The father-in-law of my future, I am told without chagrin, is a philandering evangelist. Not only is he on his third marriage by this point, but he had started two new families while being married to other women. (He was to do this one more time during his life, though he would marry again twice - tying the knot with wife number 5 in his 70s.)
My fiance is the first of this man's many children - a product of the first marriage, and the only male. I am told of a woman and her baby coming to live with the 3 children of marriage #1. It is a household now consisting of paternal grandparents, mother, father, 3 children, another woman and her infant daughter. I know that the finances of this family have always been very modest, which meant they were living in a small home. This arrangement is unimaginable to me.
I remember being told about a dramatic altercation in the kitchen, the grandfather chasing the father around, kitchenware broken, a knife brandished. The children, the grandmother and the two women are witnesses.
Madame X and her daughter are distant history, though. In fact, nobody in the family is quite sure what became of the two, as of this moment in time. There is suspicion, but not confirmation, that the baby is their sister. It will be nearly 50 years until she comes into their lives again.
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