button for the twenty-seventh floor of the forty-floor building. The three other people on the elevator never made eye contact with her, and it was a good thing. She wasn’t in the mood to be courteous to anyone. She tapped her foot anxiously as the elevator made stops at five separate floors with people exiting and boarding before it reached her destination. When the elevator finally arrived at her floor, she stomped off in a huff even before the doors had fully opened. It was time to finalize battle preparations.
    She