She felt incapable of taking care of her son on her own. She had not worked for many years, and her family counseling diploma was an ironic joke: it had not even helped her manage her relationship with her husband. Before they were married, Frank Leroy had told her he wanted a full-time wife. At first she rebelled, but the heaviness and sloth she felt during her pregnancy had made her give way. Once Frankie was born she abandoned all ideas of working, as the boy needed her constant attention. For a couple of years she looked after him on her own day and night, until a nervous crisis sent her to consult her psychiatrist. He recommended she hire help as she was in a position to pay for it. It was only then that, thanks to a succession of nannies, Cheryl gained some freedom for her limited activities. Frank Leroy was unaware of most of these, not because she tried to hide them, but because he was not interested. He had other things on his mind. He more than did his bit maintaining the family, paying the wages, the bills, and his son’s astronomical expenses.
It became clear soon after Frankie was born that there was something wrong, but several months went by before the seriousness of his condition was established. The specialists tactfully explained to his parents that Frankie would probably never walk, speak, or be able to control his muscles or sphincter. However, with proper medication, rehabilitation, and corrective surgery for his misshapen limbs, the boy could make progress. Refusing to accept this dire verdict, Cheryl not only tried everything that traditional medicine could offer but went searching for alternative therapies and quack doctors, including one who claimed to cure by telepathic waves over the phone from Portland. Cheryl learned to interpret her son’s gestures and noises; it was the only means she had of sharing any kind of communication with him, and the main way she found out how the nannies behaved when she was not there.
To Frank Leroy, his son was a personal insult. No one deserved a catastrophe like this. Why had they resuscitated him when he was born a blue baby? It would have been kinder to let him go rather than condemn him to a life of suffering and his parents to one of caring for him. He wanted nothing to do with the boy; let his mother look after him. No one could convince him that the cerebral palsy or the diabetes were accidents. His wife had given him a damaged child and could not have any more, because after the birth, which had almost cost her her life, she’d had a hysterectomy. He thought Cheryl was a disastrous wife, a bundle of nerves, obsessed with looking after Frankie. She was frigid and had an annoying habit of playing the victim. The woman who had attracted him fifteen years earlier was a Valkyrie, a strong and determined swimming champion. How could he have suspected that within that Amazon’s breast beat the heart of a coward? She was almost as tall and strong as he was, and was capable of standing up to him, as she had proved in the early days when they were passionate opponents. They began with blows and ended up making love violently in a dangerous, exciting game. After her operation, the fire went out of Cheryl. To Frank, his wife had become a neurotic rabbit capable of driving him into a frenzy. Her passivity seemed like a provocation. She did not react to anything, but put up with it tearfully, a further aggravation that only served to increase Frank’s anger. He would go too far and afterward be worried because the bruises could raise suspicion. The last thing he wanted was problems. He was tied to her because of Frankie, who could survive for years. Frank Leroy was trapped in the marriage not only because of his son but above all because he wanted to avoid a very costly divorce. His wife knew too much. Cheryl had managed to find out about his business affairs and could blackmail and even destroy him. When it was a matter of defending Frankie or her own rights, Cheryl did stand up to him, and was prepared to fight tooth and nail.
They may have loved each other once, but the arrival of Frankie had killed off any hope they might have had in that regard. When Frank Leroy learned he was to have a son, he threw a party that cost as much as a wedding. He himself was the only boy among several girls, the only one who could pass on the family name to his descendants. His son would continue the lineage, as Grandfather Leroy said, proposing a toast at the party. To talk of a family lineage was a rich joke to describe three generations of good-for-nothings, as Cheryl told Evelyn during one of her bouts of drinking and tranquilizers. The first Leroy from this branch of the family had been a Frenchman who in 1903 escaped from a Calais jail, where he was serving a sentence for robbery. He reached the United States with nothing more than his shamelessness, and prospered thanks to his imagination and lack of scruples. He succeeded in living on his luck for years until he was sent back to prison, this time for a massive swindle that left thousands of retirees in poverty. His son, Frank Leroy’s father, had been hiding for five years in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, escaping from American justice for his crimes and for tax evasion. To Cheryl, the fact that her in-laws were far away and unable to return was a blessing.
As the grandson of this French scoundrel and the son of another similar crook, Frank Leroy had a simple philosophy: the end justifies the means if you can benefit from it. Any deal that is profitable for you must be a good one, however disastrous it is for others. Some win, others lose. That was the law of the jungle, and he never lost. He knew how to make money and how to hide it. Thanks to creative accounting, he managed to seem almost a pauper as far as the Internal Revenue Service was concerned, but when it suited him he could put on a show of opulence. This was how he won the trust of his clients, who were men as unscrupulous as him. He inspired envy and admiration. He was as much of a rogue as his father and grandfather, but unlike them he had class and a cool head. He did not waste his time on trifles and avoided risks. Safety first. His strategy was to act through others who fronted for him. They could end up in jail; he never would.