...And Never Let HerGo

2302 North Grant Avenue was very close to Debby’s house on Delaware Avenue, and only a three-to-five-minute drive from Anne Marie’s apartment. It was in a very good neighborhood, across the street from his old boss, former governor Tom Castle.
    Tom signed a six-month lease and agreed to pay rent of $2,000 a month for the unfurnished place. The house had been freshly painted a month or so before, and it had a double garage, five bedrooms, and five bathrooms, so that Christy, Katie, Jenny, and Alex could each have her own room. Living all alone may have seemed a little strange to Tom after being married for twenty-three years, but he intended that his daughters would stay over with him at least one night every weekend, and he planned to have visits from both Debby and Anne Marie, although, certainly, on different nights.
    He didn’t want his daughters to be hurt by the separation, and he figured having them with him on weekends would help them all remain close. Their friends would be welcome, too; Tom thought of himself as a buddy and a counselor to all of the kids. As he liked to say, his daughters came before everything else in his life. “I’m an overprotective father,” he often commented.
    Now more than ever, he would have to choreograph the comings and goings of his visitors. He couldn’t risk having his daughters show up when Anne Marie was there—or when Debby was visiting.It was all a matter of timing, and Tom had always been methodical about scheduling his life.
    As for the family home, Tom dropped into the house on Seventeenth almost every day, walking in unannounced as if he still lived there. Even Debby told him she didn’t think that was fair to Kay. “I wouldn’t blame her for changing the locks,” she said.
    “I own that house,” Tom answered. “I can go there anytime I want.”
    I T was October 1995, and the curving roads that snaked by the Grant Avenue house were covered with red and yellow leaves. Most of the surrounding homes were made of stone or brick, and they had the patina of old homes purchased with old money. The ambiance suited Tom. He could not see himself in an apartment, although he could have lived free at the Cavalier complex.
    Furnishing such a large house wasn’t a problem; Tom furnished it at no cost with stuff from some of the model units at Cavalier; and his brother Joey and his friends Brian Murphy and Keith Brady helped him move everything in. Tom had no knack at all for decorating; the white leather sectional and the entertainment wall with its huge television set took up most of the living room, blocking the fireplace and a doorway. A number of the pictures he hung were of dogs. He had a huge California king-sized bed in his room and another TV and VCR. The furniture in the girls’ rooms was a little spotty to start with, although they all had new mattresses and new bedding.
    Tom furnished the great room off the kitchen with a couple of reclining chairs and a deep maroon–colored couch with an embossed pineapple pattern. Joey and Keith carried in the beige Berber carpet for that room. The house had lovely hardwood floors, and one condition of his lease was that Tom would cover at least 75 percent of them with rugs or carpeting. He put a low-cost Oriental-type rug in the living room, and planned to use the beige wall-to-wall carpet in the dining room/great room area. Located above the garage, that room was cozier and more convenient than the living room. There too, of course, Tom had a television set and a VCR.
    When she first saw the way he had furnished his house, Debby looked at Tom’s handiwork and wisely kept her mouth shut. “It was awful,” she said. “But that was Tom. He had no taste in clothing, no taste in decorating, and he didn’t care. He thought it looked fine.”
    They were in an interim time, Debby believed. They could move to her house or buy a house when their plans for the future were solidified,but for the moment, the Grant Avenue house was perfect for Tom’s needs. He made arrangements to have a cleaning lady come in every other week or so, mostly to vacuum and clean up after the girls.
    T OM led both Debby and Anne Marie to believe that he had left his wife to be with them. Debby was happy about it, and Anne Marie was devastated. Even during the time when she was entranced with him, Anne Marie could not cope with the thought that she might break up such a sacred vow as marriage. She had fought against loving Tom because that went