The Healing House: Its Powers Discovered Its History Uncovered

By Deborah Revelle

Lexie Cooke didn’t know her husband, Stan, was a cheater when she married him. Actually, she didn’t know much about him at all. It had been a whirlwind romance. But when she realizes his lying and manipulation is much deeper than sexual affairs, she understands she needs to escape imminent danger.

With her three children and her best friend, she hides in a vacant house in the hills of Oahu. The house becomes her refuge. Her fears never leave her, but the house possesses a wonderful healing power for them all. Afraid of being found, she moves her family to Europe. Her instincts always lead her back to the house in Hawaii, where she learns of its history and its previous occupants while also discovering her future.

Intense, heartwarming, and full of the culture of Hawaii, China, France, and Switzerland, The Healing House covers six generations of a family, narrating what separates them and what makes them whole again. This novel offers insight into the themes of the power of women, love, and God’s intervention in a person’s life while teaching about following one’s instincts and listening to one’s heart and mind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Dec 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9781480869103

Deborah Revelle

Author, world traveler, teacher, humanitarian, and speaker, Deborah Revelle earned her BS degree at Samford University and her MA and Ph.D. at Trinity University. Deborah has attended and been a speaker at many workshops including a NAFSA workshop at Harvard University, and a MENSA workshop in Chicago. She received the Key of Success Award for Global Relations. Deborah was selected for inclusion into the Millennium Edition of the Who’s Who of American Women (inclusion is limited to those individuals who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in their own fields of endeavor and who have, thereby, contributed significantly to the betterment of contemporary society). The author has many awards and honors including being a Lowell Mason Fellow recipient and being named the YWCA Woman of the Year for Lake County, Illinois. Deborah has also been awarded the International Order of Merit, the International Order of Ambassadors, the International Peace Prize, the Presidential Seal of Honor, The author has witnessed abuse. She has seen the fear in people’s eyes and the demeanor that one has who is locked into modern day slavery. Some chains are not metal, they are mental.

Book preview

Prologue

Hadley awoke shaking and scared. She was drenched in sweat. Her heart was racing. Her nightmares had returned. She knew she needed help but could not go to a therapist. The nightmares were not bad dreams, they were memories. If she revealed them to anyone, her life and those of her children would be in danger.

She stripped her bed of the sweaty sheets, took a hot shower, remade the bed and dressed in dry pajamas. As she sipped her cup of tea she pondered over what to do. She had seen a doctor and was already on medication, but the nightmares didn’t stop.

She decided to write the memories down as if she was on the other side looking in at the story of her life as a character in a book. She could be totally honest as an outsider looking in. She would burn the book having relived her life from a distance. Hopefully, the nightmares would end.

She began writing where the nightmares all started ….

Chapter 1

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Lexie did not know her husband was a cheater when she married him. Actually, she didn’t know much about him at all. It had been a whirlwind romance. The kind you see in movies where the most handsome man you have ever seen walks over to you and your knees go weak. She met him at a fundraising event for the fine arts committee in Ames, Iowa where she lived and taught school. She had attended the function with her best friend Sadie. From the moment Stan Cooke introduced himself to Lexie, they never left each other’s side the entire evening. He was charming, attentive, and interested in her! She discovered he was a widower with two children. He didn’t waste time asking her for a date and she accepted. From that first meeting they talked every day. He sent her flowers and showered her with expensive gifts for no special reason. She met his adorable children, Anthony; who was three and Amelia; who was one. She fell in love with the children and with Stan. The courtship was so short it concerned her friend Sadie. But Lexie was blinded by love. She saw everything Stan did as evidence of his love for her. Sadie saw it as controlling. Lexie should have listened…

She truly loved her stepchildren and they loved her. Lexie became pregnant during the first year of their marriage. She was thrilled and so was Stan. Everything in the Cooke household appeared perfect. Stan was a wealthy man who could afford to lavish them all with luxury. They had a beautiful home and everything they needed or wanted. He had insisted that Lexie quit her teaching job when they married. Lexie would miss teaching but had two adorable stepchildren to look after and they needed her. Before long they were calling her mom and she loved them as much as her daughter Whitney, to whom she had given birth.

Shortly into this fantasy life, Lexie discovered Stan had been cheating on her from the beginning of their marriage. She immediately filed for divorce. She was distraught and angry! The children were devastated. Stan was repentant. He charmed and persuaded her to drop the divorce proceedings promising never to stray again. For the sake of the family, Lexie dropped the proceedings.

What she didn’t know at the time was Stan had been cheating on her even during their courtship. His cheating continued. Whether she ignored it or didn’t know it, Lexie could not remember. But the day came when one of his mistresses became pregnant. Lexie couldn’t ignore it anymore and neither could Stan.

Lexie contacted her attorney in Lake Forest, IL where she had grown up and he recommended a divorce attorney in Ames, Iowa. He had been her family’s attorney for years, and she trusted him. This time Stan agreed to the divorce. It was at this time Lexie found out how ruthless Stan could be. Her attorney found out how good Stan was at hiding assets. It was a lesson that would serve Lexie well in the future. Stan let her have the house, and gave her full custody of all the children, to which she was relieved. He agreed to minor support but was stingy in every other area. She had never seen this side of Stan and it scared her. His lying and manipulation went back much deeper than sexual affairs.

A few months into the divorce proceedings, Stan’s mistress decided she didn’t want Stan anymore. He was an old man anyway and she had reconciled with her much younger boyfriend who by the way turned out to be the father of her child. The paternity test proving this seemed to devastate Stan. Whether that crushed his idea that he was still a young stud or that he himself was manipulated, Lexie never knew. But a new Stan showed up at her door one evening begging for a new beginning.

Lexie knew her marriage was over but her attachment to the lifestyle it had provided her, and her children tugged at her resistance. Her best friend Sadie, who had been her best friend since college, and maid of honor at her wedding to Stan, confidant, comforter, and babysitter, warned her about even considering letting him back into her life.

They decided to try a family vacation to talk and see what kind of future they could build together. Lexie begged Sadie to come along and she agreed. Sadie hoped she could be the voice of reason to stop Lexie from being sucked in by Stan yet again. She also loved the children and knew she could keep them out of the line of fire if things got ugly. She promised herself the children would have a real beach vacation even if their parents had a chance of ruining it for them.

So, on short notice, they booked flights to Hawaii where Lexie and Stan owned a condo on the beach. Sadie’s flight left at a different time than the Cooke’s, so Lexie changed her flight, so she could be with Sadie and not withstand the long flight with Stan. Stan always preferred nonstop flights. Sadie and Lexie would fly into Oahu and then take the second flight to join them in Maui where she and Stan owned the condo.

She thought it might be a good idea for Stan to be in charge of the kids for a while also. He had been so focused on the mistress; he had not spent much time with them lately. In her mind, this was a test. One he would have to pass for her to even consider remaining a family with him as a part.

Just before leaving for vacation, Lexie received a call from her family’s attorney in IL. He was calling to inform her of the probate of her parents’ estate. The estate was a large one and had already taken several years to sort through. Even though Lexie was an only child so sure to inherit everything; still each trust had to be inspected. Lexie regretted being an only child for several reasons; especially after her parents’ deaths because all the funeral and property details had to be handled by her alone. She was thankful for her father’s attorney who had helped her get through the funeral and was now handling everything else. But most of all she wished the stillborn boy her mother had given birth to was alive to help her with the mess she seemed to have made of her life. She needed a shoulder to cry on. That position fell totally on her best friend Sadie. The one person who had reservations about Lexie marrying Stan to start with, yet here she was as always supporting Lexie and being that strong shoulder to cry on.

The lawyer told Lexie he had discovered another trust that she would inherit. It was a plantation and a house in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, her great aunts’ left to her mother that now passed to Lexie. Her aunts were missionaries and had owned a house in Hawaii when they retired. Lexie was the only heir. She and Sadie’s flight had a layover in Honolulu; so, they decided to check out the house she had just inherited. Even with the layover, their flight would meet up with Stan and the kids in Maui at the same time. Stan knew nothing about Lexie’s inheritance. Her lawyer had advised her to say nothing until everything was completed. She thanked God she had listened.

The home was not near the water but tucked away up in the mountains hidden by deep foliage. It was not off the main highway, so it was difficult to find the dirt road that led to the house. It was a palatial Victorian plantation built when pineapple was king in Hawaii and planters were wealthy. It had been vacant for some time but came with all the original furniture. Lexie and Sadie both admitted they were intrigued to see what treasures lay inside. This would be Lexie’s first look at the house. Lexie was enchanted with the antiques; the leftovers of her aunts’ lives as if they had just stepped out for a while. Music was still open on the piano. Fine china was set for a meal on a Belgian lace tablecloth that covered a banquet-sized table. She was amazed to find such luxury and attention to detail in a seemingly abandoned home. Sadie was amazed at the number of rooms and shouted to Lexie, here’s another bedroom!, or here’s another bathroom! as she ran through the house.

As Lexie and Sadie departed the plane in Maui, agreeing to keep the knowledge of the inherited plantation just between the two of them, they saw that Stan was on his phone over in the corner ignoring the kids. It wasn’t hard to spot her children; they were the nightmare children people feared to have near them when they were traveling. She hated to think what they must have been like on the plane! Anyone would have assumed they were not Stan’s children. He acted like it was just another business trip to Hawaii where in the past, he had spent all his time on his phone or computer while Lexie and the kids waited patiently for his attention, which they never got. She knew it had not gone well and Lexie’s shoulders dropped. She realized Stan had no desire to parent. He wasn’t even trying! Did he just marry her to be a mother to his children? Did he get her pregnant, so she wouldn’t leave? Sadie had put her arm around Lexie to steady her, nothing had changed. He was still the same Stan, only worse. This was supposed to be a chance at remaking a family and he took it all for granted, again. Without saying a word Lexie and Sadie looked at each other with a look of disappointment. Lexie realized that Stan was the kind of parent she despised, where the mother that stays home and keeps order in the house, makes rules for the children, such as; they eat well-balanced meals, they get their homework done and handed in, have a set bedtime schedule, they are taught manners, and are being read to each night. She makes sure they get to their doctors or dentists’ appointments, any extracurricular activities, and that the house runs smoothly. She has the responsibility of keeping food in the house, emergency and medical supplies in the house and in the car, or that the children don’t run out of their favorite snacks or breakfast cereals. She bathes them, dresses them, buys their clothes, she makes sure the children are developing at their educational level. She maintains the house, the car, the yard, and herself all on her own. Her job basically is to make sure that the children don’t run with scissors! She also keeps the calm when the husband comes home from work or a business trip and spoils the children by becoming their playmate rather than their parent. He lets them eat whatever they want, stay up as late as they want, and all the rules are ignored. And then he goes back to work, she’s left there alone trying to get things back in order. Lexie and Sadie stood in shock watching Anthony running around while pushing Whitney in her stroller. He was chewing gum and had a red mustache from the cherry slushy that he had been drinking. Whitney was eating a chocolate bar that had melted all over her face, and in her hands. They saw Amelia at one of the newsstands spinning a postcard carousel while drinking a soft drink. The girls looked at each other and Sadie said, I’ll get Amelia., and Lexie said, I’ll get Anthony and the baby. As Lexie walked up to Anthony he noticed her and gave a huge smile, but that changed when she held out her hand for him to spit out his gum. She noticed that the baby’s diaper had not been changed at all that day, and that Anthony had gum in his hair. She took the two children to the ladies’ room to wash them up, change the baby’s diaper, and removed the gum from Anthony’s hair. Meanwhile, Sadie went to get Amelia. All the while, Stan was still in the corner on his phone. As Lexie and Sadie were walking down the hall with the children Stan waved, but stayed at a distance talking on his phone. They collected their luggage, rented a car, waited until Stan got off the phone, and then they drove to the condo. During all the activity, Stan had remained on his phone instead of spending any time with his family. Now he informed Lexie that he needed to make a short business trip after he dropped them off at the condo.

When they arrived at the condo they unpacked. Sadie quickly gathered up the children and headed for the pool. She knew Lexie needed some time alone to think and reflect.

While Stan was away, who knows where, and the children were having a ball with Sadie, Lexie fixed herself a drink and sat on the balcony of their condo pondering her life decisions. The ring of her cell phone jerked her from her melancholy state. She answered the phone; it was her family’s attorney from Lake Forest. It’s worse than we thought, he said. She couldn’t fathom anything worse than what she’d already gone through but continued to listen as her attorney told her the cold hard facts.

Stan had a cocaine habit costing thousands of dollars. He had begun to deal in cocaine and kept a mistress in Hawaii and was probably with her now. She was a coke head also and after the long flight, he would be looking to score. Also, Stan was being investigated…

Lexie began to hyperventilate and searched for a bag to breathe into.

As Sydney, her attorney, continued to tell her about all the things Stan was involved in, Lexie screamed, Stop! There was a pause, I don’t want to hear any more. Her attorney stopped. She caught her breath. He said one last thing to Lexie; Be careful, Stan is dangerous!

Lexie hung up the telephone. Numb with this new knowledge, she felt a loss of direction. She felt a depth of anger that she didn’t know existed in her.

She told herself to remain calm. Act as if nothing had happened, get the children and leave as soon as possible. Just pretend with Stan.

If he truly was dangerous, she didn’t want to set him off. Just get home safely with the kids and turn her life over to her attorney. She obviously didn’t trust herself to make the right decisions in her frame of mind. They could move to her parents’ house in Illinois. Stan doesn’t know about it, and she and the kids would be safe at least. Lexie had inherited her childhood home in Lake Forest, IL. from her parents, and a trust fund to maintain it.

Sadie and the kids came in exhausted from their pool time. Sadie noticed the blank stare in Lexie’s eyes, her change in demeanor and a strange sound in her voice. Sadie had never seen Lexie like this. It frightened her. Had all of this been too much? Was she finally having the nervous breakdown Sadie had feared for Lexie so many times?

Sadie ordered pizza, fed and bathed the kids and then put them to bed. She left Lexie nursing her drink as she stared blankly at nothing.

As Sadie came down the stairs; she saw Lexie still sitting there and gently put her arm around Lexie and led her upstairs to bed. She would sleep in the room with her friend tonight and hold her tight. There was still no sign of Stan.

Lexie awoke to a woman’s screams. Confused, she stumbled out of bed and down the stairs. There was a light on in the half bath, she headed in that direction. What she saw registered a fear in her brain she did not know existed!

A half-naked Stan was choking a girl in their half bath. She was sitting on the toilet bloodied and beaten. Her arms and her legs were splayed out to her side. She was unconscious. Stan still had his hands around her throat. Beside her leg lay a large knife that had obviously inflicted the bleeding wounds on her body.

Instinct or insanity took over Lexie! She picked up the knife and began stabbing at Stan’s hands. He was so stoned he still did not let go of the girl’s throat. Lexie took the knife and began stabbing Stan again, in doing so she knocked Stan’s hands from around the girl’s throat. The girl slid down and lay on Stan’s stomach at Lexie’s feet. It was then Lexie realized they had been having intercourse throughout this whole time. She began stabbing Stan repeatedly. Reason had left her!

Sadie having heard the commotion checked on the children then ran downstairs. She saw Lexie stabbing Stan and froze. She said Lexie’s name over and over until Lexie stopped stabbing Stan. Lexie stood up and dropped the knife.

Lexie spoke in a monotone voice, call 911.

As Sadie dialed the police she watched Lexie move slowly to the sink and wash the blood off her hands. It was amazing there was so little blood on Lexie after stabbing Stan so many times.

The police arrived within minutes. Lexie opened the door slowly and pointed to the half-bath.

Sadie heard the children stirring upstairs apparently awakened by the police sirens; she hurried upstairs to keep them from coming down.

Lexie was calm, quiet and numb. The police quickly moved into action. Sadie returned downstairs expecting to see Lexie in handcuffs. But instead, she found the police comforting a quiet Lexie. She turned to see the paramedics carrying Stan and his mistress out on stretchers still alive.

The police surmised that Lexie had found her husband and his mistress and called 911. They never guessed she had a part in the violence. Lexie said nothing, Sadie kept quiet also.

Stan’s mistress died before reaching the hospital. Stan was in serious condition and not expected to live. The police report did not mention Lexie; it reported two people high on drugs and having violent sex had resulted in the death of one and a pending death of the other.

Lexie kept this from the children. She sent them back home to Iowa with Sadie and she would move into the house on Oahu. She couldn’t bear to go back into the condo on the beach. The children were used to being shuttled around and to the absence of Stan, so this posed no problem for them. The possibility of the truth being discovered surrounded her like a fog. What if the police discovered her fingerprints on the knife? What if Stan regained consciousness? What if Sadie talked?

Chapter 2

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Lexie flew to Oahu. When she arrived in Honolulu, she rented a car and drove to the plantation. As she drove up the circular drive, she saw one of the caretakers working on an old car. He told her it belonged to the owner of the plantation and house. It was a beautiful yellow 1940 Cadillac in pristine condition. They introduced themselves to each other. Lexie found out that the gentleman, Ioke, was in charge of the upkeep and staff of the plantation. And in turn, he found out that Lexie was the new owner. They spoke for a while. Then Ioke asked Lexie if she wanted to return the rental car. There was no need of it since she now had a car here on the plantation. He offered to follow her to the airport, so she could return the rental car. She agreed.

Lexie slowly settled into the old house. As she wiped away the dust from the furniture she imagined it as a metaphor for wiping away the dirt in her life. Cleaning out the cobwebs of the house began her journey of cleaning out the cobwebs in her head. How had she gotten to this point? She asked herself this over and over again. One day she looked at the old house and remembered the first day she saw it and had asked the same thing about it. How had it gotten to this point? Her answer was the same for both herself and the house. Neglect! Both had been so busy accumulating the grander things they had neglected the need to care for the basics. With every room, she cleaned and organized she felt a part of her life was being cleaned and organized. She never visited Stan in the hospital. He was on life support and she called to check on his condition when she went into town for supplies. She had no cell coverage at the old house.

The police closed the case and no longer considered the condo a crime scene. Lexie immediately put it up for sale.

By the time she finished cleaning and organizing the old house, it felt like home. A home she established without Stan. She also felt clean and organized. Now it was time to deal with the realities of her family. She had spoken with the children and Sadie daily. Sadie stayed with the children and never mentioned the horrendous night at the condo to Lexie. She had made up a story about someone breaking into the condo the night the police came, and it seemed to satisfy the children’s questions.

Lexie called the hospital and told them to pull the plug on Stan. She didn’t bother with fake sincerity; she didn’t even go to the hospital. She arranged for a funeral home to hold his body until she and the children decided about the funeral.

Before leaving the house, she felt organized and in control for the first time in her life since meeting Stan. She packed and booked her ticket home. Had it only been two weeks? She was amazed at the amount of work she’d accomplished in just two weeks. It is truly unbelievable what adrenaline, stress, and the ability to make decisions without consulting anyone else can allow you to accomplish. In every other situation, Stan had criticized her decisions and insisted things be done his way and on his own time frame. Why had she been so subservient? She remembered what her lawyer had said, Stan was dangerous. Had she known that all along in her subconscious and her subservient manner was a response to fear?

She cleaned up the house and began her drive to the airport in the old car that Ioke would pick up later. It was time. She knew the task of telling the children their father was dead was not going to be an easy one. She decided to make a stop at a beach, that only locals used, to gather her thoughts and to refresh her mind.

There were only a couple of surf fishermen on the beach. She sat in the warm sun and let the ocean breeze blow away her fears. She listened to the waves and slowly she began to relax. The night in the condo became blurred in her mind and she focused on moving forward. Telling the children, probating Stan’s estate and being a good mother were her priorities.

Lexie arrived back in Iowa rested after the long flight. She had arranged a limo ride home. She told Sadie she wanted to face the children at home rather than at the airport.

The ride home was her time to prepare how she was going to tell the children their father was dead. It was not a short ride from the closest airport to Ames, which was Des Moines, but just long enough to gather her thoughts.

Telling the children of Stan’s death came easier to Lexie then she had thought it would be. Sadie had done a great job of preparing them for the fact that something bad had happened that caused Lexie to stay in Hawaii and that her return would bring an explanation that would be difficult for all of them.

Grieving can take many forms and can last indefinitely. She wondered what the children’s grieving process would be like. She silently prayed she could handle their emotional needs. She would not share their grief of losing Stan and hoped she could find it in herself to comfort them over the loss of a man she feared and despised. A man she herself had killed!

Chapter 3

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Lexie had been contemplating moving back to her hometown of Lake Forest because she really had no one in Iowa except Sadie. Since marrying Stan, she hadn’t socialized with anyone except him, the children, and Sadie. She was thinking of the children and their feelings and confusion of where their father was, and why he wasn’t coming home. She had made up her mind. For the sake of the children, and herself, she was thrilled to be moving back to Lake Forest. The children were young enough to make such a major move without any trauma. They would not associate their new home with their father. The more she thought about it, the more excited she got that her children would have the chance at a wonderful childhood like she experienced.

Lexie’s childhood was idyllic. An only child, her parents doted on her. Their love showed in actions, not things. They never missed Parents Night at school. It seemed to the teachers in Lake Forest that no parents missed Parents Night. It was the norm for parents to be immersed in every aspect of their children’s lives. There were, of course, some odd families around, but Lake Forest really felt like the Father Knows Best, Donna Reed, and the perfect American family TV shows.

Lexie checked with Sadie to see if she wouldn’t mind staying with the children for a couple of days, so she could go to Illinois to meet with her Lake Forest attorney about moving back to her childhood home. Sadie agreed, so Lexie made an appointment to see the family attorney. Then made reservations for her flight. She flew to Illinois the next morning.

Lexie raised the children basically on her own because Stan was never around, so dealing with their acceptance and grief came as a normal part of parenting to her. What did not feel normal was meeting with her Lake Forest attorney.

Lexie arrived at her attorney’s office a few minutes early. She always arrived early to everything. It was in her DNA. Growing up, if you were on time, you were late. Her parents also told her that being