Honor

That’s what I want to do with my life. I just can’t see myself making fancy fabrics for the wealthy when people are going hungry.”
“And what about the people who have food on their tables every night because we provide them with jobs? You think that doesn’t count for anything?”
Kevin had been at a loss to argue that point. Somehow he’d been so certain back then that he could find ways to make his life count, to better things for thousands, rather than the mere hundred or so employed by Halloran Industries.
Lacey had stood by him when he’d walked away from the Halloran money, turned his back on his family. As he remembered, he thought perhaps those were the best years of their lives. They had struggled. At times they hadn’t had two nickels to rub together, but it had been okay because they’d had dreams and they’d had each other.
They’d worked side by side to help people who didn’t have nearly as much, people who didn’t believe in themselves.
Educated in business and drawn by an idealistic notion of making the world a better place, Kevin had applied his skills in a series of low-paying and offtimes unrewarding public service jobs. For several years he found the sacrifices he made worthwhile. He was filled with satisfaction and hope. He’d never once been tempted to touch his trust fund for himself.
Then he’d realized that for every instance in which he made a difference, there were a dozen more about which he could do nothing. Increasingly frustrated after nearly fifteen years of struggling, he was finally ready to listen when his father pressed him yet again about joining Halloran Industries.
It hadn’t been difficult for Kevin to justify his eventual acceptance of the offer. Perhaps from a position of power, he would be able to make the changes in society that up to now had eluded him. And, as Brandon pointed out with distressing accuracy, his beautiful Lacey and his wonderful son did not deserve to live like paupers just so Kevin could make some obviously misguided political statement.
Like so many other idealistic children of the sixties, he figured he had finally grown up.
Kevin also recognized that Brandon’s request was his awkward way of apologizing for misjudging Lacey, his way of making amends for years lost. Whether Brandon had made the gesture for himself or for Kevin’s mother, Kevin felt he owed it to his father and to his own family to try to make it work. Lacey had been elated by the reconciliation, if not by the decision to join Halloran Industries.
Kevin had joined the company more than a decade ago and there had been no regrets on his part, not at first, anyway. He threw himself into the job the only way he knew how—heart and soul. Only now, with his marriage and his very life at stake, was he beginning to understand what Lacey had been saying all along, that the cost might have been too high.
When he’d awakened earlier to find Lacey standing beside his hospital bed, he’d been reminded of those early days. He’d seen the familiar tenderness and compassion in her eyes. He’d detected the faint trace of fear that had reminded him of the scared girl who’d stolen his heart when he’d been a mere boy.
He had wanted more than anything to tell her everything would be all right as he had so often in years past. But for the first time in his life, he wasn’t so sure he could rectify things. He just knew he had to try, that the vows he’d taken nearly thirty years ago still meant something to him.
Kevin could only pray that they still meant something to Lacey, as well.

Chapter Four
Lacey heard the phone ringing through a bone-deep haze of exhaustion. The shrill sound brought her instantly awake.
Kevin! Something had happened to Kevin, she thought as she fumbled frantically for the phone, her heart hammering.
“Yes, hello,” she said, her voice still scratchy with sleep.
“Lacey, it’s Dana. I’m sorry if I woke you.”
Lacey tried to shake off her grogginess. “It’s okay, dear. I was just taking a nap. I didn’t get much sleep at the hospital last night. Is there news? Is Kevin okay?”
“He’s doing well,” her daughter-in-law reassured her. “Jason called about an hour ago. He’d been in to see him earlier. He said Kevin looked a hundred percent better than he did when we left last night. What about you, though? Are you okay? Yesterday must have been—” she hesitated, then said “—well, it must have been difficult with things the way they’ve been between you and Kevin.”
The last part was said in an uncertain rush, as if Dana wasn’t sure she should even broach the subject of Lacey’s relationship with her husband.
Hoping to avoid any further probing, Lacey deliberately injected a cheerful note in her voice. “Other than being tired, I’m just fine.”
The reply was greeted with a skeptical silence. “Could we have lunch?” Dana asked finally. “I’ll pick something up and bring it over, if you don’t feel like going out.”
“Maybe another time,” Lacey said evasively. Dana had an uncanny knack for getting to the heart of things. Her directness was one of her charms, but Lacey wasn’t sure she was ready to talk about what she was feeling—not until she understood it more clearly herself.
Before last night, it had been months since Lacey had seen Kevin. Then to see him in a hospital bed. It had been her worst nightmare come true. Anxiety, anger and love had each taken turns, leaving her thoroughly drained and confused. How could she feel so much for a man she didn’t even think she knew anymore?
“Are you anxious to get back to the hospital?” Dana questioned.
Lacey might have grabbed at the excuse, if she hadn’t known the implications. “No. Actually I hadn’t planned to stop by until this evening.”
“Then there’s no reason for me not to come over,” her daughter-in-law declared decisively. “I won’t let you put